Carpe Diem!, The Journey!

Let’s break the monotony of cynicism!

I have been called a maniac many a times because sometimes when I speak, people would be like, ‘Kya bolna chahte ho bhai?’ I have had difficulties making people understand my view points quite often. Not that I could not communicate my thoughts but mostly because the person in front of me would easily mark me a maniac listening to what I had to say; quite literally. I thank  SBI Youth for India for giving me a platform where my voice was heard. Well, the setbacks haven’t stopped me from doing what I truly love. My love for people has always exceeded the melancholy of negativity which has surrounded the human race for so long now.

Well, it has been a while since I wrote on this blog, but I have been occupied a lot over the past month. Not only have I been enjoying; travelling to Bodh Gaya, a 3 day extended trip to Ahmadabad, a journey in a crowded passenger train, meeting a 94 year old man who has been running a school all alone without money, a 29 year old storyteller who changed my perspective towards life, a talk at Reserve Bank of India, and the stories my children create in a small village of Haripur Krishna, I have also been learning important life lessons.

Well, I am about to start something more wacky; something which will push me to the limits, even more. Not that SBI Youth for India has given the fellows less on the plate to push them to the boundaries; another addition will add on to the fun.

Over the past one month, I have been working on a storytelling project with the children. We have been telling our stories through different media; drawings, writings, abstract paintings, puppetry and so on. Now, we want to take it a notch above.

Before starting to work in this school at Haripur Krishna, I was told that most of the students haven’t even touched a computer in their lives. It is then I had decided to try and establish a mini computer lab in the school. The next thing which was in my mind is to teach students Life Skills through storytelling. The activities we do through storytelling not only sow the seeds of creativity in these young learners but also show them a world where imaginations are not discarded but celebrated.

In February, we had launched one magazine by the name of ‘Palak’. The origin of the name also has a very interesting story behind it. When Mr. Kumar Shaw (a storyteller who visited us) and I were discussing to give a name to our storytelling team for a group activity, we asked the children to suggest names for it. Some names that came up were ‘Ready’, ‘Khiladi’ and so on. Generally silent Khushi spoke this time and said, ‘Palak’. We liked the name then and there. I was really mesmerized by a class 5 student giving a beautiful name such as this. And, not only did she give the name; she touched her eyelids, gave a beautiful smile and said, ‘Palak’. It was a moment to remember for a lifetime.

Well, these are just a few of the stories that I have in my mind right now. There are more at the back of it. 🙂

We have recently launched a campaign to arrange for funds to create a little difference in the lives of these amazing children. I am glad to say that we have received your love and unconditional support till now. We have been able to arrange 20000 INR in a matter of 2 days with over 1000 views on the video shared on Facebook.

Please support us in this endeavour of ours to bring happiness in the lives of these children. In our madness of creating beautiful stories.

Go on the link to see our work and support us: Palak – ‘A Story’ in making for the children in rural Bihar

See the video of our work at:  Palak – Breaking the monotony of Cynicism

PS: I will make up for my absence by doing something more crazy. Watch this space for more! 🙂

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The Journey!

Project Kahanikaar Computer!

The skills of project planning, management and delivering might look easy at the face value but trust me, it is not. And, when you are trying to do something at the grassroots level and almost on your own, there are a lot of other factors which plays an important part.

Over the course of previous posts, you might have seen me interacting with the kids during the storytelling sessions. Well, this is not the only thing I do and there is a reason why I chose to do what I am doing right now.

When I went from one school to another during the inception months of the fellowship, there were a lot of areas I found needed attention. For one, almost all the Govt. Schools I visited, the toilets are constructed in every school. Good?  Well, these toilets are hardly used by the students for which they were constructed in the first place. In almost all the schools, the toilets were locked and the teachers had the keys to themselves. When I asked the reason for it, one of the teachers told me that the students lack good toilet practices and hence do not know how to use the toilets without making them dirty. This was just one part of the problem. There was no place where students could wash their hands before/after eating or relieving themselves. Ironically, the NGO which I am working with recently distributed soap and buckets so that the students could use them. Just for the sake of whom?

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The Locked Toilets!

 

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Drinking Water!

