A differently fulfilling hour

Sunday evenings, on the dot.... exactly 5 pm I'll hear the door bell ring ...my group of students for spoken english.  Unbelievable just how consistently punctual they are.

This was something I started a few months back, started with just three kids, Ramesh, Yogi and Pranit...... and that grew to five..... and now to seven.

The English apart, it has such unexpected wonderful moments.

The nice surprise was when Veni, Pranit's mother said, "madam, nenu kuda raavacha, vutti vintaanu "(can I also come, I won't disturb, I will only listen)

I could only look at her with awe. "Ofcourse, and why only listen...... if I have to learn football, they will be teacher and me the student, if I have to learn rangoli, you will be teacher and I the student....age doesn't matter, so of course come, and fully participate"

It's two weeks back that Vishnu and Bhaskar (Pandu) joined. Bhaskar is so shy, that leave alone talk, I won't see even expression on him, at best I'll hear a whisper when I talk to him. Second week, I sat him down next to me, and asked :

"so tell me, what do your friends call you?"

Bhaskar

"what do your teachers call you?"

Bhaskar

"what do your parents call you?"

Pandu

"what would you like me to call you?"

His face literally lit up with that shy and yet uncontrollable wide smile as he said "Pandu maam". Those are moments to die for.

And now even when they see me on the road, they will make sure they talk atleast that one sentence in English, giving me occasion for that one more smile.

Another picture, me included :)

While the explicit purpose is English, there's so much more that one can do in a group such as this. Widen horizons, enable aspirations, share culture, have fun......it's all there, and each of these holds good as much for me, as for them.