Our smallest school is not close to the main road. You have to drive down narrow streets and winding roads, beyond the Samosa/Chai Shop, beyond the beautiful trees and pasture area, beyond the cricket field, and around one more curve, and then you arrive at Kanchanpur. I arrived there this morning ready to take some photos.
The community is spread out, where the houses aren’t all in one central area. I could see a few bamboo structures further down the lane. Across from the large junk pile, I entered Kanchanpur Paathshala. The kids weren’t used to seeing me, so they were mostly shy. Still, all 18 of them greeted me, “Hello, Ma’am”. My days are usually spent with the screen of my laptop or phone, so I was very excited to see our sweet beneficiaries. These sweet smiling faces were ready to learn. Since it’s summer here and the humidity is high, I began to sweat the moment I arrived. “That’s okay,” I thought, “This girl can take the heat and humidity!”
They did their usual morning assembly, and I taught them the game of Simon Says. These eighteen kids were excited to learn the game. When I said, “Simon bolta hai: kood,” (Simon बोलता है: कूद) they all started jumping. But when I said, “Rooko,” (रूको) they stopped. "But I didn’t says Simon says (Simon बोलता है)." I quickly realized the kids still didn’t fully understand. That was okay, though; it was a new game. We went on for a few more rounds, clapping, marching and standing on one foot, before they divided into their classes.
By this time, my shirt was half-soaked in sweat. The sun wasn’t bearing down the heat, but the humidity made it uncomfortable. It was only 10 AM. Their school day was just getting started, and the kids looked as comfortable as could be. The teachers began teaching and I started taking photos and videos. My creative mind started to work, even amidst all of the sweat. Heat tends to make my mind run slower. I looked over and saw that Sonu Sir was teaching his kids the Hindi alphabet. In between chota u (उ) and bada oo (ऊ), he started using the Hindi poster as a fan for the children. Since there was no other such fan, I marvelled at how thoughtful he was. The kids, often some of the hardest workers in the classroom, now had access to a fan because of their teacher.
One kid asked him to check her work. Sonu Sir put down the poster and corrected her matras (Hindi vowel symbols). Then he told her to try again and went back to being a human fan. Another kid asked for his attention; she had done well but had forgotten the vowel am (अं). Sonu Sir turned his fan back into the Hindi alphabet poster and showed her which vowel needed to be added in between ao (औ) and a: (अ:). She studied the chart hard and then went back to writing it in her notebook. And once again Sonu Sir and chart turned into a fan.
I was drenched in sweat by this point, but I hardly noticed. The scene before me was too sweet. I just marvelled at how these teachers do this every day for hours. Without central AC, no window air conditioners and currently no fans working, these two teachers meet our kids with smiles each day, to help them learn their Hindi and English alphabets. These days of slogging through the sweat are laying the foundations for reading and writing in two different languages. And I think the funniest part is that the kids wouldn’t think anything of it. This is the only normal they know. But for me, who gets the luxury of a window AC when I work, I notice the sweetness beyond the sweat.
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