As i had received a message to attend the induction program of the times of India initiative TEACH INDIA i set out to go to haleguddadahalli , padrayanapura community center which was the office of Oasis NGO .
I can call it a day of realization , I don't know about other people ,but being born and bought up in Bangalore i used to claim that i know this city so well ,but today that belief was completely shattered.
Just as i crossed the vijaynagar pipeline road the trauma started , those very narrow roads and overflowing garbage everywhere but that is ok as some of the roads i have traveled before were like that.
But We could not find our way to the community center as none knew the address and thankfully a NGO representative asked to come to some nearby place and she picked us up from there and took us to the community center thanks to her.
Where we were briefed about the activities of the NGO and as me and my friend were choosing weekend option to teach they advised that we could opt for computer education or teaching math for school drop outs which we blissfully agreed.
Then they told us that Oasis was conducting a medical camp near by and asked us to have a look at it , we just nodded our head and just followed there came the jatka!!
Oh my god i just can't believe it , as we walked trust me the roads were so narrow that only one person could walk and on either side there was open drainage with some DDT spread all over , and oh i felt something touch my head ugh it was those clothes hanging down from the a thread hanging between two houses which were not more than 10 by 10 in size and there were at least 10 heads popping out to see us and the same place also hosted some ingredients to make incense sticks which filled half the room the rest half by those 10 people , the road never seemed to end!!!
On the way had to jump over a open drainage which had decided to cross the road with no one bothering to cover it. Then finally we did see the place where the medical camp was going on which was so damn crowded and people were literally fighting to get their turn , we excused ourselves giving some lame reason and then just ran away from the place i just could not talk for sometime, i was so shocked as i never expected the other face of this silicon city of India where i had spent 22 years of my life to be like this.
It really made me think for the first time about life , when we keep cribbing so much for small problems there are so many people who are living in such conditions, how insignificant are those when there are these people whose major problem is how to earn next meal for the family ,I was so damn guilty later for excusing myself from entering the medical camp.
So thank you Times of India it was truly an eye opener , Where teach India is a great initiative as education is the greatest gift anyone can give and I'm sure it will help make their lives better.
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Good article
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem with every big city in India. Take the case of the economic capital of India. "dhaaraavi "is probably the biggest slum you get in India.
ReplyDeleteAll social evils are behind this huge difference between the standards of living between the two classes of people. Somehow these slums provide some kind of shelter to the deprived.
The only solution would be to educate these people and by providing employment that matches the rate of education. Education is probably the only way out. The awareness can counter the population explosion which is the root cause of all the other social evils.
Teach India is a great concept from the ToI stable. However, the biggest challenge that the group now faces is to keep the intensity - Already we have seen shoulders drop, and many volunteers are giving up. The challenge is to keep them motivated - motivated enough to sustain the movement for a few years at the very least. ToI with most of it's initiatives like LeadIndia, tends to start off something good, but expects the people to sustain the movement, all the while milking the initiative for their good. It would be a shame if the same happens with Teach India.
ReplyDeleteI found this blog through http://deepthiprasad.blogspot.com/
I presume that the entries about Teach India on both these blogs are talking of the same experience, although they are through the viewpoints of two individuals?