95% of people I know today (I know awfully lot), are not living the lives they want to, they dreamed of, they thought of. Shamelessly I am one of them. Most are entangled in the web of Comfort, Status Quo and mainly Security. Rest plainly just don't know what they want.
Luckily and accidentally I met one who is not ashamed to live her own life. The one she wants. Being an alumnus of AIESEC, I happened to meet this ex-intern (Swiss) who is now living in Jaipur to help a few ignored lot make a better future. Make India Shine.
Couple of days back, I went to this pre-school run solely by her in a slum where its hard to find a decent place to breathe, let alone conduct a pre-school for very young unprivileged (only by money) kids. Thanks to Shashaank who I tagged along with. We were there for three hours amidst 30 kids, 3 teachers, 2 outsiders (me and shash) and Regulla Willi a.k.a Regi.
Class was divided into many parts from imparting general knowledge to dance music to crafts (being a Saturday). Some of the kids seemed awfully bright.
Adnan, this 3-4 year old child was a rockstar, setting stage alive with his dance moves.
Arjun, possibly the brightest one, not to mention most notorious, makes Sculptures for living.
Khushi, the sweetest takes care of her toddler brother thru the day being 4-5 years herself.
Shankar, 2-3 years old boy with two rabbit ears dressed in hip hop clothing and never standing still.
Luckily and accidentally I met one who is not ashamed to live her own life. The one she wants. Being an alumnus of AIESEC, I happened to meet this ex-intern (Swiss) who is now living in Jaipur to help a few ignored lot make a better future. Make India Shine.
Couple of days back, I went to this pre-school run solely by her in a slum where its hard to find a decent place to breathe, let alone conduct a pre-school for very young unprivileged (only by money) kids. Thanks to Shashaank who I tagged along with. We were there for three hours amidst 30 kids, 3 teachers, 2 outsiders (me and shash) and Regulla Willi a.k.a Regi.
Class was divided into many parts from imparting general knowledge to dance music to crafts (being a Saturday). Some of the kids seemed awfully bright.
Adnan, this 3-4 year old child was a rockstar, setting stage alive with his dance moves.
Arjun, possibly the brightest one, not to mention most notorious, makes Sculptures for living.
Khushi, the sweetest takes care of her toddler brother thru the day being 4-5 years herself.
Shankar, 2-3 years old boy with two rabbit ears dressed in hip hop clothing and never standing still.
Surprisingly, every kid there was known in out to Regi and every kid knew her. They liked her, they talked to her, and they wanted to play with her. Given, that communication was limited to very lil hindi and mostly gestures.
At one point I couldn’t help but feel ashamed of myself being same blood and sitting like a goon whereas an outsider understood what my country really needs. At that point of time I wanted to stab every relative and friend I know who had gone abroad to earn money. It was guilt about fretting at nonsenses in life, when actual problems are the ones which I saw then.
People like Regi don’t go through all this. They do what their calling is. They are the ones who deserve page one on newspaper.
Before being at that place, Shashaank had mentioned to me that he couldn’t stop smiling ear-to-ear while he was there the first time. Well, I couldn’t stop smiling either. The place does it for you.
Just in case any of the sane heads out their anywhere in the world want to help out this lady (she got no sponsors, no government aids) carry on her cause, in anyway (volunteer, sponsor, in-cash, in-kind, teach) please drop in a mail to me at vandanamakhariaATgmailDOTcom, and I promise your contribution would all be worth every penny!
