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