What's cooking offline?

‘I wonder what’s cooking online. What are my friends upto? Has somebody shared something interesting? Who is getting how many likes?’ These are a few thoughts which fly across some students who are  into Facebook.

I am not writing this to crib about Facebook, but to share my experience of volunteering for Disha, a student organization.  Disha conducts ‘Spread the smile’, an outreach program for kids in villages near Pune. It aims to motivate kids to learn - the fun way. It is through simple experiments and games they are taught the concepts which they felt familiar only in the cramped lines of textbooks.

You must be wondering, why I wrote about Facebook in the beginning. Volunteering for Spread the smile was an exit into the reality: away from the Pseudo-walls of Facebook, the pages of books, the sluggish weekends and from the virtual reality.

I had a few wonderful experiences in Ambavne, the village we visited. We started with teaching kids—how to make their own hand pump. We asked them how and why it worked the way it did. Other activities included making a motor, paper cup telephone etc. 

“The Science labs are just for name-sake show off. It is all blanketed with dust” said a student pointing at a room which is supposedly a Science lab.

A few kids seemed to be very interested in all the activities. Here are a few photos:

As the Sun’s heat plummeted, traditional chulhas smoked dried wood, leaving kitchen in smoke clouds. Meanwhile, the village elders were involved in their usual chat near Panchayat building. As stars shone one by one in the sky, the kids started showing up one by one near Primary school building. Surprisingly, a few (more than expected) elders also assembled. It was show time for kapil, a volunteer who carried his telescope to show kids, the vast ocean of secrets and awe right above us—the night sky. It was a star gazing session. Kids were very energetic and often over enthusiastic: a guy almost pushed the telescope down.

With this, we retired for the day. We woke up to the birds chirping. After completing our morning ablutions, we stepped out to know the village—its social structure, places, people, traditions etc. We were escorted by the village Sarpanch, who had been very supportive since the beginning.

As we walked through a few lanes, we could not miss to notice women mopping their houses, young girls creating traditional rice flour designs on dung paste spread in front of their houses. Hens which were just let out of an inverted handmade basket ran around leaving their footprints on the designs. Perfume of incense rented air. It was a pleasant start for the day.

“People of different castes doing different jobs live in separate groups in this village” said Sarpanch, pointing at a potter’s house.

Chulhas, pots and idols of Lord Ganesh which smelled of fresh clay could be seen outside the house. As we approached, the potter showed us how they make idols.

We then moved on to the other side of the village where child labour was prevalent in a brick kiln.

“Don’t click photos. You will complain that we are making our kids work” said a worker, when I was clicking photos of the kids working.

I had no idea what I could do for the kids. I am sure we have written and read about problems like this for exams, blogs etc. But, what could I have done? If they send the kids to school, they will have less money to feed them. If they don’t, the kids will be illiterate. It is a sad tradeoff.

“There are many big problems which we may not be able to solve. Problems like child labour are complicated. We should try solving small problems first” suggests a volunteer back in Disha meeting held at IISER.

“So..uh…what did you learn from this program?” I asked my co-volunteers.

“The way my brother grows up in Pune city is completely different from the way these kids do…” said Sofiya.

 Ambarish, Kapil and Mihir (volunteers) also shared what they felt about the program. It was a unique experience for all of us.

It definitely changed a few things in my life. Lately, I wonder—what’s cooking offline, in the real life.

PS: I urge you to try volunteering for Disha. I am sure there is lot to teach     and even more to learn. Your weekend would be worth spending, doing something useful. For more info, visit Disha’s blog.