Gyan Bodh, ah, I'm back at the organised chaos, but call it psenti-sem blues or whatever, some part of me is already saying good bye. Did I make a difference? I don't know. As our quiz for the kids showed how much we underestimate them, and how much pop culture affects them ( the kids could recognize AR Rahman, but not Mangal Pandey ), I wonder if it mattered at all. Do they care for the fact that they are Indian ( sparing the times when a cricket match is on)? Do they even like being here? Have I bettered their education? I just don't know.
They made me reflect on how an Indian child grows up, and its not pretty. The first thing they notice in person is his or her region, and they are, in many ways, heavily impregnated with the regional biases of their parents. They grow up with strong gender stereotypes, the idea of a girl playing football is ridiculous to them. Being suave, well-mannered and efficient is simply laughed off, and their curses would make your hair curl.
Maybe I should have started with educating the parents.
I always knew change doesn't come easy. Maybe the feeling that I am about to leave is making me cynical.But I tried. And I'll keep trying. Because they're Indian kids. And that makes them my business.
Monday, 17 August 2009
Friday, 10 July 2009
Ideas are always Welcome!
The summer vacations are drawing to a close, and some of you will go yippee! at the thought, and some would just say blah. The point is, we'll soon be back at BITS, so spare a thought for the kiddies. Some of them live right next to the library ground in semi-permanent homes as their parents are daily wage workers at the new hostel sites ( bet you didn't know that) Can we help them in any which way? We've tried to get working children ( like the ones at the rehdis) to Gyan Bodh, but it never works out... any ideas on how to get them back to books will be much appreciated. And when you are coming back, bring back something for these children if you can.
Let's get them a better tomorrow together. :)
Let's get them a better tomorrow together. :)
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Some Help, Please...
Dear People,
I've been trying to improve the standard of English among GB kids for a sem now. I'd initially proposed that all us volunteers get story books, comics and novels etc. from our homes at the start of this sem, so that we can have a library of sorts for the kids. Well, not many remembered to do so.If the kids have reading material other than boring school books, they just might develop an interest. So its an appeal- if you have old story books or comics in either english or hindi, please bring it back next sem. We can hold a few story-telling sessions initially, where we can read out like half the story to catch their interest, and they'll read up the rest. Do let me know if you think this is a good idea. Any help in this regard would be very welcome.
I've been trying to improve the standard of English among GB kids for a sem now. I'd initially proposed that all us volunteers get story books, comics and novels etc. from our homes at the start of this sem, so that we can have a library of sorts for the kids. Well, not many remembered to do so.If the kids have reading material other than boring school books, they just might develop an interest. So its an appeal- if you have old story books or comics in either english or hindi, please bring it back next sem. We can hold a few story-telling sessions initially, where we can read out like half the story to catch their interest, and they'll read up the rest. Do let me know if you think this is a good idea. Any help in this regard would be very welcome.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Disclaimer
Let's be clear on this, people. This is NOT the official blog of Gyan Bodh or Nirmaan. The official website is nirmaan.org. We are just a bunch of kids who like to share the experiences we had at Gyan Bodh. Everyone is welcome to read, comment, and visit Gyan Bodh if this inspires you enough. I guess this is plenty enough to save us from any 'legal issues' :-D
Out of the 5 people introduced on this blog, I (Sunanda) am the only one who works there on a regular basis. And more volunteers are always welcome at Gyan Bodh, and creative ideas are welcome. I'll try to get the feasible ones incorporated.
Out of the 5 people introduced on this blog, I (Sunanda) am the only one who works there on a regular basis. And more volunteers are always welcome at Gyan Bodh, and creative ideas are welcome. I'll try to get the feasible ones incorporated.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
The Surprise at Gyan Bodh
As Arnab has given you a brief introduction of what Gyan Bodh is, allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Sunanda, and I’ve been teaching at Gyan Bodh from a year now, and in the last semester, I’ve worked as the Assistant Project Lead. I blab about how much I like to teach the kids here, so one fine day these friends of mine – Rohit, Ankita, Arnab and Aniroodh ask if they could accompany me to Gyan Bodh, along with their guitars and maybe teach the kids a tune or so. I thought it would be a good idea to let the kids have some respite from the daily grind, and anyway their means of entertainment are rather scant. So we went. I had warned them about the language barrier- even the kids who study in English medium school would have difficulty speaking it and understanding the accents (something that we’re working on very hard to improve). So after the initial hiccoughs, we all did end up having a good time, and I’ve been flooded with requests to bring the ‘guitar waale bhaiya aur didi’ back, and to make music lessons a regular feature at GB. I don’t know if I’ll be able to mange that , or the many things I’ve planned for these fertile minds in the one short sem I’m left with. But with more people showing interest, I’ve hopes that someone will.
