Journey for a Dream

Recently, a Police Officer died in Punjab because of terrorist violence. On the same day, one of the kids in my school was burnt by his own brother. Why? Because the 7 year old used bad language. A week before that, two kids got into a fight and one of them ended up with a torn eye lid. The father of the “accused” arrived at school and beat up his child with a big cane! Yet another 7 year old demands to be hit by the teachers lest they want him to create chaos in the class. From probably the beginning of mankind, violence has played a key role. As a society, we might abhor violence but we resort to it ever so often. Our answer for murder is capital punishment, disagreement, is war and argument, a slap! What are we trying to prove here? That violence needs to have its “right reasons?” This is how I see it and this is how it probably works as well. Child is born. It starts assimilating the countless information that is present. Slowly it starts imitating the other humans around...

Having made a significant impact in the lives of 32 kids, I felt confident to move back to the city I called home. Sustainable change was what I had left behind and also, it was the very thing I wanted to bring here. I now had the bandwidth, network and support system to do so much more than I ever could! Welcomed by an ever smiling HM and 60 bubbling 3rd graders, I felt immediately at home. Being placed in a government school, I now had access to large grounds, spacious classrooms and freedom to move my kids anywhere I wanted. The uniform, food, books etc., were taken care of by the government. I had nothing to worry about, or so I thought! It was a wave that hit me in the face on the very day I started. During lunch, kids in the entire school (strength of 650+) just ran helter skelter, throwing food around, beating each other up, playing, shouting and every bit of chaos you can imagine. I have seen violence, way worse than I've seen here, but this is beyond violence, this i...