The “Pratham” Experience

Now this has to be one of the best and the most fulfilling experience of my life. All thanks to my sweet friend Mr. X (Name not mentioned due to security issues.. he is too good and I don’t want him to be harassed by girls..:) ). Not that too many girls read my blog anyway… lol.. but just in case.

As a kid when we all dream to do something different and contribute to the society, even I had similar thoughts. These thoughts became more profound as I saw so many of my MBA friends in Toronto being active in contributing to the society and people around them. My friend X had been part of this NGO called “Pratham” in south Mumbai where they used to teach small children English & Computers.

I was interested in joining this NGO and I got that chance few weeks back. As we got out from the Taxi in the Masjid area in south Mumbai, we went through this tiny walkway “Galee” with small shops on both sides and a huge crowd. It was so bad that we had to walk like snails through that crowd. We finally reached the building which is called “Musafir Khana” (meant for people who are travelling via Mumbai and want to relax for sometime in the area of the Mosque). The Mosque had given the top floor of the building to this NGO. Obviously there was no lift, so we walked our way through the old building with those stone stairs. As we went inside all the kids (age 5 to 15) had already gathered and sitting on the floor with some of the other MBA students. They were too busy in their notebooks to even look at us.

My Friend X had plans to teach them India’s Pledge in English. Some of these kids already used to go to school and knew some ABC.. The room was like those old house rooms with stone flooring. we started sentence by sentence of translation of the pledge from Hindi to English. “India is my country; All Indians are my brothers & sisters”. The first thing to notice was many of us MBA graduates didn’t remember the pledge fully. However this fact re-enforced the urge to remember it and teach it to these kids.

The kids started on their note books and the most amazing thing I noticed was they were writing the pronunciations of those words in hindi below the English sentence. That was something they did on their own. It was helping them remember the pronunciations. Overall the 2 hours went in a jiffy.

The Sparkle in their eyes and their willingness to study so eagerly on a Sunday (when some people want to leave job early even on a Friday) was amazing to see. I truly enjoyed teaching them and wish to continue this and may be do something on larger scale.
I believe if we have the talent and some time, why not put it in a good cause. The pleasure and sense of satisfaction you would get then you see them standing in front of everyone and speaking the Pledge out in English would be much more than you can imagine.
Hope that more of us get involved in nourishing the true future of our country (i.e children)


“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. “

-William Butler Yeats

Questions in my mind

“Jor se bolo Jia Mata Di” “Sai Baba ki Jai” some of the enchanting we get to hear at various places in India which are of religious importance. This is common site Temples, Gurudwara, Masjids and all the other places of worship.

I have been thinking on this for quite a while but couldn’t find a way to explain it. I am trying to do that through this blog. Looking at thousands of people standing in the queue at Sai Baba temple or Tirupati temple, I wondered what was the outcome of these efforts other than some mental satisfaction? That too was taken away from the large queue and mental stress to even reach the temple. My friend who had gone for a trip to south for holiday also went to Tirupati. However his experience in Tirupati was the worst of all the places he visited. Reason again rush of people, wait times, lack of arrangements etc. Why do people spend so much time and energy waiting for a 10 second look at the image of the God or Goddess? The reason for getting this thought was “Law of conservation of energy”. This energy spent by lakhs of people everyday, what does it get converted in to? What happens to all this energy spent by those devotees of Shankar (called Kavidiyas in delhi) to walk barefooted to a city in North India? Similar are the cases in Maharashtra as well.

What if we could convert this energy in to something productive? How much energy will it generate to solve the energy issues India faces today? Is it even practical to think on these lines? Can people be made to do things which they are oblivious to?

I would love to know your views on this. Please note the more creative you get the better the result would be.

Keep Smiling J