There has been three trips to Roldih, Jharkhand already this year. In the first week of January Siddharth and me, we took Ingrid Barcelos, the Brazilian volunteer with us to the project to settle her down there. For me it was hectic because all through the mornings I took English classes alternating between classIII and IV trying to finish their syllabus and also partly revise the old chapters. Ingrid took to the project like fish to water and settled down quickly. 26th January, our Republic Day was celebrated by hoisting the flag and distributing sweets to the children. Saraswati Puja was celebrated also and children were given sweets and savouries. There was an idol this year and the village women came and prayed in front of the goddess with new rice in the Lokenath Baba temple. The goddess was immersed in the Haripur river with much enthusiasm by the children.
The next trip Siddharth, Sreyash, a budding lawyer and me went in the first week of February. This time also there was a flurry of activity as far as English classes went. Last time I had explained to Ingrid how to go about the preparation process for the final exam and she did a good job of it over the month she stayed. On Saturdays, Ingrid had a free hand and she played with the kids and played them music which she had brought with her. Some of our ex students came to visit us before giving their board exams. It is a strange thing but it seems they passed out of class IV from our school(Baba Gyan Mandir) and studied in private, taking tuitions for one year and were appearing for the Class X board exams this year. This shows the quality of education in our school is far above the standard of the surrounding areas. One day Ingrid,Sreyash,Bhola and me made a trip to the Cheo project up on the hills. We passed Paharpur also an old Dakshinayan centre. In Cheo the kids there were having their class outdoors as it was very cold and the sun was quite welcome. The sad news is that Dakshinayan is closing Cheo due to financial restraints but the good news is that, they(Ramnath and Chandrama) are managing to keep the school running from village contribution.
The third trip was in the last week of February and it was mainly for the final exams. The whole week was taken up by the exams and correcting the papers afterwards. On 2nd February we gave out the results. Some passed and some failed which is the rule of life. There was a lot of clapping for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd students. It was a happy day as, in those areas, there is not much of a stigma attached to failure in class and most of the failed students repeat another year and come out on top the next year.
