Journey for a Dream

"Education is the greatest tool of a society" said Chanakya almost two millennia ago. Little did he realize that it will not hold true about two thousand years later. He did not take into account the shackles our society places on individuals and communities. Or may be he did and it is only I who is being cynical about it all. But how can I not be? I see children shaping their view of the world every single minute. My duty is to ensure they are able to make the right choices. I can sit any of my kids down and ask them about the various values they hold dear and how they can make sustainable changes in their class, family and society at large. They will give me answers that might very well put a saint to shame. We discuss equality of gender, religion, communities etc., to a large extent. They all articulate it well enough. But is it their perspective or is it their answer? I can never know. Living in extreme conditions, emotionally, physically and mentally, I believe

"Today we shall all make sure we finish our work independently and on time, unlike yesterday. This will help us make time for the games at the end of the day. Are you all ready?" "Yeeessss!" As I transitioned into my lesson I felt proud of myself and the class. They genuinely listened and engaged. But then again, as always, there were a few who were drifting away. I have always had this issue. We start off well, like it was the best day ever then one starts abusing the other, then there is nudging, pushing and then before you realize what's happening, you can see the entire class indulging in fights or other related activities. Some who manage to stay away from all the violence, become busy in cleaning their bags, endlessly sharpening their pencils etc. Where do I even begin to solve this? I had figured out long back that these students lacked the skill to differentiate between right and wrong. They idolized violent dons, emulated local thugs and shrugge

As we turned left onto the road that lead to our destination, I sensed something amiss. The two students sitting with me in the auto had fallen silent. They were vigorously turning their heads to assimilate everything that was there in front of their eyes. They were trying to grasp all the happenings around and understand its purpose and existence. They had never gone beyond a one kilometre radius of their house, ever! After having decided that I needed the kids to witness the working of a "normal" world, I announced amidst all the excitement in class, "In a week, the first three students who show values through actions will get to go out." Everyone wanted to help their friends, go out of their way to accommodate someone etc. Although, this momentum did not sustain after a couple of days, I pushed through. At the end of it, I had two boys and a girl who had made it. The two boys were anxious and overjoyed. But the girl... "I not come bhaiyya. I go to

It is said that a child brought up amidst violence will most probably take to it too. But we are also aware that education acts as an eye opener to many. It catalyses change in societies and ushers a future filled with possibilities. What if all of this is as true as Emmanuel Goldstein in the Orwellian state? An illusion created by a few to control the many? Seems too far fetched but I sometimes see it materialize in class. As a step towards exposing the kids to the world outside their community, we took them to India's best law school. The idea was to show them that there exists a very harmonious society where knowledge and values go hand in hand, where peaceful coexistence is a reality. Also, it is a great way for them to see things that they can aspire for, to experience the life of their possible future self. Witnessing things that defy what they learn at school, these kids fail to see the real purpose of education and this visit was an attempt to break that mindse

The human mind is home to millions of things that sometime don’t seem logical at all. With adults, this mind can articulate itself pretty well and make those around it understand and connect. But what about a child’s mind? Especially one that cannot even put into words its feelings and wants. Now add to that a constant irritable life that doesn't make sense in its holistic sense. It is a cruel world out there for them. Even though I knew what lacked in these kids’ life, I never really understood its essence. It runs so deep in their lives that the affects can be surmounted only through constant and slow progression. Living in cramped spaces that long for fresh air, these tiny minds are curbed in every possible way. From physical restrictions of movement to mental restrictions of “traditions” and “social norms”. The age where they ought to be outside playing, they try to overcome these unseen boundaries in their own ways. Some see these boundaries as challenges and turn re

Everyday when I wake up I find myself torn between the world I live in and the one I just left, my dream. This is not because I am lazy but because of what I have to see when I get to my class. Tiny minds being moulded by atrocity and mediocre expectations. The only thing that keeps me going is my hope of bringing in that change. I did not see that hope, let alone belief in any of the students I have. Education is a very tricky concept. Where do we draw the line? Is it education if a child chooses to start a business instead of continuing school? Is it education if a child can score well in class and perform well in sports? As far as my understanding goes, it is something that changes the way you live even if it is in the most tiniest of ways. Now this goes beyond classroom, beyond teachers and schools. It captures every aspect of life itself. Hence, a child's development, does not limit itself to his/her school and home. And as a human being, nobody can change all parts of t

From times immemorial we have been taught that knowledge must always be accompanied by humility. We have seen many epitomes of this co-existence. But how far can a lay man achieve it? The vision of an ideal state breaks down to minute pieces at the door of a daily wage labourer. They are not worried about how the future is going to look or what the purpose of life is. All they want to do, is survive the day. But I shall persevere, to push my students to fight the odds and worry about the future, because it is needed, because they are going to be the decision makers! On the path to excellence, I find it hard to change the students' perspective about each other. They are individually very smart and understand the necessity of working together and being compassionate but they somehow fail to put it into action. I chose my battle, I chose to get them to first follow my instructions irrespective of what they feel or think. This was imperative because I cannot afford to be over-pow

