I had the opportunity to visit the school and meet my 7th-grade students, for whom I have volunteered to teach English. My sincere thanks to , Poornima, State Lead of Karnataka, Class Assistant Bhagyashree, Field Coordinator Abdul, and eVidyaloka for coordinating with the school to make this possible. Abdul had made arrangements to give me a ride to the school from Sindhanur, the town nearest to Somalapura that has connectivity from Bengaluru. He picked me up from Sindhanur in his van to take me to the school, which is about 15 kilometres away. Since he had to unload some stationery and books from eVidyaloka to the schools in the cluster as part of his day’s plan, I got the bonus of visiting a school in Gorebalu, another village in the region. While Abdul was on his task at Gorebalu school, I spent this time having a good conversation with the Social Science teacher at that school. We reached Somalapura at about half-past eleven in the morning. As soon as we took the last turn onto the road where the school is located, I knew I was in the vicinity of the school, thanks to Google Maps using which one can virtually land on a street in any town or village and get a 360° view, which I had done by giving a virtual visit to Somalapura months ago!
As we entered the premises, I was greeted by one of the teachers whom Abdul introduced me to, and warmly welcomed by Bhagyashree, our Class Assistant. While my 7th-grade students were summoned by our Class Assistant to gather in our virtually familiar classroom that is actually located on the first floor, I used those few minutes to look around literally to get a view of the school. Yes, unlike the private schools that we are used to in our cities, it didn’t need more than just turning around at the same spot to get a view of the entire campus. Moments later, Bhagyashree led me to the classroom. Gayathri, one of the students, welcomed me at the door with a beaming smile and a pretty rose, followed by a “Good morning Sir” wishes from the students. I probably spent a couple of minutes just looking at their faces, the classroom, and then that large display screen that had virtually teleported me into the classroom every week. I think it was all slowly sinking into me. And, until now I had always imagined that the class was on the ground level. Frankly, I couldn’t recognize all the faces, so I started by trying to guess their names… and ended up having everyone tell me their names. I spent some time continuing the topic from where we had left off in my last class. While that was not part of the plan, within minutes I felt pleasantly different and realized that the screen was behind and not between. How I wished all of my classes were like this. There’s the saying “You can’t have a cake and eat it too,” but well, I was doing that now!
Then we had a fun time where one of the boys, Prithviraj sang a song, and the girls – who were supposed to be performing a dance – said some quotes they had made up. As we were getting closer to lunchtime, I knew I had to close soon. While I knew I was going to take some precious memories back home, I also wanted to leave something with them, so I gave away some goodies to each one and some words of advice to the class, and finally had some pictures taken with them before they departed for lunch. “A picture is worth a thousand words”
It all felt like as if an hour went by in a few minutes. While the children were having their lunch, I met the headmaster in the staff room where he invited me to join him and some of his staff for lunch, to which I wholeheartedly agreed. In the short time I spent at the school, I observed some cultural differences when compared to schools in the cities. A few students who had pulled me into a conversation earlier were referring to the students in the lower grades as their younger brothers. While some students helped out in tasks such as pulling water from the well within the premises, a few other students helped with setting up plates and serving food on the table. While I would not make any comments about it, I had a feeling that such activities can help reinforce the social life skills that children learn at home, and easily adapt themselves to environments outside one’s home, and it might be all fair and good as long as some lines are not crossed. A visit to Somalapura is not complete without visiting the temple of Amba Devi – their village deity – and “having a darshan”, or taking the blessings so to speak. I had just enough time to visit the temple that was about 4 km away from the village and return to the railway station in Karatagi on time to board my train to Bengaluru.
The highlight of my journey back to the railway station was the ride in the driver’s seat of an auto with 9 other passengers in a 6-seater and another auto ride with 12 passengers! It was truly a memorable visit to the school and these memories will remain with me for years to come. This also allowed me to unwind from my regular work schedules and travel to places that I would not have otherwise considered, not to mention the life experience that comes with it. Even the little pieces of information that you find on the way or hear from folks you meet along the way, like the auto driver by my side or the CRP at the school, make you that much richer in the knowledge that we gain every day. It must have been an hour since my train had left the station.
While I sat sipping one more cup of chai by the window looking at the green paddy fields and the thought of how I would kill the remaining 13 hours of my journey alone running in my head, as the train went around a curve, I could see this beautiful sunset painting the train with a colour of gold, and I kept watching this ever-changing scenery until the sun disappeared below the horizon.
Shivaprasad, Volunteer Teacher