Kids teach us...

I would be wrong if I said I am teaching kids. Its actually the other way round. Kids teach us every moment. They fight and become friends the very next moment. I wonder what happens to us as we grow up? And we call ourselves adults (when we hold grudges against people for lifetimes) ? Why does the innocence die out with time? A small incidence day before got a lump in my throat. I taught kids how to identify 2D shapes. And as a check for understanding, during break time I was giving out marie biscuits, krack jack biscuits, parle g and bingo mad angles to everyone after they identified the shapes. The kids were real excited and were enjoying eating the different shapes when a girl called Nusrat caught my eye. I saw that she had eaten only a tiny bit of the mad angle and was wrapping up the remaining in a piece of paper. When I asked her, didn't you like the taste? She said didi it is really nice! And I want my sister to taste it too! I was so touched...This little girl who probably ate mad angles for the first time in her life, loved it so much that she wanted her sister to have it too and she was so happy about it! This little girl taught me it is not so difficult to be happy in life. You just need to look around. Stop cribbing about what you don't have. Appreciate and love what you have. No! I am not giving any gyan. Just do it for once. You'll know how fortunate you are...This tiny girl showed me a mirror to how fortunate I am. And it gives me all the more reasons to ponder upon what am I doing after being so fortunate? What are we all doing???

Little joys to share...

I had never thought that one of my greatest joys would be when a kid in my class who as per record is in the 3rd standard but actually is at the level of standard 1st; would get his first correct carry over addition problem after being explained over and over again! I had never thought that one of my greatest joys would be when two of my kids from class would come up to me on their own and ask me for homework out of curiosity to learn more! I had never thought that one of my greatest joys would be when three of the kids in class would raise their hands and call me at their desk just to say "didi you are so so nice!" And there are more of these little little instances that I don't remember now...I now know the joy of being in the moment and giving your 100%...and when you give your 100% to something you never feel bad for falling flat on your face...you just get up and try harder!
I don't think I have worked harder in my life. And if you think teaching is easy, I dare you to handle my class successfully for a day without pulling your hair out! You'll see kids popping out of their seats, walking around as if the classroom was a playground, you'll see kids poking and hitting each other, some want to constantly go to the loo, someone pretends he has a stomach ache so that he gets to go home, someone wants personal attention, someone just wouldn't speak up as if I were talking to the wall, someone knows not a word of English in spite of being in 3rd standard in an English medium school, someone loves to sit under the desk, someone loves to constantly tap pencil on the desk, someone has family troubles etc. etc....well there are some smart kids around too. Averagely, the attention span of these kids is 8 minutes. I constantly need to do something to grab their attention; and I am working towards it everyday. And I need to be loving and stern at the same time. It may not sound very appealing to many. Teaching, I believe is not a respected job. Its strange how everyone wants to be educated but the moment you tell them you teach primary kids they have an expression on their face which says "couldn't you have done something better in life?" But after a certain point of time you feel let the world think what it thinks. Seeing the way these kids are struggling, I feel if they are not guided the right way in their moulding age they will soon lose interest in studies and drop out of school. For those of you who do not know, 15% of kids in India never get to go to school, 50% of them drop out by 4th standard and 90% of them do not make it to standard 10! These numbers are shocking...I know it will take years of effort to flip them around. But for now I am so happy that I am a part of the solution bit of it even if it impacts only a few in the society. What is the use of education being the fundamental right of every Indian child when he does not have access to quality education just because he is poor! Till when are we going to wait for the world to be a better place on its own? I may be a drop in the ocean but like Helen Keller rightly said:
"I am only one but still I am one. I can't do everything but still I can do something; and because I can't do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do." :)

Flashback to why I am here...

I was in the so called world of I.T. for around 2.5 yrs...lived quite a comfortable life like many other I.T. people...but somewhere I always felt this hollowness inside...something that kept asking me why was I where I was and was I really happy with what I was going? The designation of a Team Leader did make me feel proud...They say if you give your 100% to any job you enjoy it...but for me, inspite of giving my 100% the satisfaction rarely touched my heart...at times I felt trapped at work...it was an endless rat race that was leading nowhere...and as if God heard and saw my restlessness that I happened to see the "Teach for India" add in the newspaper...and the moment I saw its website (www.teachforindia.org) I knew I wanted to be a part of the movement...I applied immediately along with 4000 other applicants...I was surprised to know there were 4000 other young professionals who wanted to change the way India looks, who wanted to do something for educating the underprivileged...I was amongst the fortunate 150(3.75%) people who made it to TFI...my joy knew no bounds when I got an email that I was selected...I resigned from my job the very next hour that I saw this email which gave me a sky, which gave me wings to fly, which made me feel it was time that i soared high...