Experiencing Education in Rural India- Medha (GM'13)

Medha, a Gramya Manthan'13 changeagent, was part of the education group. The group understood the education ecosystem and the dynamics that affect it, in Tishti Village and as part of their short-term action engagement, they conducted Summer Camp in the Kilkaari Learning Center, where more than 150 kids participated.

An excerpt from her interview, where she describe the experience that unfolded for her. 

Question: Describe your experience as part of the education group, particularly about your engagement with the kids during the summer camp?

Medha: I have got a lot of volunteer opportunities before as well, but I didn't take them because one, I am very impatient, secondly, for the longest time I had this concept in my head that till you know enough you cannot teach anybody, but there’s no definition of enough. 

In terms of my experience with the kids (with the education group in Tishti Village), I realized that these kids are really indebted to their teachers and are very very grateful. And I think I never felt that kind of respect for my teachers, and at a point I thought that they are doing their job, I am doing my job. Also, despite the fact that the external environment is not so conducive & motivating to education & learning here, yet there is this fire to learn, the fire to explore the unknown and by unknown I mean, the kind of things they have not learnt in terms of school education, beyond that I wouldn't know. And the enthusiasm in the kids is really heartening, for instance, one of the girls asked me to give her a story book, but I didn't because we are not supposed to. After pacifying her for long, we discovered that she didn't even know how to read, she said if she got the book and it would be lying around her, she would keep trying until she somehow would be able to read it.

It was a real test for me, and I was a little demotivated because I thought that I was not able to teach the way I wanted to teach, to impart what I wanted to impart or go according to the syllabus. Ridhi Didi (a GM’13 changeagent in the education group), said that you have learn how to improvise. When you do theatre, you improvise on stage, but when you improvise with children, its completely different. And that improvisation I didn't experience until my third day. It was a bit discouraging because there were some split 3-4 minutes because I was standing and didn't know what to do, then I realized that the children are continuously looking at me and I am supposed to handle this.

Question: What are your key take-away from the journey of Gramya Manthan. 

Medha: There is a lot of conscious taking and lot of unconscious taking. As far as conscious taking is concerned, that I do feel that most of the people I met here are very real, very selfless and very loving. And there is a lot of gratitude that people feel for each other, and everyone just wants to make others happier. Patience is something which I learnt, and I think a lot of simplicity, in existence, in your demands from life. And I think, the meaning of ambition also tweaked a little for me. But more than that, the other learning will impinge on me and I will imbibe them slower because I have been thinking about it, all of us are in-fact, even when I go back to Delhi and even beyond that, this experience will be with me. Gramya Manthan, I always felt it is a journey more than a physical journey in space, its a journey in the mind, because each time we were exposed to ideas, and people who are extremely broad-minded and in a way off-beat.

Medha Bankhwal, originally from Dehradun, studied economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi. She has been a theater artist and has acted and directed in plays at the college level. Medha is now working with Google India. She says she is slightly more confused about her future plans after GM. She says, she is however, interested in education curriculum designs, and use of performing arts as a tool of education.