Crippled

There is an attitude commomplace in everybody's mind that "I help others because I want them to grow". This belief was violently shaken and shattered to bits through my journey in Teach For India. I came here thinking that I will put my life to good use for these 2 years of fellowship by uplifting a low income community. I couldn't have been more wrong. That weak thought process in my mind is now crippled for heaven's sake.

The kids I directly taught and those whom I interacted with only on a partial time basis opened up a vista of learning for me. They pushed me to be the best person I could be everyday for every moment. Authenticity of character was demanded at such purity and quality that I had to be on my toes at all points of time. I was tried, tested, teased, mocked, questioned, pushed and transformed all at the same time. Compassion, my biggest weakness was the most required skill on the job. Kindness to self was what killed me but my kids demanded I be kind to myself and them at all times. Goal setting and planning became second nature to me. While in my pre-fellowship phase, I struggled with orderliness and effectiveness, during my fellowship they became the religion I practiced.

I stumbled heavily in my fellowship to find the real value of open and honest communication. I let my strengths and weaknesses be seen naked by strangers, trusted in Seva, rejoiced in giving for I now know that I always receive back in abundance.

The last leg of my fellowship is proving to be just awesome. Winding up everything that I started and chalking out a next step for myself are exciting ways to end the fellowship. If I had any notions about "helping" others then I am glad that I don't hold any such frivolous thoughts anymore. You receive more by helping and hence in true sense you didn't help at all but got helped.

“The Simple Path
Silence is Prayer
Prayer is Faith
Faith is Love
Love is Service
The Fruit of Service is Peace” 
―Mother Teresa

Is quality dependent on the price?

It's often a norm in our society to treat any less expensive product to be of low quality, but there is a book publishing brand that just proves it wrong- Pratham Books.

Pratham Books

Pratham Books is a non-profit organization that is striving hard to make India a better reader by publishing richly illustrated excellent content books at throw away prices. I happened to buy it's entire book collection into my classroom only to be humbled myself at the quality of books. I got the same irresistible urge to rip open all the packages that I get on receiving books. I soon employed myself into reading all the 69 books (perks of being a literacy teacher). 

I am a lot wiser after the completion of this reading. Most often than not adults consider they have an upper hand in knowledge in comparison to children. But I cannot stress enough how that illusion is broken every time one reads children literature. Pratham books like 'Sailing Home' and  'A Royal Procession' drill into young minds the nuances of Indian history. Children are lured into learning history through captivating short stories and colourful illustrations. Stories like 'Chuskit goes to school' and 'Cheenu's gift' make children understand social disparities among healthy and disabled, rich and poor by upholding humane qualities. There are many other books which speak of traditional occupations of India and educate children about the rich heritage of India. The set of Pratham Books I bought exposes one to culture of different parts of India, artistic diversity of various locations, moral values for righteous life, money management, various art forms et al. The books are levelled at 4 different reading capabilities of children and available in 11 Indian languages that just opens up opportunities for children from all linguistic and economic backgrounds. 

Kids can learn a humongous amount of vocabulary and ideas through covering these books. The ideas are rendered in such a bright child fashioned manner that it's hard to not absorb the linguistic knowledge. I made up for the loss of reading in my childhood by indulging in Pratham books. I advocate the use of Pratham Books in every household and every classroom. Indian young generation is at a stage where it's getting exposure to English language only through foreign literature. Pratham Books is a ray of hope in educating India in English through Indian context. I recommend these books to all and sundry.

You can also read this review on Pratham Books blog here.

Perks of being a literacy teacher!

I write this because

"We must always listen to the song in our heart, and share that song with others"
Mattie Stepanek

For a book junkie like me no other job would have better suited than that of a literacy teacher. I am exposed to children literature like never before. My regret of not having read much books as a child is out of the window for now that I get to read and validate every book before my kids lay their hands on them. I have come across authors such as Dr.Seuss, Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl, E.B.White and attractive books from Pratham book house and Tulika publications.