Easier said than done. The phrase hasn't been more true than it is now. A clear vision, an elaborate plan and a determined mind, everything you need to achieve something. But what is not considered is the actual execution. Having made a pretty decent impact at institute, I was quite confident about the city. The students have already had structures in place. They've already been invested into quality education. With a third year intervention, what could possibly be wrong? As I entered the class on my first day, I could see 32 faces light up like fireworks. They had been waiting for me ever since school started. With huge smiles, enthusiastic hand shakes and introductions, they immediately made me feel much more confident about the road ahead. I could see that their rigour was very high. They could grasp any new concept very fast. It was a cake walk introducing Democracy as a theme for the class. I checked their political knowledge. They knew the basics. PM, CM, Ministers

An apathetic society, a hypocritical populous and a cynical youth. Even though we see so much improvement in the way we function, we are yet to find ourselves. We have begun to see our strengths and accept our weaknesses. But thinking about sustainable change that will last for generations to come, this model of reactive behaviour will not work. We find ourselves crumbling back to the ground every time we try to climb up the ladder. And this has killed most of our dreams. But, we need to hope again. Because in hope lies our future. The one that so much of our past defines and expects. Set out to only be the facilitator or enabler of a sustainable lifestyle for the students who are the key to the future, I found myself taken aback by someone I would have least expected, myself, only a much younger version. Looking at him, I realised the major issue within our education system. He had the will and the skill, but the lack of access and exposure limited him to the extent of crippling

One of the biggest obstacle on the path of our vision is perseverance, the will to move ahead against the tides on a daily basis. It is difficult to be inspired at all times, not because we don't believe in it any more, but because failing consistently gets to us. The process becomes annoying and the purpose seems unachievable, more so in the event of failure on an elemental level. After a brilliant day one, my vision seemed a lot more closer. Everybody had reached the objective for the day without any major issue. The kids were inspired, some transformed overnight (as mentioned by the parent) and some found their 'I can' attitude. I was not only ecstatic, but also looking forward to continuing the flow. Anything lesser than this achievement was unacceptable. It is not okay to come down by a notch for any reason. I have excellence issues, it must be achieved at all times, especially when it involves the future of so many kids, the present of the families and the notio

Once I set my heart on something, I will do anything and everything to achieve it. Before you start on the path, assessing the magnanimity of the work is imperative. And when this assessment reveals that you will have to start over from the most elemental level, doing which may rid you of the initial goal you had in mind, it gets to every cell in the body. Change of plans, change of styles, change of an entire system of things I had put in place. The kids who I saw talking about values and importance of education, could not recognize letters, let alone frame sentences. It is very unfortunate that the future of this society is already facing issues because of the faults of others. I had hoped to start on a much more higher level. Only then could I have reached where I wanted to. But now, I had to start all over. With an inner turmoil of not being sure, I stepped into the class to push their limits. I wanted to make them realize their own potential than achieve my goals. What w

The story of us, our growth, failures, challenges and triumph, are known to us not because it was some remote part of DNA or brain cells but because we have been able to read and understand the knowledge of our forefathers. Our potential and hope too, rest on this knowledge that is communicated out. What use would it have been if Einstein couldn't have conveyed his theories to us? Rid of sleep, rest and maybe even consciousness at times, I stood in front of almost forty eager, bubbling and over enthusiastic kids. Watching over while they immersed themselves in writing the stories of their families, I wondered if anyone could be that interested in writing, especially when their language proficiency is not up to the mark. Most of these second graders cannot even recognize the letters in the alphabet and yet, I could see them making mountains move on their papers. It is said that writing is the highest form of understanding in humanity. It is this art that develops very slow

The concept of deja vu is not alien to any of us in the real world. It sends a sudden charge down your spine and makes your jaws drop. It is not that it is a very rare thing, but it never stops to awe us every single time. But something that is even more wondrous is getting to a peek into your past. It is not everyday that there is a sudden feeling of your world being turned inside out and laid bare in front of you! Extremely smart, annoyingly confident and pure challenge seeking attitude. These are but very few ways I would describe the kid sitting in the last row on my left side. With an air around him, he constantly assess his surroundings and gets away with the biggest of mischiefs. Pushed towards breakdown, he will just stop, rethink his plan and then with sheer ignorance of rules, start over with his talent show. Pretending to be in dire need of a toilet, he tries everything possible. From request to deceit to using his friends as cover. It is a common misconception t