This is just one of the major issues I observed. Others were the lack of teachers, lack of quality teachers, huge number of students per class, lack of infrastructure and so on.  I realized that I will never be able to make a change which I want to see within a span of 13 months of the fellowship. I had to think of a way where my skills can merge with the aspirations of the students and school. Here comes the storytelling part of my project. Everyone loves a good story and if a good story leaves with a message to these young students, it might make a difference in 1 out of 100 students. Isn’t that worth it?

So, I started to observe what message the stories might give? Toilet practices, importance of washing hands, self cleanliness were the starting subjects. More and more I observed I happened to find myself in one of the training rooms where a trainer was giving a talk on Empathy as a Life Skill. He goes on to include washing hands as another important Life Skill. It made me Google about these skills and their importance. Apart from the importance of reading, writing and arithmetic skills, there are other skills which people need in order to be visible in the world; communication skills, decision making skills, emotional skills, conflict resolution skills and skills needed knowing how to ask for help. I had found some more subjects for the stories. Other skills which I found various stories can provide are listening skills, handling responsibilities, importance of failures in life, gender sensitisation and so on.

Now I had the idea of what the stories are going to be about. During the course of my storytelling sessions in various schools, I happened to meet one teacher who told me something about Bihar which further strengthened my idea of why teaching these skills are needed here and everywhere else. He told me about how most of the girls in the villages always eat their meals after their brothers have eaten and how the same thinking is reflected in other domains of life too. The girls facing such a treatment at their homes always consider themselves secondary to boys in different walks of life as well. These girls need to know about the likes of Kalpana Chawla, Kiran Bedi, Indira Gandhi and Neeraja Behnot. Woman Power as a Life Skill?

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The next Who?

I went ahead with the idea and started conducting more storytelling sessions. During the period, I discussed my idea with the NGO staff and various teachers and realized that some of them do have a sense of what I am trying to achieve while others think of these skills as unwanted to lead a life as we live today. Another point was how teaching these skills can be incorporated at classroom level. I mean, we can’t just tell the students stories everyday and expect them to abide by the message. They need to work with these stories, play with it, draw it and feel it. Only then the message will get delivered.

Thus came the third most part of my project – computers.

The perfect way through which these students can work on these stories are computers. By this way, the students will think that they are learning computers through the stories they are creating and working on. However, they are learning much more in terms of these skills. This is a teaching methodology used popularly by Randy Pausch – author of ‘The Last Lecture’. He described this teaching practice as “head fake” philosophy where the students think that they are learning one thing but they are actually learning something different as well. Things which they are not aware of.

Hence, the project “Kahanikaar Computer” is born. Under this project, I have proposed to setup a computer lab where the students will learn computers through stories. These stories will focus on providing these students not only computer skills but also skills which they will carry on for the rest of their lives.

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PS: Please feel free to give your suggestions on the project!

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Carpe Diem!, The Journey!

Thank You Teacher!

During our childhood days, we always had that one teacher who was our favourite and the one who was not. We would wait with eagerness for the former to come to our class and find ways to bunk the class of the other. Remember those days?

As we grow a little bit older and start to judge ourselves as bold and cool, we would still wait for that one teacher whom we have grown fond of. However, as big as we think we are, we would sometimes try to belittle our other not so favourite teacher. We would make weird noises or thump our desks using our newly found strength or walk in and out of the class without permission. I, for one, was not a very notorious student but found it really fun when one of my classmates would put up such a remarkable show of ‘boldness’. Later, I was also involved in many such remarkable ‘acts’.

My first day at a school where I have decided to do my project in alternate education for the next 10 months went rather magnificently. I had fixed a time frame of about a week giving the students of class 5, 6 and 7 curiosity generation lessons in basic computer education as well as storytelling. It was for the first time I was about to take a class of over a hundred students. I was not nervous but excitedly restless. I did not realize but it was the first time when I was a teacher to these students in the same way my teachers were to me. We discussed about some basic concepts such as what a machine is, different types of machines, how computer is also a machine and so on. The class ended when I told them a real life story of APJ Abdul Kalam which gave him an important lesson; we are all the same in the eyes of God, be it a Hindu or Muslim.

I was upbeat with the way class went and was ready the next day to to take one more. It was on this day that I met someone from the past. I met my notorious friend; a blast from the past!