In my free hours I casually sneak up to the school library with the pretext of selecting books for my kids and get lost in the colorful illustrations of children books. Humble children books are flooded with philosophies that adult books take hundreds of pages to explore. Dr.Seuss shows us that there is no definite structure to imagination and fairy tales act like mirror to the society in upholding the commonly preserved stereotypes. The junior encyclopaedias, magazines and other informative books never miss to amuse you. There are so many bugs, trivia about different countries, information about every god-damn thing on the earth. If you ever think you are too smart to teach a kid you should sometime pay a visit to the child section of the book stores. The playful early reading books put your vocabulary to shame and teach you the lesson that life's got to be colorful for you to enjoy it.

It is an altogether enchanting sight to watch kids read the books all by themselves. My smartest kid snuggles up near my chair and summarizes every story he read from the book in his hand. One other kid is responsible for my heart to swell up with pride just because she can comprehend incredibly everything she reads. There are kids reading on the toy horse and serious introverts hiding their faces in big fancy books. Few others pace up and down the hallway occasionally beaming at some delightful incidence in their book. It is worth every minute of lesson planning to just witness your kids spotting every new concept/word learnt in the book that they are reading. The word 'Atmosphere' makes a boy jump and come running to me with his encyclopaedia while a girl is too excited to sing a song as it has the "rhythm" that she learnt is a feature of each beautiful poem.

Learning about so many different reading and word strategies hasn't just helped my kids but also turned me into a better reader. I have realised all the wrong ways of pronouncing few commonly used words while I can confidently learn more new words without the aid of a dictionary all the time. This teaching has made up for the lost time I had as a student myself. I can inflict my passion for books among my children too. My job is a direct translation of my innermost desire-to read and write better each day, everyday. I constantly get to read fresh piece of creativity everyday. It is an occupational hazard ;)

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
Dr.Seuss

Story begins!

I learnt the art of story telling from my mom who is till today a very descriptive and animated life story teller. I grew up and am still leading my life listening to her stories of her own childhood, people and relationships in her life, struggles and victories of her life. Today I wanna share a story that humbled me the most.

There are kids coming from low income families to my class in summer school. One such kid is Mahesh and he is one of the most sincere and intelligent kids I have seen. He is a fast learner and a fantastic dancer who does locking, popping, rock and roll and many other forms of dancing. I had a chance to visit the community he lives in and the things I saw there amused me.

• Mahesh had studied in a dilapidated Telugu medium school in a remote village of Andhra Pradesh. He has been in Pune English school for only an year. What's admirable is that he has learnt Hindi and English to conversational level in just less than an year.
• Mahesh's parents are 100% illiterates and that hasn't stopped him from succeeding in academics. Mahesh bagged A2 grade, which corresponds to 81-90%  in 5th standard exams - this being without any kind of help with studies at his home.
• Mahesh lives in servant quarters in a 10*10 square feet single room sharing the space with 3 other people of his family.

The above facts are just highlights of Mahesh's intellect while there are so many other things to be considered. He is a very curious child who is sincere and always ready to help his classmates. This boy displays tremendous amount of self-confidence and learns quickly. He draws inspiration from the successful people around him and aspires to become an army doctor.

I set out to teach him but now I realize he is already inspired from deep within his heart. I can learn from him and look back into my memories and fondly remember this kid from my first ever classroom. The world is too quick in forming biases about the low income communities but I believe they are no different from others, all they need is opportunities.

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

- Swami Vivekananda

Why Teach For India

You have heard me speak about dreams and passion in my articles and hope is the tone of most of the books and blogs I read. Now you would ask what's the use of reading so much! Is it just to write about them?

NO.

