Going Away

I’m going to be away for quite a few days, I told them. I may be gone 10 days or even two weeks. I’ll leave next weekend. Perhaps I should declare a two-week Durga Puja holiday?

No! No! They were all horrified. We just want two days off on the 27th and 28th for Navami and Dussehra. School should remain open on all the other days.

But I won’t be here, I protested. Who’s going to teach? There’s no one else!

We’ll continue to teach the smaller children Guruji. And we can always do some self study. There’s a lot to write. We haven’t been doing much writing of late. Please Guruji, don’t declare a holiday.

Sounds unreal, doesn’t it? Children not wanting a holiday even during festivals? But these are very special children from Baba Gyan Mandir. And the scene I’m describing took place this morning.

It’s true. I’m going away for a couple of weeks. I need a break. Too much has happened in the past two months and I need to get away to recharge myself and also reorganize my priorities. So I thought that this would be a good time to do it. Durga Pujas start from the 24th and last till the 28th. There’s Laxmi Puja on the 30th followed by Gandhi Jayanti on the 2nd. Many schools are going to be closed for these festivals and so I thought why not our school too? I’ll be away. And since Suman and I are the only people left on the project, it makes sense to close down the place for a few days. To the children, however, it does not make sense.

Yes, Suman is back. His “family issues” have not been sorted out in his favour. In fact, he has no family at all. His wife has left him and is living with another man. His cousins would rather not have him back in the village to stake claim to whatever little land he has. The ashram is the only refuge he has. So he’s back “home”. I’ve asked him to treat this place as such and live here in peace. I’m happy to have him back, especially as everyone else seems to have abandoned me!

For reasons known only to them, both Khagen and the new boy, Bijoy came to me on Wednesday evening, touched my feet and said we are leaving. When will you be back? I asked. We won’t be back. We are quitting. What could I say? So I opened the gate and let them go.

I called Bhola to ask if he knew anything about all this. He said no. He was just as shocked. When he asked them why they had quit, they said they had quit because I had yelled at them. On any other day, this may have been true. I don’t deny that I lose my cool and yell and scream at times. But definitely not on that day! It had been pouring rain since the night before and I hadn’t had any interaction with either of them except at lunch. And even then I had hardly spoken to them. So there must have definitely been some other reason why they left. The truth will reveal itself eventually, I suppose.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Everything is going smoothly. Suman is managing the work of the project pretty well. With the help of the children I am managing the school well too! Raiman and Prahlad are teaching in Nursery, Radha and Anjana in Class One and Kartik and Lalita in Class Two. Once in a while I sneak to peek to see how they are doing. And believe me, they are doing very well.

I had expected attendance to have dropped. But on the contrary, it has picked up! It had gone down to about 77 a week ago. It’s now climbed back. It was 82 yesterday. Today it was 83. Not bad!

The weather has been very wet all of this week. It has rained and rained throughout the week. Sometimes there were strong winds that threatened to blow away the tin roofs. Fortunately, that did not happen. In fact, we’ve been experiencing monsoon weather now when it’s too late. The paddy does not need rain at this point. It’s time for the sun to help them grow and ripen. Much of the maize crops have been destroyed by the gales. So the bumper maize crop we had expected will not happen. Since we planted late, our little maize patch is safe. We’ll probably get to eat a few “bhuttas” soon.

For me it has been a very depressing week. The apathy of the community towards the project and the lack of reliable and honest staff support has really depressed me. I’ve been wondering why I need to run a project in this godforsaken place. Thirty years is a long time and I have been feeling that I have done more than most people. It’s time to move elsewhere. But the response I got from the children this morning when I wanted to declare a holiday certainly cheered me up. I realize my time here has not been ENTIRELY wasted. I am now hopeful that the school will continue even if I decide to go away.

Snakes Don't Follow Calendars

I wish I could start this blog entry on a cheerful note. But I just had a visit from Ramnath. He had come by to hand in the monthly report for Cheo Centre. We talked about Cheo and life in general. We are the only two “originals” left in Dakshinayan. Unfortunately, however, our conversation left both of us feeling despondent at the end of it. He’s gone now.

Ramnath was feeling a bit low to begin with because he has recently lost three buffaloes which he had left with someone in Roldih for safekeeping. This is standard practice with people living in the hills. They leave their cattle with villagers living in the plains. In return the caretaker either gets to keep a calf or gets paid a fee.

Unfortunately, the man who was taking care of Ramnath’s buffaloes lost five animals – three of them belong to Ramnath and the other two belong to someone else in the village. He’s been trying to locate them for the past two months without much success. In such cases, the caretaker will have to pay Ramnath for the lost cattle. But since he is a very poor man, Ramnath has lost hope of recovering anything. Each buffalo would be worth at least 10,000 rupees. It would take the caretaker a life time to repay the amount. It took Ramnath, a lifetime's saving to acquire the three buffaloes!