A sense of weird nausea, a feeling of anxiety, a strand of optimism and an awful lot of excitement. As I entered the school premises, nostalgia took over. It was the same feeling I remember having had on the first day of my school. There was no sadness, or nervousness. Just a tiny speck of uncertainty which converted to silent observation of the surroundings, trying to gather as much and get lost in the crowd! Nobody ever knows what they're up to until they actually face it. You can plan all you want and rehearse for days together but time will always beat you to the line. Dynamism and patience are the key to any teacher's life, more so when your students are grade 2 kids who cannot focus for more than a few minutes. It is a daunting task to not just keep them all engaged in productive work, but also convince them that they don't need to tinkle every five minutes. Another major issue at handling them is the hyperactivity. As I greeted each child entering the class

As we come to the end of a tightly packed week, insanity takes over. The growing urge to be part of the polluted, suffocating and traffic filled civilization makes us restless. Even though we claim to despise the congested atmosphere, it is our comfort zone. It is one thing to love nature, go on treks, immerse oneself in the beauty of it all but a completely different thing to actually live there. For someone who is used to a bustling life of urban India, it becomes difficult to breathe fresh air after a week! What about the commitment to our vision? What about being the change for the million kids who are depending on us to deliver? One of the most important take away for the day was investing parents in the education of their child. We often hear statements that put the responsibility of educating the child on the teacher alone. What we don’t realize is that there is not much you can do when you hardly get five to six hours a day with the child. Also, nobody picks up skills, kn

There is no one who finds idleness exciting. Nobody can be idle forever. In my case, this period of idleness must always be small, especially on an intellectual level. I not only enjoy thinking of new perspectives and things, I also find peace in them. I am a curious person by default, I cannot be at rest all the time, I cannot sit in one place and repeat to myself things I already know. I have to obtain and understand more! Having worked continuously for so many days, I suddenly find myself sitting through sessions, staring into the walls. Not that the sessions are unimportant or the people aren't effective enough, it is just that I no more find myself attracted to defining and labelling my thought process. I do fully understand the importance but I also have a growing restlessness inside to start working on my teaching. Though it is not simple or easy to achieve the set goals, it is important to start on the path, lest be overcome by boredom. I am one of those who likes wor

Teacher's profession is considered the most noblest of all. And yet, we somehow always discourage our kids from taking it up as a career. We look at it as a last resort, as something that failures do. How do we expect great results from our kids when we don't allow great teachers to get into the field? Having said that, our immediate goal must be to train the existing teachers to at least sustain learning if not improve it drastically. One of the most important aspect that determines a student's understanding of concepts, is curiosity. If there is no sense of need from the student's side, whatever we teach goes over their heads. When we talk to our friends or interact with anyone in general, we provide new information by first grabbing their attention. This works in a classroom too. We must always pique their curiosity, explain as to why they need to learn something before we get down to actual delivering of the lesson. This helps in holding the student's atte

What is the one elemental thing that sets me apart from those whose life still revolves around making ends meet? What is that one thing that was given to me that I leveraged in my growth? Why was I given that element? These were some of the questions that wriggled inside my head for a long time, the search for the differentiating element. Every child has the potential to become someone in future regardless of his/her current situation. There is a sense of possibility in that child’s future. We may never find any evidence or non-evidence of this but we cannot work on factual data when it comes to the future of the society. Notwithstanding the individual growth that the child may have, he/she deserves every right at the chance. Limitations that constrain this belief in the child plays a major role in conditioning his/her mind from a very early age. We all know that more often than not, a child who is constantly ridiculed for being slow, will remain (or become) slow. Values and

Quality education is not just the passing on of knowledge. It is a very intricate and complex aspect of the student's life and future. The ability to learn new things cannot be imbibed by teachers who just provide students with the information from curriculum. It needs someone who can inspire and persevere. Teaching, is leadership. According to various reports, India is one of the most backward countries in terms of quality education being provided to its students. Most of them are not at their grade level. Some unfortunate factors that determine the quality of education and the number opportunities that a child receives are based on its place of birth, caste, sub-geography (Urban or Rural) and gender. The disappointing thing about this is that it is just a chance. There is no real logic in giving someone the extra facility for having been a biological accident in a different place. If we cannot overcome this and leverage our demographic in ushering the society into an empowe

Every human relationship begins with trust. It also is a huge part of human interaction. If you cannot get this right then everything that follows is null and void, useless! It is also true that trusting someone blindly is risky and may lead to serious issues in future. So where then do we draw the line? We have always been taught not to talk to strangers. When we grew up, we understood that we have to talk to new people to extend our circle. But, the first lesson of not talking always stuck. So I pushed myself to talk to others but maintain a distance, not readily trust them. For someone who fails to connect with people on most levels, it is not very easy either, to trust. At one point it becomes physically impossible. The quality of humans that sets us apart from other species is that of empathy. A society is built on the basis of common empathy and mutual respect. This creates an environment of collective growth and sustains the civilization. But the belief that every huma