During the past two years of my life I broke out of the cocoon and started practising the most important advantage of living - taking my important decisions without being flown away by other people's influence. I read books, travelled (in my own limits) and spoke to many people just so to draw the courage to declare my decision. I moulded my thinking so as to muster courage to articulate my dreams. This is the path I set out to enter the path of education sector and being a change agent in our society:

Initial thinking:
I always knew deep in my heart that IT industry was not my cup of tea. I choose to do engineering at an age where I was not emotionally strong enough to fight for my choice. I lacked the maturity to understand myself and as does happen with most other middle class youngsters, I too ended up in an engineering college. I do not say I hated my subjects but I couldn't imagine being in that field for a lifetime. Sixth semester was when I decided I would quit the field of electronics and communication. Although I had a GPA of 9.0/10.0 which is a very high standard to qualify as a good engineer, I did not provide the field any justice. For the sake of electronic industry and myself, I quit being a mediocre engineer and continued to dream of another career.

First step:
I got into one of the big four consulting companies (owing to my very good communication skills and aptitude although definitely not because of my electronics knowledge) and decided to stay put there until I could define my dream perfectly.

It hurt my conscience many a times that I am not doing 100% justice to my job. I convinced myself that it is okay to be on the wrong path for a while if that path joins the bigger path you wish to be on. As Steve Jobs said in his Stanford speech, one can connect the dots looking backwards not forwards. This has been true with my case since my stint with consulting gave me friends, resources and time needed for self-introspection. I had nothing to lose but a lot to gain.

I understood that since childhood education has been very dear to me. If I can do something relentlessly forever then it's got to be issues related to education. I applied and got offers from 3 foreign universities for an MBA in social entrepreneurship, two with scholarships upto 15 lacs INR. I got offers from two prestigious fellowships in India, one being Teach For India(TFI). There! I had many tickets to enter the field of social service in education.

Why I do what I chose?
 After a lot of thinking, I took an informed decision of joining TFI movement. TFI is a perfect fit for my ambitions because

• TFI has restored the honour into the lustre lost old profession of teaching. Here I do not have to teach but I must transform my kids' lives. There are hundreds who have already done that. Thousands of kids came out of poverty, abuse and negligence to have a normal chance at living because of TFI. 
• TFI provides idealistic youngsters like me an opportunity to combat the educational inequity crisis in our nation heads on. 
• TFI is a leadership movement. I can learn more things in this fellowship than I could learn being at any other place. 
• TFI has put me amidst a bunch of high achievers who have jumped into the bandwagon of eradicating poor quality education. Your success is decided by the people you work with and I am completely convinced that I can grow as a tremendous leader embodying patience, humility and a sense of possibility. 
• TFI has created a structure where every single person involved is welcome to grow and achieve excellence irrespective of whether  is s/he a student, staff or fellow. 
• TFI is an organisation where leaders truly inspire juniors and they all speak a single language of hope and service.
• TFI folks taught me the spelling of coolness.
  
  Here is one of the lot to redefine hope:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8S2HLDcQug

Journey and the future

In the next two years of TFI fellowship, I will be responsible for the lives of 40+ kids and it is my capability that their future depends on. Teaching a kid with life lessons is a challenge and I am confident that I am equipped to take up that challenge 40 times over in two years. The curriculum will be like nothing seen before, the methods completely innovative and the love entirely infinite. I will be provided the support system of TFI staff at every step I stumble and it is my responsibility along with fellow cohorts to transform the kids' lives for better. 

The future holds nothing but hopes for my kids. I have met children from low income societies who have transcended all limitations of society because of the excellent education and love they have received from past fellows. I have made a promise to myself that I would work humbly in every way to transform the life of as many kids as possible through education. 

Somebody has to go polish the stars,

They’re looking a little bit dull.

Somebody has to go polish the stars,

For the eagles and starlings and gulls

Have all been complaining they’re tarnished and worn,

They say they want new ones we cannot afford.

So please get your rags

And your polishing jars,

Somebody has to go polish the stars.

-Shel Sliverstein

I can speak volumes about how TFI has changed me in such a little time. One incidence worth mentioning is how my perception of gentleness and love changed. Never in my life did I pet an animal before. But today I wanted to hold a puppy and talk to him for a minute. For a person who has never been closer than 1ft to an animal this is a great feat. It shows about the power of the nurturing environment I am in. I hope to change, I hope to transform myself and the society.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

-Maya Angelou