THE VIDEO
And finally !!! The video of our journey to Gyan-Bodh is here. We would like to apologize for the bad picture quality... But due to the bad net speeds and other related problems, this is the only one we could safely upload... So, enjoy !!! And I hope the contents of the video will inspire you to come and join us in our attempt to help the kids of Gyan-bodh !!! And we're also putting a pic of all of us
with the kids at Gyan-Bodh .
THE CLASS
I had mentioned Gyan-Bodh in one of my earlier posts. A very close friend of ours, Sunanda has been an active member of NIRMAAN since the last semester. She holds the post of Assisstant Project Lead ( second in charge) in the activities of Gyan-Bodh. The much beloved ‘didi’ of Gyan-Bodh often used to mention her children at the small school whenever we used to chat together. A comment she had made in one of those chats really made me look at things differently. While chatting about the recreations of her children there she had said, “ Studies should never come in the way of a child’s education.”
Education. What is true education without learning how to smile? What is the meaning of education? The dictionary states –“the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.” Mature life. Well, I guess that is where the ties in mid summer and memorizing numerical tables come into the picture. Maturity. Often I can’t help but compare this maturity with forcibly ripening fruits by adding carbide to them.
With all of this in mind, a group of us here decided to tag along with Sunanda to her Gyan-Bodh class. And we planned to take classes as well, but a completely different kind of class. It was a music class. And so we trudged along with two guitars and two cameras to Gyan-Bodh.
Our first reaction on seeing Gyan-Bodh was, “Where’s the school?” All the happy little children who came running at us from the park pointed at a Shiv statue in he middle of the park with Gyan-Bodh written below it. That park was Gyan-Bodh.
As soon as we removed the guitars from the sheaths, there was a huge flurry of activity. ‘Bhaiyya, aap kahan se ho?’, ‘Bhaiyya, aap kya sikhao ge ?’ The excited little faces, their expectant countenances really made our day.
We taught them 2 songs that day. One was an oldie ,‘ Papa Kehte Hain’ and the other was ‘Woh Lamhe’. Language proved to be no barrier as a friend of ours who knew no language other than English played along with all of the kids. We also showed them how to strum on a guitar, something that they were all very excited to do.
The inquisitiveness of the children did not stop at the guitars though. Some of them commented on the way we sang, the way we played. They had a very acute sense of music, immediately pointing out that one of the guitars was a bit out of tune. There was this group of kids who were also very interested with our cameras. They were very excited when we told them that they were shooting a movie. They were very happy to be able to handle the guitars and the cameras. By the end, one of them was able to hold a simple chord, something that most of us take at least an hour to do.
Soon it was time to leave. Promising the kids that we would be back, listening to their numerous requests to make music lessons a regularity in Gyan-Bodh, we left.
But we will go back.
And we will sing, dance and laugh with the children.
And we want you to join us.
It is heavenly. To make little children smile. Experience it.
For more information please visit - http://www.nirmaan.org/page/Gyanbodh.aspx
Friday, 17 April 2009
THE BOOGEYMAN'S SYSTEM
Children at Gyan-Bodh Give them a reason to smile, for our future lies
We have been talking for ages now about bringing education to the under privileged children for years, but what we often don’t wonder is what the education that we are bringing, means to them. Often, the scary vision of a master with his cane ( banning of corporal punishment has not really changed much in the rural schools) or with a stern expression is enough reason for children to run away from school. And if that is not enough, the claustrophobia induced by the match-box like class rooms is something that would not exactly sit well with the children.
The free spirit of children is a power that should be used to promote the literacy drives and not against it. The fact is that added incentive in the form of creative activities that would really make a child exercise his creative side should be made a priority in the curriculum. The enthusiasm and interest that a simple smiling music or painting teacher can create is something that should be utilized to bring the drop-outs or the child laborers back to school.
Under the risk of sounding like an experienced septuagenarian, I would like to say that the Educational system needs a breath of fresh air.
And a couple of weeks earlier, we found just what it needed.
in their smile
The Indian Educational System, in all its vastness, is something that we have been cribbing about for decades now. With adjectives of a very large spectrum being applied to it, I think the true fair picture is something that one person cannot really paint. And I honestly do not have any intention to try. But being the responsible citizens of this nation as we are, I think it is our social responsibility to make suggestions about the same.
We have been talking for ages now about bringing education to the under privileged children for years, but what we often don’t wonder is what the education that we are bringing, means to them. Often, the scary vision of a master with his cane ( banning of corporal punishment has not really changed much in the rural schools) or with a stern expression is enough reason for children to run away from school. And if that is not enough, the claustrophobia induced by the match-box like class rooms is something that would not exactly sit well with the children.
The free spirit of children is a power that should be used to promote the literacy drives and not against it. The fact is that added incentive in the form of creative activities that would really make a child exercise his creative side should be made a priority in the curriculum. The enthusiasm and interest that a simple smiling music or painting teacher can create is something that should be utilized to bring the drop-outs or the child laborers back to school.
