THOSE DAYS !!!

It was the 7th semester of my college days and I was still making plans what to do in these winter vacations. I didn’t want to go home and sleep the holidays off. Some of my friends were busy making plans for Goa and enthusiastically asked (or rather bullied) me for the trip. But I was looking for something different. So what could have that been!! I came to know of SIDH, a Mussoorie based NGO my alumnus Pawan was running. Immediately I was very eager to go and after some talking decide to work with this NGO and reached their center in Mussoorie, enroute downhill to Kempty fall in a small village called Bodhigram. The next day I came to meet Pawan who left it to me to decide what sort of help I can provide him. SIDH was involved in lot of activities like running a school to holding youth-brainstorming sessions, swadeshi promotion activities and some training program for unskilled local youth in order to help them find a means of living. I finally decided to help them with their library and classrooms. They wanted to develop a cross-referenced database of the books and I helped them with it. Sounds fancy, isn’t it? The classes were no easy joke because I had to teach maths to 9th class students in Hindi!! I have had some of initial schooling in hindi medium school so I didn’t have much difficulty in coping with the classes although sometimes it sounded funny to call power as ghaat, reciprocal as vyutkram, fraction as bhinn and brackets as koshthak!!







Those days were spent in an ideal fashion. So some class-teaching, some database work and the whole evening was free. On every evening I went to Kempty fall and soon I knew each and every corner of Kempty fall. The coolness of the atmosphere was a very soothing and long needed one. To break the monotony of repetition I visited some of the neighbouring villages where I later discovered much of the beauty lay. Then there were surrounding villages with full of beautiful ponds with a no. of fishes in it and scenic beauties. The village on its own had made arrangements for its daily chores such one of the villages I visited had installed a natural aata-chakki (wheat crusher) which was driven using a stream of water somewhat like in dams.

The day temperature was generally cold and so not taking bath daily was general routine, something I loved ;). SIDH School had enrolled its students in board examinations. School was doing ok I guess and commanded a lot of respect in the villages. May be the villagers had dreamt of a better life of their children thanks to this NGO. It had given them hope and so even if certain failures are on the way, they felt someday someway their children are going to make it. I was there when the board results were declared for them. It was probably the 7th day of my stay and I had nearly mixed with most of the students. The NGO was enthusiastic enough to send someone uphill to Mussoorie to check the results on the internet. As results of each and everyone was being announced subject wise there were peals of laughter, anxiety, commotion, sorry state. It would be long to write all the experiences but I really did learn something from those children instead.

There were some of the fantastic memories I am still reminded of when I remember of Mussoorie. At the NGO everyone was supposed to wash their own dishes after eating. I still remember that icy cold water in the night with which I had to wash the utensils. Then the girls, they were like the typical innocent girls I had seen only in movies. They used to laugh every often on some reasons unknown. Whenever they laughed in front of me, they often shook their fist or clutched their finger in between their teeth, and I thought that such girls had ceased to exist (no offence meant for the better members of the same group). Then I still remember the melodious local pahadi song these girls sang to me and my friend, although I could make out only some portions of it. I still remember one of the songs which went like, “Thando re thando mharo pahado ki hawa thandi paani thando…..”. I also witnessed the snow falling on mountains, played in snow with my friend and school kids.

SIDH sent me along with some teachers and children to a meditation camp to understand and take a feel of meditation. The meditation center was located in an isolated corner of Dehradun. The silence of the place, a small and silent brook flowing nearby all caught my attention and it was one of the perfect places wherein you can relax your mind to think about whatever you want to. Those too were another unique experience for me but let’s save that for future blogging.

Then I remember meeting Claire and Edward, both from England. Claire was in Mussoorie to practice meditation while Edward was there to learn Hindi and in turn took English classes. I told them about most of the Indian cultures, customs and practices and they told me about general lifestyle in England. Edward had a sort of funny reason for learning Hindi. He was to marry in about a year or so and his fiancé was an Indian hailing from Punjab. He was concerned that in the marriage he might be at a loss not to be able to speak to her relatives in Hindi so he decided to learn Hindi and trust me he …was doing well. I invited them to visit my campus before leaving for England and Edward did.

Finally after a month with SIDH, with schoolchildren, with Claire, with Edward I left for my home carrying a gamut of experiences I won’t forget my entire life. Have you ever had the feeling when you expected nothing and you had been over stuffed. With the same cosy feeling I departed wishing to come back but I don’t know if ever I will get to go back!!