Feeling from the villagers heart..........
During my field work for 9 days in the village near Kanpur, I came across lots of assiduous feelings , that gave me the experience of the lifetime. Above all the sharing with my team intensified those moments exponentially.
There is always one incident that flashes across my mind, leaving me into speculation that there is a lot to explore and learn from then villagers, getting acquainted to their lifestyle to understand their menace at root level, putting ourselves in their shoes and guide them with their own active support to cherish their vision of Changing Bharat.
Staying with the villagers for one whole day was a part of our program, to get to know them more intrusively. The family in which I stayed have one lady, their 2 sons, studying in the private school, one cousin who was married and based out of Noida, and working in a cloth factory. The couple has an year old child. The head of the family was a tractor driver in the city nearby, and was earning a meager salary of 2000 bucks monthly. They live in Kachcha house, and there was no electricity. Their only source of income was from the head of the family.
When I told them that I want to stay in their house for today, they heartily welcomed me. I was expecting a retaliation from them, as I was a stranger to them, and was worried how would I be convincing them for my stay. This is the way we urban people look upon any stranger in the city and we call ourselves educated. Imagine anytime in the city you found yourself helpless and you go and knock the door and ask for a stay, you will not even get a glass of water. But the situation was other way round in villages. You go and ask for a glass of water, they welcome you with a glass of milk, and we called them illiterate. We forgot that they are far more morally educated than us and still have old values intact "Athithi Devo Bhav".
My stay with the family was a memorable one, not as a outsider, but I lived there as their family member. I made the kid took bath properly, informed them about the hygiene they should follow up, they served me delicious hot lunch, with chapatis on Chulha, and believe me they were delicious. Later on, I asked the elder kid to write the numbers form 1-100 , they wrote it correctly, but when I asked them to read out they backed out. I discovered they just copy paste like us in their exams and get passed. even the younger kid, Kanhaiya, he wrote from 1-30 but he can just copy and could not understand it significance. What i found more ecstatic that they had the desire to learn, I taught Kanhaiya, from 11-20, and he felt elated and learnt everything in another 10 minutes, even he further persuaded me to teach from 21-30. I did that and he learnt that. He even learnt to write his name later on. He kept on asking I kept on telling.
That gave me the conclusion that little bit attention and motivation can lead these from nowhere to the higher platform, and I promised to myself, I would be committed to my work in this very village to bring out the change in kids with the kind of enthusiasm they posses. There were kids in the villages, whom I interacted who dreamed about becoming an IAS officer one day. And boy, you question them about general knowledge and he was bang on with his answer. I would be disheartened if he doesn't become an IAS officer someday. There were kids who don't want to become engineers or doctors, but lawyer, police and teachers. They want to serve their family better.
This one day stay attached me so much with my family, that the head of the family asked me to stay forever and work in the village. I promised them I would be back with my team soon in coming months, I don't want to shatter their hopes they had developed with our efforts in villages. There were new dreams and vision in their eyes of coming up to the mark with the urban development.
I really want to go back and spent my time their to serve my contribution leading to their better tomorrow.
P.S. The school name of Kanhaiya is "Hrithik Roshan" because he is a die hard fan of him. :)
My stay with the family was a memorable one, not as a outsider, but I lived there as their family member. I made the kid took bath properly, informed them about the hygiene they should follow up, they served me delicious hot lunch, with chapatis on Chulha, and believe me they were delicious. Later on, I asked the elder kid to write the numbers form 1-100 , they wrote it correctly, but when I asked them to read out they backed out. I discovered they just copy paste like us in their exams and get passed. even the younger kid, Kanhaiya, he wrote from 1-30 but he can just copy and could not understand it significance. What i found more ecstatic that they had the desire to learn, I taught Kanhaiya, from 11-20, and he felt elated and learnt everything in another 10 minutes, even he further persuaded me to teach from 21-30. I did that and he learnt that. He even learnt to write his name later on. He kept on asking I kept on telling.
 |
| Kanhaiya : Right in front |
That gave me the conclusion that little bit attention and motivation can lead these from nowhere to the higher platform, and I promised to myself, I would be committed to my work in this very village to bring out the change in kids with the kind of enthusiasm they posses. There were kids in the villages, whom I interacted who dreamed about becoming an IAS officer one day. And boy, you question them about general knowledge and he was bang on with his answer. I would be disheartened if he doesn't become an IAS officer someday. There were kids who don't want to become engineers or doctors, but lawyer, police and teachers. They want to serve their family better.
This one day stay attached me so much with my family, that the head of the family asked me to stay forever and work in the village. I promised them I would be back with my team soon in coming months, I don't want to shatter their hopes they had developed with our efforts in villages. There were new dreams and vision in their eyes of coming up to the mark with the urban development.
I really want to go back and spent my time their to serve my contribution leading to their better tomorrow.
P.S. The school name of Kanhaiya is "Hrithik Roshan" because he is a die hard fan of him. :)
- Shalabh Agarwal
(Changeagent from GM '12)
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