If any of you have been following my posts lately on Facebook or blog, you must have seen me surrounded with kids. Now, some of you might think that I teach these students or I am just interacting with them. I am doing both, actually. But, I am doing something more, I am learning, from them.

It was a day of one of my storytelling sessions with these kids. I told them a story of a girl who was very good at almost everything she does, be it, Math, Sports etc. However, there was one thing which she couldn’t do, no matter how hard she tries. When her teacher would ask her to draw a perfect shaped circle, she couldn’t make it. She will do one mistake or the other every time she tries. Her teacher would scold her, tell her to try hard, to focus, but the girl started to believe that she will never be able to make a perfect “Gola”.

One day while she was sitting in her room depressed, she decided to try her hands one more time at drawing the perfect “Gola”. She tried and failed. In her frustration, she decided to tear apart the piece of paper. As soon as she was about to tear the paper apart, she saw the irregular shaped “Gola” coming to life. It grew bigger and bigger and slowly his eyes became visible. Then, his nose, ears and finally, his mouth also became visible.  The girl couldn’t understand what is happening with her. She got frightened and a thought came in her mind that she might be dreaming. She pinched herself on her hand to wake her up.

“That is what they do in movies” she thought.

But, it seems that she wasn’t dreaming after all. It was absolutely real. She has now started to get worried. It was then that she realized that the piece of paper is still in her hands. She decided to tear it apart, in the hope of destroying the creature that has come alive. Just as she was about to tear down the paper, she heard a sweet timid voice murmured.

“Please do not tear me. I am here to help.”

The sweet voice melted the girl’s heart and she decided to not tear the paper down and listen.

“How can you help me?”

“If you help save me, I will teach you how to make the perfect me.”

The girl wondered how did this creature know that she was struggling to make the perfect circle (Gola). Nevertheless, she had come to a point where she wanted to try everything just to bring the perfect shape alive.

“Save you from what?”

“This is not the real me. I am equally fat everywhere and now I am irregularly shaped. If you do not rub me and draw me again, I will always live my life like this and other Golas will laugh at me. If you save me from laughter today, I will tell you the magic trick to make a perfect Gola.”

The girl wanted to learn the magic trick which could end her agony. Thus, she rubbed off the “Gola” and drew him again. It was still irregular. But the girl was not frustrated anymore.  She rubbed him off again, drew again. For the whole night, she did the same practice again and again but it was still not perfect.

Just before dawn when she had almost given up, she tried for the 1001st time. And this time, she found a perfect shaped Gola.

The girl couldn’t be more happy. She was jumping with joy and laughing with her long lost soul.

“Thank you for saving me” Gola said.

“It is okay. Now, please tell me the magic trick.”

“You already know.”

“What? But you didn’t tell me?”

“I did not. But you learnt.”

“Practice. That is the trick.“

When I stopped telling this story to the students, they were all filled with ecstasy and looking up to me with amazement. You never know, maybe, some of them will try to make their own “Gola” someday.

What did I get? I learnt. By telling these kids stories, I learnt the satisfaction of giving, the joy of being with them. I am sure that I will learn more.