Mentor India: Learning Formulas to Win
Here’s a story on how our Week-6 went; written by one of our guest teachers—Ranjita Praseed— who visited the school for the first time when we taught our kids formula’s to win!
In the backdrop of a small and pristine village characterized by sugarcanes, cows and brown mud, is this school – our destination for the day. We reached there after about a 3-hour journey from Bangalore city. Interestingly we even crossed a mini ‘New York’ on the way!
Making a mental note that I should come back to visit the Talakadu, located close to this place, where huge fair-“Panchalinga Darshana” takes place once in 12 years, we walked into the Headmaster’s room. We waited while the kids had their mid-day meal served by the school as part of the government initiative of free food for kids.
I walked into the class to be blown away by the energy and positivity that brimmed inside.
Proudly displaying the techniques in English that they learnt in the previous sessions, they started asking me several question – a getting-to-know-each-other ice breaker. What is you name, miss? Where are you from, miss? What do you do, miss? – were the questions I expected I will face and was ready with the answers. But what I had not expected was that someone would ask me what my dreams are! Even as I blurted out the response – to teach kids like you, little did I know that I will realize on the very same day that what I told them could just be my true calling!
What followed in the next few hours was a roller coaster ride of learnings – for the kids as well as us. As the several interesting sessions rolled in one after another, what I did not see is a drop in the energy level in the room. Children were sitting in the class room trying to grasp every bit of knowledge that came by their way – eyes reflecting hopes for a bright future.
It started with going through the homework given on week 5 and was followed by a career guidance session, where a world of opportunities including those in agriculture were presented in front of the young minds. When a part of this session revealed the success story of a co-teacher, Ambresh, who fought back the failures he faced in life having hailed from a village himself, the kids found a connection.
To conclude, we taught them formula’s to win- which was nothing but 3H- Hunger to succeed, Help others selflessly and Hardwork has no substitutes!
I saw anticipation when they experienced a mock class depicting what they will face in another year or so, as soon as they are out of the secure atmosphere of their schools. This was done by Santosh and his team from Cronj!
I saw delight as they listened to the stories and got introduced to the art of storytelling. We wrapped up the session, with the kids presenting their attempt in writing their very first story. And this is when I saw absolute bliss in the team that set aside several of their personal chores to spend their time and energy on this cause. Simple things like the correct use of prepositions and correct sentence constructions in the story that they wrote, made the teachers beam with pride.
At 5 in the evening, we finally bid goodbye to the students for the week, and sat down to eat a simple but delicious meal; the first one in several hours! We were tired and exhausted, but were a super happy bunch of strangers who came together for a common cause and left knowing that they will go a long way together.
