Reaching Out

Thirty pairs of young eyes stared back at me.

Curious.

Watchful.

I had a daunting assignment: To teach them English. In Hindi.

So we began. With their dreams.

Ruby wanted to become a beautician

Roll #1 Akash dreamed of being an ‘officer’

Alka saw herself in a bank.

Tall, lanky Prakash shyly said, “I want football player”

Neelam just wanted to be able to read ‘Englis’ books.

And so began a journey through grammar, diction, vocabulary...of pride, of confidence.

Their lives were not simple. 

By day they were 'cycle repair' boys, housemaids, tea shop 'chotus'. 

Once home, other duties awaited them—to make the dinner, care for a bunch of younger siblings, wash, sweep, repair, clean, get roughed up by a drunk father…they were just another set of earning hands that ought to be doing something more useful than holding a pencil.

Yet, what they held in their hearts--what nobody could take away from them; was the Will to learn.

And how we learned! Lazy summer afternoons woke up to stories read aloud, a question here, an answer there, a stifled giggle at another's error, laughter at one's own, stumbling over words, yet rising after every fall... They took it beyond the school building: walking back home, they'd read posters, billboards, fliers, anything to satiate the hunger deep within their little souls.

There were other lessons—lessons of courage

To dream

To hold their heads high

To look the world in the eye

and take pride in who they were

where they came from

where they could reach

if only they determined

to never give up.

  

Pushed to grow up too early, denied a childhood, these children persevered--and some did see their dreams take flight.

Those sunny afternoons spent in the company of sing song voices; fidgety feet, mischievous minds will remain  some of my most cherished lessons in life. 

[Outreach was a program for underprivileged children to help them complete their basic education and thereafter make them employable. I got an opportunity to be a part of  it as a section of the curriculum of management studies]