The students of this school may up and move anytime, but the teacher will stay Pronoti Datta | TNN
Ramesh Joshi hasn’t watched a film in over a year. On the rare occasion he’s free, the 18-year-old Virar resident permits himself to glimpse movie clips on the internet or listen to some bhangra. The rest of the day goes in long journeys on the train, attending Siddharth College, coaching teenagers as part of Akanksha’s social leadership programme and teaching street kids. “I like to be busy all the time,’’ he explains with a gravity that matches his prematurely grey hair. “An empty mind is the devil’s workshop.’’
Joshi’s missionary zeal to educate underprivileged kids led to Ashayein, a year-old project that involves teaching street children at Churchgate and Worli. The initiative is part of Youth Ventures, a programme that mentors 27 social entrepreneurs by giving them fellowships of Rs 10,000 to act on causes dear to them. Does his absence of a social life bother him? “When I serve people, I get a different kind of energy,’’ he says with a self-effacing quality that’s uncommon for someone his age.
It was only natural that Joshi chose to work with street kids. As a supervisor of a construction site at Cuffe Parade, his father helped poor children in the area get into schools. The student decided to take up where his father had left off and began to scout around for kids to teach. He zeroed in on a group of children who live across Fashion Street near Churchgate and a bunch that calls the area behind Worli’s Adarsh Nagar slums home. (The Worli branch is run by Joshi’s friend Tauqeer Sheikh.)
Thrice a week, Joshi, four volunteers and eight to 12 children occupy a quiet corner of the street to study. The pupils are between the ages of six and 14 and while most of them attend school, there are a few who are too poor to afford formal education. “We teach them whatever they feel like learning that day,’’ says Joshi. While the volunteers communicate with the children in Hindi, they teach them both Hindi and English as well as math.
Most of the kids’ parents have been supportive as they want better futures for their offspring. However, Joshi has had to field abuse from parents who consider education an indulgence and would rather their kids lend a hand at home. The social worker’s efforts have paid off. Just over two weeks into Ashayein, Joshi was given a pleasant surprise by one of his students, Sachin, who perfectly recited the English alphabet and showed off handwriting that was remarkably beautiful for an untutored kid. In “two-three weeks I made such a difference’’, Joshi muses. “If I continue like this the children will bloom.’’
However, given the nomadic lives of pavement dwellers, Joshi is afraid that he might one day find that his students have upped and left or been evicted. “I hope I continue with the same kids,’’ he says. “I only pray they let me make a difference in their lives.’’ The children have, in turn, made a profound impact on Joshi. “I’m more confident than before,’’ he points out. Ashayein has been one step forward in a series of efforts at overcoming his inhibitions. He spent six years training in naval exercises with the Sea Cadet Corp at Colaba. Two years ago, he joined Akanksha’s social leadership programme as a trainer educating teenagers about relevant issues such as the environment and child sexual abuse. He might wear his modesty like a badge, but there’s no mistaking Joshi’s supreme self-assurance.
The metamorphosis Joshi is experiencing is an indication that Youth Ventures has been a success, according to its director Vipin T. The aim of the programme is not “the impact the participants have on society but the transformative experience.’’ The 27 changemakers, he hopes, will engender a community of people who will alter the perception of social work, which continues to be regarded as the purview of people in “torn kurtas’’, to something that is “an integral part of life’’.
(This is part of an Independence Day series on youngsters who have chosen to light a candle rather than curse the darkness)
Pronoti Datta | TNN
Ramesh Joshi hasn’t watched a film in over a year. On the rare occasion he’s free, the 18-year-old Virar resident permits himself to glimpse movie clips on the internet or listen to some bhangra. The rest of the day goes in long journeys on the train, attending Siddharth College, coaching teenagers as part of Akanksha’s social leadership programme and teaching street kids. “I like to be busy all the time,’’ he explains with a gravity that matches his prematurely grey hair. “An empty mind is the devil’s workshop.’’Joshi’s missionary zeal to educate underprivileged kids led to Ashayein, a year-old project that involves teaching street children at Churchgate and Worli. The initiative is part of Youth Ventures, a programme that mentors 27 social entrepreneurs by giving them fellowships of Rs 10,000 to act on causes dear to them. Does his absence of a social life bother him? “When I serve people, I get a different kind of energy,’’ he says with a self-effacing quality that’s uncommon for someone his age.
It was only natural that Joshi chose to work with street kids. As a supervisor of a construction site at Cuffe Parade, his father helped poor children in the area get into schools. The student decided to take up where his father had left off and began to scout around for kids to teach. He zeroed in on a group of children who live across Fashion Street near Churchgate and a bunch that calls the area behind Worli’s Adarsh Nagar slums home. (The Worli branch is run by Joshi’s friend Tauqeer Sheikh.)
Thrice a week, Joshi, four volunteers and eight to 12 children occupy a quiet corner of the street to study. The pupils are between the ages of six and 14 and while most of them attend school, there are a few who are too poor to afford formal education. “We teach them whatever they feel like learning that day,’’ says Joshi. While the volunteers communicate with the children in Hindi, they teach them both Hindi and English as well as math.
Most of the kids’ parents have been supportive as they want better futures for their offspring. However, Joshi has had to field abuse from parents who consider education an indulgence and would rather their kids lend a hand at home. The social worker’s efforts have paid off. Just over two weeks into Ashayein, Joshi was given a pleasant surprise by one of his students, Sachin, who perfectly recited the English alphabet and showed off handwriting that was remarkably beautiful for an untutored kid. In “two-three weeks I made such a difference’’, Joshi muses. “If I continue like this the children will bloom.’’
However, given the nomadic lives of pavement dwellers, Joshi is afraid that he might one day find that his students have upped and left or been evicted. “I hope I continue with the same kids,’’ he says. “I only pray they let me make a difference in their lives.’’ The children have, in turn, made a profound impact on Joshi. “I’m more confident than before,’’ he points out. Ashayein has been one step forward in a series of efforts at overcoming his inhibitions. He spent six years training in naval exercises with the Sea Cadet Corp at Colaba. Two years ago, he joined Akanksha’s social leadership programme as a trainer educating teenagers about relevant issues such as the environment and child sexual abuse. He might wear his modesty like a badge, but there’s no mistaking Joshi’s supreme self-assurance.
The metamorphosis Joshi is experiencing is an indication that Youth Ventures has been a success, according to its director Vipin T. The aim of the programme is not “the impact the participants have on society but the transformative experience.’’ The 27 changemakers, he hopes, will engender a community of people who will alter the perception of social work, which continues to be regarded as the purview of people in “torn kurtas’’, to something that is “an integral part of life’’.
(This is part of an Independence Day series on youngsters who have chosen to light a candle rather than curse the darkness)
FROM SIR, WITH LOVE: A stone’s throw from Churchgate Station, a pavement turns into a patshala
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