I arrived around 10 a.m. on the morning of the “1 Day Volunteer Camp a.k.a Annual Volunteers’ Retreat” and as usual picked a corner chair by the window side while also ensuring that a wall-fan was near-by to keep me cool and sat comfortably looking forward to the rest of the day that had a lot in store for us.
Krishna, our anchor for the morning session, led things efficiently. As the Inaugural lamp was lit and the traditional YFS ‘anthem’, if I may so term it, was being sung, my mind gradually drifted back in time and I reflected on how and when my own journey with Youth for Seva had begun …
My first introduction to Youth for Seva happened during a routine conversation with a friend of mine, who is a very popular long-time volunteer herself here at the YFS Bengaluru Chapter – Deepa.
The entire world was going through a testing time during the Covid pandemic and one lockdown afternoon I saw a message from Deepa requesting for voluntary contributions from interested folks to temporarily support a family financially as it had lost its only bread-winner to the epidemic, while his two children were still a long way from completing their education.
Having seen our family and friends all safe despite the pandemic causing havoc all around us, I was glad when this opportunity arose where I could give back in a small way for all the good that had come my way.
After this, we got talking and she explained to me a bit about YFS and what they do. With a 25-year career in IT behind me, I was in a position to work mostly from home, so volunteering came across as a very attractive option for me to put my free time to the best possible use.
In my bucket list of things, one of the top goals was to try and be a teacher, even if it was only for a day. And this was not any fancy thing I wanted to do, but a genuine aspiration of mine as a way of paying respect to all my teachers in general and a few in particular, who, with their love and affection and parting with knowledge, not just the academic kind, but in a lot more aspects concerning life’s skills, had helped shape me to become what I am today.
NMMS was my obvious first choice to volunteer with as it meant I got to go into a school environment, meet and interact with kids and also challenge myself to always be abreast of the subjects that I was supposed to teach the kids so that I could explain the topics in the simplest and best possible way for them to grasp.
The applause that followed the inaugural song brought me back to reality. Smt. Arunmayee ji welcomed the guests and volunteers and explained briefly about the sessions that were planned for the day and who would be hosting each of those sessions.
The first of the sessions was by Shri. Ashwini Kumar ji, who started giving us an overview of the various projects that a volunteer could be part of in this segment, like teaching Basic Math & Science, Spoken English, enabling the 8th standard students to get scholarships by clearing the NMMS tests …
At the mention of NMMS, I started drifting back again in time, remembering those initial days as I started my much-awaited and hopefully illustrious teaching career, and the challenges I faced and the unforgettable learnings I picked up along the journey.
After a few internal discussions with Rohit, Varalakshmi,
and a few other senior volunteers who had been conducting NMMS classes for a while, I was finally assigned my first school in my vicinity to commence teaching NMMS topics to the kids. It was at “Srinagara Government Primary School” just a hop, skip, and jump away, literally, from my residence. I was really excited about it.
25 years in the corporate world, having handled customers from Japan to California, and all those skills and training could hardly have prepared me for Day 1 of my teaching career.
My first ever batch of NMMS students from Srinagara Government High School
The school had children from kindergarten to the 8th standard, but clearly lacked enough teaching staff strength to have at least one teacher to man each class throughout the day. So I found out that the 8th Standard students were also part-time kindergarten monitors and sometimes Physical Education teachers to lower-class kids.
And one bright young chap promptly approached me as I stood watching all the hullabaloo around me and said, “ಸರ್, ಇವತ್ತು ಕ್ಲಾಸ್ಸಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರಿಗೂ ಮೂಡ್ ಇಲ್ಲ, ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ನಾಳೆ ಇಂದ ಬನ್ನಿ ನೋಡೋಣ” (Sir, none in the class are in a mood to study today, so please come tomorrow and we shall see)
I stood there for nearly half a minute trying to digest what had just happened. And then and there, I got a clear idea of what I was up against. But the direct approach of the student made me chuckle with a genuine smile, rather than being angry at him.
Of course, the initial days were a good test of my patience and determination, and I was almost getting to know myself in third person, wondering if and whether I would emerge without going completely insane from this volunteering experience.
However, within the next six weeks, I had started engaging with two schools (Arasu Kumar High School, next door to my first school) and had 31 unique students to whom I was imparting knowledge, and had established a good personal rapport with both the school management and their teaching staff. But more than all that, I was content as I could connect with each of my 31 students not just by their names but having understanding their strengths and where they needed that extra push to discover their own potential.
This experience was both humbling and satisfying at the same time. By the end of the first year, I had spent several unforgettable moments with them, from celebrating festivals to going out for an evening of chats.