Under the risk of sounding like an experienced septuagenarian, I would like to say that the Educational system needs a breath of fresh air.
And a couple of weeks earlier, we found just what it needed.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
REACHING OUT
This is the story of an experience, and I would like to share it with the people all around us.
Staying in the middle of nowhere in Pilani as we do, the world for us often begins and ends with the walls of the institute. Venturing outside to the seemingly primitive village outside is definitely out of our comfort zone. So, when we did decide to step out of the cocoon of the Institute to do something for the local students of Gyan-Bodh, a few nervous glances and weird looks were not exactly out of order.
But before I go any further, what is Gyan-Bodh?
Gyan-Bodh. Like most BITS-ians, we used to have a rather vague idea about it. Maintained by some of the most down-to-earth and modest people in this campus, it has never truly been publicized for what it is. So, I guess I’ll be all the better if I began with introducing everyone to Gyan-Bodh.
Gyan-Bodh was the first venture by the NGO started by BITS-ians called NIRMAAN. It was started in 2005 with a view of tutoring the under-privileged local school kids in their studies and sometimes in skill oriented subjects. The other aims of this initiative was to reduce the school drop-out rates in the region (which are very high, especially among the local slum-kids) and popularize studies among the local children. This school began with an aim of catering to students of third to twelfth standard. It was started with an initial investment of only Rs.900 in a park just outside the BITS campus with the students as teachers. It was a rather unique model of education. At times it was to support the students who already went to school, but were weak in academics due to lack of proper support. At other times it was just to entice the non-school going children back to the realms of education, albeit in a rather informal way.
It was a thundering success. The children flocked like bees to this open-air school with its young teachers and friendly smiles. Suddenly, studies were fun again. The volunteers from NIRMAAN tireless in their efforts as usual created a structure of Project Leads, Assisstant Project Leads and volunteers so that there would be teachers to teach the kids on all the days. They also started going to the slums at a regular intervals to make sure more of the drop-outs at least came to the evening classes in Gyan-Bodh. For the school going children, a regular check-up with the school reports is a necessity. Surprisingly, as the concept gained popularity among the villagers, small brothers and sisters could be seen tagging along with the regular students to the classes.
And so we stand at the end of 4 years of the initiative. We were just onlookers, and as I said, till recently we were not even well aware of what Gyan-Bodh truly was. Today we know. It means change, it means sacrifice, it means patriotism, all in the shadow of the Bodhi tree of Education.
We salute these change makers.
For more information on Gyan-Bodh and the other activities of NIRMAAN, please log on to - http://www.nirmaan.org/page/Gyanbodh.aspx
Staying in the middle of nowhere in Pilani as we do, the world for us often begins and ends with the walls of the institute. Venturing outside to the seemingly primitive village outside is definitely out of our comfort zone. So, when we did decide to step out of the cocoon of the Institute to do something for the local students of Gyan-Bodh, a few nervous glances and weird looks were not exactly out of order.
But before I go any further, what is Gyan-Bodh?
Gyan-Bodh. Like most BITS-ians, we used to have a rather vague idea about it. Maintained by some of the most down-to-earth and modest people in this campus, it has never truly been publicized for what it is. So, I guess I’ll be all the better if I began with introducing everyone to Gyan-Bodh.
Gyan-Bodh was the first venture by the NGO started by BITS-ians called NIRMAAN. It was started in 2005 with a view of tutoring the under-privileged local school kids in their studies and sometimes in skill oriented subjects. The other aims of this initiative was to reduce the school drop-out rates in the region (which are very high, especially among the local slum-kids) and popularize studies among the local children. This school began with an aim of catering to students of third to twelfth standard. It was started with an initial investment of only Rs.900 in a park just outside the BITS campus with the students as teachers. It was a rather unique model of education. At times it was to support the students who already went to school, but were weak in academics due to lack of proper support. At other times it was just to entice the non-school going children back to the realms of education, albeit in a rather informal way.
It was a thundering success. The children flocked like bees to this open-air school with its young teachers and friendly smiles. Suddenly, studies were fun again. The volunteers from NIRMAAN tireless in their efforts as usual created a structure of Project Leads, Assisstant Project Leads and volunteers so that there would be teachers to teach the kids on all the days. They also started going to the slums at a regular intervals to make sure more of the drop-outs at least came to the evening classes in Gyan-Bodh. For the school going children, a regular check-up with the school reports is a necessity. Surprisingly, as the concept gained popularity among the villagers, small brothers and sisters could be seen tagging along with the regular students to the classes.
And so we stand at the end of 4 years of the initiative. We were just onlookers, and as I said, till recently we were not even well aware of what Gyan-Bodh truly was. Today we know. It means change, it means sacrifice, it means patriotism, all in the shadow of the Bodhi tree of Education.
We salute these change makers.
For more information on Gyan-Bodh and the other activities of NIRMAAN, please log on to - http://www.nirmaan.org/page/Gyanbodh.aspx
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