So a few days ago, I started volunteering for an NGO called Akanksha. Here, I have tried to put my experiences in words.
It is said that the best work is done in solitude when only god is watching. That is exactly the kind of work that is done at akanksha; selfless people who give their time everyday to come and teach.No,theirs isnt a high paying job,theirs isnt a job which gets them recognition, theirs isnt a job which will take them places,no high profile marketing job which lets them go around the world, no top managerial position which gives them an ego boost,no media attention for them.
So what do these people really get from working here?Every morning they come in to be greeted by loud smiles and happy Hellos and all of sudden just Disha gets converted into the beloved Disha didi.Here is a world where they don’t just teach English and Maths. They teach how to share and care , dance and sing,cry and smile.
But i think more than they teach, they get to learn. Every Monday morning a Chandu comes and tells them about how wonderful his weekend was because he spend it playing his basketball(its actually a football but he likes to think of it as a basketball).In every lunch break a Srushti comes over and hands you her dabba because she cant open it and then she goes to her place,indifferent to the conundrum that the other children are making around her and eats slowly,in peace,her dabba her entire world,a peace that you can never find in a 5 star restaurant.Be it seeing a butterfly enter the classroom or playing on the swings or plain simple running in circles;the sunlight that such trivial things bring to these little faces force you to think-Have we made our lives too complicated?
I used to always think that the brightest students in a class are the teachers favorite. It took me akanksha to realize that an improving student is a teachers greatest achievement.So when a Sachin (who if u allow him to speak in hindi will tell you his entire life story in a lecture,but if you tell him to speak in English will just put his head down and say nothing) when he one day comes to you and tells you,” Didi, how are you today? and when asked back replies with a “I’m terrific” , you cannot help but stop and wonder and then be happy.No amount of praise or bonus can give you such pure joy.
Kids are a classic example of how a little bit of encouragement can do wonders. So when d little Bhaskar who usually writes nothing in his notebook, is given two stars in his notebook for writing a simple word right, brightens up more than Venus ever can.Before you know he starts enjoying writing.The teachers at akanksha learn alot from these kids, i think.These kids know better than us learned adults to forget and forgive.They accept their own differences and those of others too.They smile as easily as they cry.Then again we are so much like these kids: we bloom in presence of affection, care, acceptance and just like little Bhaskar a little bit of encouragement can bring out the best in each one of us.
I see tonnes of my friends doing introspection (including myself),turning inwards,learning more about yourself.I think, for a while if we forget ourselves and our “i” centric worlds and look outside ,we might just find ourselves in a Sachin or a Srushti or in little Bhaskar.
But its not always all good at Akanksha. Alot of these children do not have a proper family atmosphere. Sum one ends up crying because he was beaten up at home. Alot of times children come to school without tiffin. Sometimes they are overburdened by their parents.Sometimes they drop out of school altogether. Teachers at Akanksha while dealing with all this try to make school as fun and comforting as possible for the kids. If God could , he would surely give you guys at Akanksha a high-five for the work that you are doing here!!
