This article is about the section of our society which we think, are underprivileged and unattended due to their circumstances. I always get intrigued with this thought of how we can bring change in our systems, at the grass root level that is “our blessed children”. I think it is the education which we as individuals, can give back to the privileged society, to bring about a shift towards modernity, to create a paradigm shift within our society and up bring an educated breed of our nation.
I have a young girl at home who does all daily chores and is help maid for the day. She is a wonderful girl. The destiny and birth of a child in particular family and values brings up the inner formation of a child. All children of god are the same and it is the family tradition and environment which brings up the child in various forms. I see intelligence and beauty in this girl, obedience is the part of her personality which I think is foremost trait in all house maids we look into. But the inquisitiveness of learning knowledge and memorizing it too is what surprises me. I began her classes to teach her Hindi, English and maths basics, but poor girl could not decipher the load of two languages taught together, so whole exercise of learning got stalled; it was difficult to remember alphabets for long. This girl was curious and keen to know and I would derive extreme joy by teaching her and putting little confidence in her for the rest of her life. When I look at her, despite her doing her daily chores in best possible way, I would still not agree with me, for her being ignorant of the wisdom which can be learnt thru books. So the task of teaching her began again restricting on one language only, so English was chosen to suit the easiness of the language. It is fulfilling to see her learning. Time will take its own course, for she needs lot of time and never dying attitude to learn something which she is deprived of. I was teaching at one of the NGO School, wherein the kids of the house maids would come to attend school. School was providing them some money as government aid (Rs.100/pm), to get educated.
These kids would come and spend sometime at the school and after taking classes would be given some snacks and leave for home. There were lots of kids who would come and simply attend. The age no bar, from the months old to the grown ups would be sitting in the same class; the problem of teaching was where to start and how to teach all at different levels. There were kids who could do big sums and would be able to do middle school curriculum and there were months born kids who were also the part of the class, crying and pissing in the same room. It was tough task to handle all, yet at the same time, I had to devise a programme to engage all at the same go. There was no organised class structure, for one can only teach them one subject at a time. It was a challenge to teach all yet I gained immense knowledge by being with them during these hours and learning from them. In fact it was my class, I was the student and they were my teachers, each with his/her uniqueness. They all are intelligent and ready to pick up what is taught to them. There was a beautiful little girl only 6yr old, who remembered her lessons and would draw beautiful drawings. She would sing all rhymes and few songs beautifully. There was a naughty boy who was a carefree street smart child 10yrs old, who had greater intelligence to understand all sums and would give answers faster than anyone could. Here there was a boy, very soft and dedicated who was far intelligent in his subjects and was always ready with his homework.
This period was lesson for my own development for I saw children are crafted in the same way by the God but born thru different souls and brought up in the different situations. I can appreciate the beauty and the intelligence in each one of them and part of this has always being talking to me to educate each child wherever the opportunity comes up. I don’t call them underprivileged children for they have everything within their means and methods. These children think big and dream big. Beautiful are the ways of God. I learnt the lesson of my life to teach and educate and get educated in the process of interaction with various people.