To cheer him up, I asked him how his daughter and son were doing in college. He said they were doing fine. But he regrets sending them to college. He says that he is observing that instead of becoming better people, the children who get an education are becoming corrupt. Ramnath’s village, Garhsingla, has the maximum number of educated Paharias in this region. In fact, Ramnath’s eldest son, his brothers and cousins are all teachers. He’s very upset that his own son and his own brothers are not doing what they are being paid to do. They are just drawing fat salaries and not teaching. He is disgusted because these people are supposed to be teaching children from their own community -- the Paharias, considered a primitive and diminishing tribe!

Ramnath says I can understand a non-tribal teacher not wishing to come and live in the hills and teach our children. But when educated people (whoget pass marks by paying a bribe anyway) from within our own community don’t bother to teach our own children; how can we expect any progress or development? He is extremely disappointed with his own son and Suryanarain, his cousin.

Suryanarain used to be a teacher at the Cheo centre. He was a very good teacher. Unfortunately, we could not afford him at one point. So he left the organization but continued to teach in Garhgama, a village further into the interior. The village would collect money to pay him an honorarium. Because of his good work, he was later appointed as a teacher for the government-run literacy centre that was started in Garhgama. And that was the end of Suryanarain’s enthusiasm to teach! He now stays at home and goes to the block office to draw his salary every month. Ramnath and he get into frequent arguments over this.

I was telling Ramnath that the situation in and around Roldih is not different. The teachers in the government schools are from the community that they are supposed to teach. But don’t do their job. But does the community appreciate it if someone does their job? I said, the local folks don’t seem to notice that Dakshinayan is providing their children with world-class education. But what do they notice? That we have stopped giving the kids the weekly shampoo sachets! As if that’s the only reason why the kids come to school!

Fortunately, the children are a lot more sensible than their parents. Today was Teacher’s Day. I was quite pleasantly surprised when the kids came and touched my feet and gave me presents! I was about to tell them it’s not my birthday, when I realized why. It’s nice that they remembered. Later, at assembly, when I asked if they wished me to declare it a holiday (that’s what happens in other schools), with one voice they said no! So we had regular classes today.

School is doing fine. The Class 4 kids are doing a great job. Khagen, who was a bit wary initially, also grudgingly admits that the students are very good teachers. That makes me feel so proud. They are "my products”! They teach the way I do. But they are “nicer”. I’m the nasty guy who is called by the new teachers to hand out threats like – Obey your teachers! If you don’t bring your homework tomorrow, you’re out!

As a reward for being such good and cooperative students, I am showing them movies during breaks and sometimes after school. So far I’ve shown them the Ramayana (cartoon) and Tare Zameen Par… Next week I’ll show them Hanuman and a few Satyajit Ray movies made especially for children – the Feluda series of detective stories and the Goopi Gayeen trilogy. Most of the kids understand Bengali. I’m sure they’ll enjoy the movies. Unfortunately, most of the moives are black and white. I’ve asked all my friends to send me CDs or DVDs of good English movies – Born Free, Sound of Music… etc, etc… It will help the kids learn their English. I only wish I had a wider display screen.

Bhola told me that after Naag Panchami, the snakes disappear. I believed him. But I should have known better. Yesterday, we killed yet another snake – a viper this time. As usual, it was Bruni who pointed it out to us. It was trying to climb onto my veranda. I guess this snake did not know Naag Panchami was over! Usually it gets fairly chilly at nights by this time. But this year has been different. In fact, in September we are experiencing the kind of weather that we get in July. The snakes don’t obviously follow man-made calendars. Neither do the mosquitoes here. They should be disappearing now. But instead they seem to have proliferated and also developed a mean bite!

Another sad news is that Suman had to go back to his village because of some family issues. He owns a bit of land in his native village and he needs to be there to protect his property. Someone tried to sell it off behind his back. Also, it seems his wife may be divorcing him. He came to this area because of his marriage. Now since his marriage is not working out, he has probably decided to go back for a while and figure out what he wants to do next. The poor guy must be in terrible mental agony and turmoil. I do wish I could do something to solve his problems. I can help him protect his property if necessary. But I can’t mend his broken heart. That is something he has to sort out for himself. So I had to let him go. I’ve asked him to come back. He has promised to do so once he has sorted out his family issues. I am missing him terribly.

Bhola just brought in someone new – Bijoy. Another lad from a poor family who struggled hard and got himself some basic education. He’ll be good company for Khagen, who has been looking rather lost since Suman left. He just arrived a little while ago. I hope he will work out. So as you see, things are always in a state of constant flux here.

The weather is strange. At times it is really very hot and dry. Then it turns hot and humid. And right now, instead of autumn weather, it seems like July! It’s raining off and on and quite copiously too. Everything gets damp and cold when it does. At the moment it is blowing hard. It looks like lots of rain. And it is somewhat chilly! I may have to sleep indoors tonight. I’m not looking forward to that.