A class of 100 students is hard to manage and when you have a student who is focused on putting up a show of ‘boldness’, it is even harder. So, here I was, trying to teach them how to use the computer when I heard a weird noise, a loud thump on the desk and frequent in and out of the class. I saw in him my friends and myself. However, I was different now. I was a teacher and he was my student. Initially, I decided to ignore him but slowly and steadily, he was able to put up a show as ‘remarkable’ as we used to pull off. It was getting difficult for me to keep the class under control. It was for the first time I truly felt myself in the shoes of my former teachers. Till today, I did not know how tough it would have been for my teachers to deal with me and my friends.

Teaching is a tough job. I realized it in just 2 days of time. Imagine a single teacher teaching 160 students everyday for 6 hours. At face value, it looks easy. But, it is not. If you do not believe me, please take a chance and volunteer at any Govt. school nearby. 60 students, 1 hour everyday. That is it. You’ll know.

The least we can do for our teachers is to not belittle them and have a feeling of gratitude. I never knew the most notorious student will give me such a lesson. Well, he is now responsible for making sure that everyone is seated in their places. 😉

PS: Thank you Sanjal Jaiswal for the perfect edit. 😉

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The Journey!

Fail, Learn and Plan!

Today, when I approached one of the Govt. schools in Bihar, with the plan that I had prepared as part of my fellowship SBI Youth for India, they invited me with open arms. They were curious to see what is that I wanted to do in their schools. However, this day hasn’t come with my share of failures.

The first school that I visited with my plan gave me important lessons in planning and management which I will remember for the rest of my life. I had almost everything prepared starting from the curriculum to the number of students. There was only one thing which I wasn’t sure of. My local mentor at my respective NGO suggested me to setup an enterprise model where the local youth be trained to provide computer education to the school children. I had a doubt regarding the payment method adopted for the model. A nominal fee is supposed to be collected from the students and the payment for the youth has to be managed from the same. I am always of the belief that education everywhere in the world should be on knowledge sharing basis. However, in today’s world, the amount of knowledge shared has become directly propotional to the money in your pocket.

So, here I was, sitting with the school teachers, headmasters and NGO officials with a plan of which I wasn’t sure of. But, I decided to give it a try. They all seemed to like the plan of combining Life Skills/Moral values education with Computer Education using storytelling as a medium. One of my storytelling session, Our Storytelling Class, also took place in the same school. Everything was fine until we came to the final point of discussion, the fee.

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The Initial Level Talks in the first school!

Since the fee structure was the least important factor which came to my mind while I was designing the plan, I took it a little lightly. I believe in a concept of participatory approach to the solutions which I encounter in daily life. So, I tried to apply the same approach in this situation as well. I asked the school authorities to discuss among themselves how much can a single child afford to pay? I gave them a number, 100 Rupee per month for a 4 month course, and asked them to debate on the same. I just wanted to try out this approach. I knew it might go either way but I thought, let’s try.

I went to the same school on alternate days, interacted with the students and teachers there. The students were very enthusiastic about the thought of computers coming to their schools. Within a short span of almost a week, I became friends with most of them. I have always loved being with kids. It was an enjoyable week.

It was a day when we were supposed to meet NGO’s field volunteers (people who work directly in the field). In the meet, we discussed my intervention as well. Mr. Rajesh, who is working with the same school where I have been going, told me that my experiment has failed. He suggested that I go with a plan with even the minute details worked upon. Coming from a field worker, I could have ignored his advice. But, I couldn’t. I knew that he was right. I actually thanked him for the blunt truth that he told me. It takes courage to speak up the truth, no matter where you are.

Over the course of next few weeks, I went back to my original idea and dropped certain points in the plan of which I was even a little skeptical. After almost 10 days of turmoil and frustration of designing the plan again, I was ready.

The presentation today lasted almost 45 minutes describing as to what I want to achieve through my intervention. The teachers’ participation enthralled me with optimism. They were firing questions and I was ready for almost every one of them. It was an enriching experience, an experience which taught me how to plan well.

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The Second School meet with Head Master and Teacher. One of the most fruitful presentation till date!

There are exciting days ahead. I am ready to fail; not ready to not try.

PS: Post written on 19th January, 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Poetry, Articles, The Journey!

Our Storytelling Class !

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.

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The Storytelling Class!

 

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A kid trying to make a perfect Gola!

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