May29
The school started. These three words are so easy to write now, but there were many comma’s, question marks, semi-colons sometimes exclamatory mark s but never a full-stop between these three dreamy words. These days there are classes which teach how to-be a mother, how to tie a diaper etc etc, but my experience in running a school was that of a baby looking at three twin sisters, and deciding which is his real mother. The decisions had to be quick and correct, involving the village, the children, the society and the education system.
The village was riddled with Naxalism and just meters away the government had pumped in money to the tune of 100 crores to fight naxalism, cutting the branches of the problem not uprooting it. The peaceful words of the Guru carry high voltage of truth and the nature attunes itself, bows down to His eternal verities to align itself to His utterances. It happened. I saw it happyning J
With two committed teachers who decided to dedicate years of their life for this school, the school re-commissioned, the children slowly and steadily gained interest in different subjects, including chanting, Sanskrit, and we affiliated it to the National Open Schooling under the ICSE arm. Small girls and boys would wake up early morning and begin their journey, their destination some 4-5 kms away, but the dedication was deep and intense, the faith tremendous.
The day would start with folded hands to convey gratitude to the Lord, progress into the depths of science and floated upwards with spirited enthusiasm of football and volleyball. Within months 64 children were being reborn and induced with doses of maths, geography, science and our great valiant history. They wanted more, and soon there were small Dhoni’s and Bhutia’s giving brief appearances of hitting a four or a penalty corner on the mountain terrains of Aurwan Tand.
The blue school dress provided uniformity amongst the different caste systems prevalent, the prayers injected faith and sanskaar, the studies established the information, attitude, concepts and the love, instilled survival, care and trust. The school with no electricity, no water initially, became the great gesture of returns and seva that the society gifted to Aurwan Tand. They had dreamt. Now it was a reality.
Naxalism evaporated from this village, with many joining the mainstream, the water tap tapped our doorstep minus the water though, the CRPF took regular breaks in the evening over chai and mari biscuits and there has not been a single hunger death in over 4 years. Malnutrition melted away and we have muscular men and women in their early years to success. Set amidst the forests, the innocence of the villagers carry grace and humility. To reach this non-existent village, one has to travel 90 kms from Benares and if you can withdraw your attention from the scenic landscape, you might reach this tiny place.
With every single day, proving to be a challenge to the core yet the pillar of prosperity had been established and the sordid saga of this village and villages adjoining it, was vacuumed off by the great Guru. There are many real characters who made this sentimental series into a funny flicker. Shruti the principal, Ramavatar, Ramlal the teachers, Pavan, Anoop, Ruchi to name a handful. They were determined. They were undeterred. They were patient. Love Prevailed.
With whom, in the next post.
PS:- Anything else you want to know about this mission, u can email me.
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Never before entering this place had I thought that the kali Maa could be bewitchingly beautiful and would create an instant aura of faith and surrender. After Guruji departed Kolkatta, I wanted to fill the void with this temple visit where Sri RamKrishna Paramhans had broken all the traditions of bhakti from the intellect to igniting it in the heart. He was a non-conformist who constructed sensitivity in love, unfathomable faith, senseless simplicity and the great Vivekanada.
If you remember, 2 years ago SARS was blown out of proportion, what happened? Humans develop immunity to the virus, the same is going to happen, we develop immunity in due course of time, the virus is in the air, you can not stop it, our body is already developing the immunity so nothing to panic.
