A tribal farmer in the Koraput district, in the Indian state of Orissa, June 28, 2007. Thousands of farmers have committed suicide in recent years across India's sprawling western and southern plateau because they could not repay loans taken for their crops. (Desmond Boylan/Reuters)

India: The farmer's unhappy wives

Indian widows struggle mightily after a rash of farmer suicides.

By Hanna Ingber Win — GlobalPost
Published: February 8, 2010 07:13 ET

AMRAVATI, India — Once a month Ujwala Karmejh pulls together her savings and splurges on a 60-rupee ($1.30), round-trip bus ticket.

Wearing a sari and red bindi on her forehead, Ujwala takes the bus past the open fields growing cotton, soya beans and lentils; the baby goats grazing on the side of the road; the old men with deeply engraved wrinkles driving oxcarts; and the bright...

Recent on India:

Goa rape case threatens India-Russian relations

Sonya Fatah - India - February 5, 2010 09:15 ET

A brutal attack on a 9-year-old girl resonates far beyond the beaches of Goa.

Adventure travel: The Great Himalaya Trail?

Jason Overdorf - India - February 4, 2010 07:11 ET

Why walk Everest, K2, and other mountain giants? Because they are there.

Goa's tourism boss links sexual assaults to bikinis

Jason Overdorf - India - February 1, 2010 06:45 ET

A shocking case provokes outrage. The local government blames swimwear.

Ambulance chasing in Mumbai

Hanna Ingber Win - India - January 30, 2010 09:47 ET

Need to get to the hospital fast? Then don't come here.

Special Report

Thomas Mucha - Commerce - January 28, 2010 17:24 ET

20 correspondents, 20 countries and a world of pain. Meet the ground truth of the global economic crisis.

On Location: New Delhi — The gender gap

Jason Overdorf - India - January 23, 2010 10:38 ET

On Location: Delhi — Psychiatry at the street level

Mark Scheffler - India - January 22, 2010 08:38 ET

Facebook, Orkut and the caste system

Hanna Ingber Win - India - January 21, 2010 06:53 ET

Ancient, meet the modern. How are India's complex social interactions playing out across social media?

India's comics boom: The Pao Collective

Jason Overdorf - India - January 20, 2010 17:09 ET

It may not be Savita Bhabhi, but a group of Indian artists is reinventing the medium.

One man's trash

Mridu Khullar - India - January 19, 2010 14:23 ET

About one percent of Delhi residents scrape by as trash pickers. Now, privatization threatens to leave them even worse off.

Bollywood has a new king

Saritha Rai - India - January 17, 2010 09:20 ET

What makes the blockbuster Bollywood film "3 Idiots" and others so smart? Smart marketing, yaar.

Police shut down Mr. Gay China competition in Beijing

Dinah Gardner - China and its neighbors - January 15, 2010 12:59 ET

Restrictions on homosexuality have relaxed in recent years, but state still keeps a watchful eye.

Opinion: What it means to take a holy dip

Raman Nanda - Worldview - January 15, 2010 06:54 ET

The Kumbh festival along the sacred Ganges river means something different to each of the millions of pilgrims who attend.

India autos: Detroit? Frankfurt? Tokyo? Not anymore.

Saritha Rai - Commerce - January 15, 2010 06:41 ET

New Delhi's auto show illustrates how the global automotive industry has shifted. Big time, yaar.

The secret behind "Avatar" and Twilight's "New Moon"

Jason Overdorf - Commerce - January 12, 2010 06:36 ET

Can you hear the Indian accent behind Hollywood's biggest hits?

Opinion: Raped by the law?

Jason Overdorf - Worldview - January 9, 2010 09:55 ET

A controversial case shakes India's faith in the rule of law.

Mumbai Parsis divided on intermarriage

Hanna Ingber Win - India - January 5, 2010 07:02 ET

With numbers dwindling, young Parsis turn to organized social events to meet, and hopefully marry, others of their cultural group.

India education: Engineering going off the rails?

Shailaja Neelakantan - India - December 28, 2009 06:32 ET

India's bid for full Washington Accord membership, an elite honor, has been postponed again.

How an accused secret agent has tied up India-Pakistan-US relations

Sonya Fatah - India - December 23, 2009 06:51 ET

Since David Coleman Headley was taken into custody, suspicion in India about Pakistan and the US has grown.

Global Blogs:

What’s more important than the death of 17 armymen?

Satyameva Jayate - India - February 8, 2010 14:34 ET

This is… and this… and this… and this… I don’t think any comment is necessary. I would simply like to reproduce two tweets from Kanchan Gupta and Atanu Dey respectively: KanchanGupta: Folks it’s amazing, the manner in which the...

Rahul shows the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is firmly embedded………

John Elliott - India - February 8, 2010 04:10 ET

…….so why airbrush Narasimha Rao out of history?  Rahul Gandhi’s triumphant foray into Mumbai last Friday, where he successfully challenged the street power of Maharashtra’s chauvinist Shiv Sena politicians, was a significant step forward in his emergence as a national...

as easy an exit as it had an entrance

Project Why - India - February 6, 2010 18:41 ET

Heaven grant that the burden you carry may have as easy an exit as it had an entrance wrote Erasmus. A graceful exit and the appropriate time is undoubtedly something we all aspire and hope for. And yet when we charge into an open door we seldom think of how we will exit it when...

Calcutta: the Great Unwashed

Feringhee: The India Diaries - India - February 5, 2010 14:42 ET

Hi, everyone. I'm too freaked out by all the blank space and white bread to write much now that I'm back in the States. So I am resorting to re-runs. This blog originally appeared as a Lonely Planet "Don't Forget to Write" entry in December, 2003. It was one of several entries I...

Think tennis for yes, home for no: how doctors helped man in vegetative state

Uttara, Author, "Likhati" blog - India - February 8, 2010 15:46 ET

For seven years the man lay in a hospital bed, showing no signs of consciousness since sustaining a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. His doctors were ­convinced he was in a vegetative...

Maharashtra Mess: Blame Congress' Politics, Not Just Shiv Sena-MNS

An Indian Muslim's Blog - India - February 3, 2010 23:45 ET

While Shiv Sena has been criticised from all quarters for dividing the society on linguistic and regionalistic lines, the role of the supposedly responsible Congress and its strategy hasn't got enough attention. In fact, the party is...

tagged

Aditya Kumar’s Weblog - India - February 3, 2010 05:15 ET

I had been contemplating leaving blogging for a while, or maybe for good. Maybe I should take a few days off and learn to get inspired again. I am not sure. What I am going to do is let it come to me by itself. As a blogger, I know, you can’t write unless you have to....

Rediscovery of India

Seriously Sandeep - India - February 2, 2010 02:00 ET

It’s been about 10 years since I started this blog and this post is a personal stock-taking of sorts. This blog started as a space for personal rants/ruminations that made sense perhaps only to me. At a level, it still remains that way. But I’ll spare you those...

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