Long ages ago - when Blackberry wouldn't advertise, Rakhi Sawant was a minor nuisance, Ali couldn't get married - I had written a post about "Vakola ke Chiraag".Today, it gives me great pleasure to share that it is done ! :)
we took our first class on 5th of October 2010, and we have had classes every weekday since then....thats a solid 2 months of tremendous support and commitment from my colleagues in APL.
The support from my friends in Asian Paints has been simply amazing !
They have supported me and held me to account.
Whenever I have had the silent, sinister urge to just take it easy for a while and let things drift they have jerked me back to the game that we are upto, the difference we are out to make.
Its a team of 15 teachers now (3 every day - 1 each for class 4, 5 and 6) and there are 15 to 18 students who turn up regularly...
From what we have heard from other well established NGOs doing similar stuff we must have done a real great job to have kept the students interested for so long.........and yes, there is still a long way to go.....we need to keep on figuring out how to teach Maths to these predominantly Tamil medium students......how do we start making English more real and easy for them......and so on.....and we are on it......we are making progress....and in each class we are making a difference, how so ever slight, how so ever minuscule, but it is a grain in the right direction......
We have also had one meeting with an amazingly energetic lady by the name of Prachi Mangaonkar who is with an NGO called Akanksha who in half an hour's time made it quite clear for me as to what needs to be done...
I am attaching here a couple of pics I took in today evening's class.......the only adults u see in these pics are Gopal M V (he has never missed a class !) and Kiran (our 1st teacher) from my office and Nagappa Ji, a a man held in great esteem by the community these kids come from and who offered us the temple premises and set this teaching thing going..................more to come as we roll along....
P.S. - Darn !!!! I still dont know how to arrange the pics in my blog......guess i just have to wait for that level of enlightenment for a while.....
