Yesterday I got united with one of our ex-student, Panka..,, IITkgp 2004 batch through this blog space. He did his BTP with our group and has a good conference paper. After working with two companies he is now completing his MBA from IIM Bangalore. I went through several posts of his blog http://iami.wordpress.com this morning. I must say, there are enough reasons to feel proud about being a faculty member here, to work with students like Pankaj. The posts are funny, insightful and extraordinary in many sense. I particularly liked the one
http://iami.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/first-step
I cannot help but quoting few lines from that
"All Facts were plain and I knew them beforehand but meeting them face to face was quite painful, embarrassing and that filled me with guilt. Painful because almost everyone who was suffering belonged to My village, embarrassing because now and then I will be introduced as one who has many places in world and guilt was obvious – Have I done any single thing to make a difference in anyone’s life?"
I wish everyone, specially the IITians feel like him and come forward to rebuild India.
Closer home, in the IITkgp campus and around it, the NSS volunteers have started a program of reaching out to underprivileged kids. It feels my heart with joy and I feel proud about this IIT students owning up responsibilities like these. Excerpts from some of their feedbacks are given below.
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Yesterday( On Sunday 18/1 ), we taught two boys working in the .... Their names are Samrat Singh and Bisu Singh. They got a very pleasant surprise when we presented to them the folder, the stationery and the toffees. It was heartening to see the smiles on their faces and to know that they liked the gift.
Then, we asked them about their daily routine, their families and their pastime activities. Their homes are in Midnapur but they stay with their master in his residence and go to their homes once a month. Samrat had attended school for a month while Bisu hadn't gone to school. As it was the first day, we taught them how to write their names. Samrat just needed some brushing up as he had learnt it earlier. He knows to write his name in Bengali too. We have asked them to write their names five times by next week.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the boys and us are looking forward to next week's meeting.
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We had a little bit of interaction with 2 boys of ..... One of them was of age 8 and had done his schooling upto class 3rd, while the other one was of age 11 yrs but had no preliminary education. so the latter didn't show any interest in our program even after repeated advice. we had a brief interaction with former who showed a great interest in learning from us. we gave things that we got with us,and taught the basic essentials of reading and writing. He could very well write his name. since there was alphabetic books with us which could help him more with natural pictures, we could only teach him bit of basic mathematical work of addition and subtraction. The boy thoroughly enjoyed the experience with us and was even willing to come us on regular basis, perhaps he got this belief that there are some people still out there who are willing to help him to gain that preliminary education which he so dearly missed in his childhood due dire poverty and child labour.
It was great experience for me to interact with boy of such tender age and was overwhelmed seeing the joy in his face which speaks of volumes of happiness he gained
for having education which was only a dream for him. We are positively looking forward for our next interaction with him.
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Today we visited the milkmen area outside the campus near prembazar....i took care of the madhyaik student..he had some problems in trigonometry...i tried to solve them and make him understand...and nave.. helped him in english,specially in the grammar and writing portions....his exam is also knocking...it'll start from 25th...so i told him to come to my room if he has any problem...oderwise i will go next sunday.....
Suja.. and Pratee.. were looking after the smaller kids (alphabets and numerals)...
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I along with my team-mates had visited the ... last Wednesday. In our 3rd attempt we finally got 2 students. None of them have never gone to school. It was a great experience of spending 1 hr with these kids. They have already shown their talent on painting. Looking forwards to our next meeting with lots of enthusiasm.
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I along with my other group members started our job to teach child labors on last Wednesday,21st Jan. they were two- Shahrukh Khan & Biswajit Dolai. They did not attend any school. For the first day we have started with little bit of drawing. They both enjoyed it. We are eagerly waiting for next meeting.
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We went to the .... on Sunday to teach the boys. The ... master was ready for their education but the children were not ready to read. First they were not coming. Then we gave them the greed of chocolate that we were carrying with ourself. Then first one boy of the age approx 13 yrs came then 3 more students came out.
The eldest one told us that he has read till 6th and he wants to read English. He is able to write his name in English. But the problem was that he didn't know Hindi. Whatever he has read he has read in Bengali. I wish to teach him translation but I can only teach him how to translate in to English from Hindi.
So, I started Grammer. Yesterday I taught him and an another boy parts of speech starting with Noun. The another boy has also studied till 5th and belong to the same group but has forgot everything. He doesn't even understand Hindi so well. But I managed him with the help of first one.
Vika.. taught an another boy the alphabet. There was a child who knows Telugu. Another student ... who knows telugu taught him.
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And this is the blinder
Today,i bought the study kit and presented it to the
kid who works at a tea stall near the BC Roy hospital.He told me that
he works from 7 in the morning till 11 at night and is paid a derisory
salary of Rs 500 a month.He has a mother and a little sister to
feed.His mother has a permanently crippled hand as a result of a
fracture,and they could not provide her with good enough treatment.He
has never been to school.He is 12,and his name is Hariom Patra.He has
a lot of friends of his age who have indulged in activities like
stealing,pickpocketing,etc.And they jump over a wall to enter the
campus for stealing.But,Hariom says he would never steal in his
life,though his friends often provoke him to do so.He was so ecstatic
to see me.
Since he has never been to a school before,he could
count upto 30,and did not know the alphabet.I have kickstarted the
process by teaching him English alphabet.When i tried teaching him the
Hindi alphabet,i came to know that I myself needed to revise
that.Therefore,i believe i should better have study modules or some
book to teach the Hindi alphabet.He seemed to be pretty much confused
about addition;i began with simple additions involving things like a
customer coming to his little tea stall and buying things.He quickly
learnt that;he is pretty acute.He can't even read words in Hindi,leave
aside English words.So,some very elementary things need to be taught
to him,though its a different matter that the kind of life he lives
teaches things the hard way.
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I am proud of you all. May goddess Saraswati bless you all and your superlative efforts. Pray for me that I am also blessed.
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