The Soul Odyssey..

‘There is no way you are getting up at 6.30 in the morning, that too on a weekend’ one of my roommates threw a gauntlet at me. But this was not like any other lazy Saturday. The OSP (Oracle Solution Practice) team at Cognizant had taken up a noble initiative of adopting a deprived school somewhere on the outskirts of Pune. A school in Velle district, around 80kms from Pune city was to be our destination. At 7.45 A.M I boarded the Toyota and we were all set to roll. At that point, little did I realize that, what was supposed to be a brief sojourn we had embarked on for enlightening the ‘little souls’ would turn out to be an epic journey that would leave all of us in a soul searching mode of our own.

As soon as we left the hubbub of the city, we were greeted by blazing mountains which engulfed us on all the four sides. Barring tarred road everything else we could see was sheathed with a green blanket. The clouds too were vying for attention but somewhat subdued sun was giving it a tough competition. It was close to impossible to get our eyes off such a pleasing visual treat. I pitied the driver for he had to keep his eyeballs strictly on the road ahead. A brief halt for breakfast gave us a much needed break to admire the mother earth in its most pristine form. As the highways gave way to two lane roads which in turn were superseded by single lane village roads we had a kind of anxious feeling as we drew closer and closer to our destination. In no time we had left behind the 'New' India and I quietly braced myself to face the 'Real' India.

The sounds of chatter and rumble were enough for us to know that we were finally there. Dozens of puerile heads were patiently awaiting our arrival. We were then taken to the place where the children used to learn. 'School is a Temple Of Learning' has for long been one of the most sought after essay topics for the school teachers. But this topic would need, to speak strictly in software terms, a little bit of ‘customization’ if we were to present it to these children. It was because in here it was actually a temple where the school was being run..Right from 1st medium till the 8th!..Immediately my mind wandered to my school days when we used to grumble for not having with good quality benches. The fact that some of them had to walk 7 KMs one way to attend the school sent a chill down my spine and my legs suddenly felt numb.

A dainty little girl applied ‘tika’ to our foreheads as we entered the school premises. The welcome ceremony was comprised of presenting us with a bouquet of myriad flowers handpicked and handmade by the little kids themselves. The fragrance of our deodorants paled in comparison to scent that erupted from those tiny flowers. The little artists then staged couple of folk songs which were, considering the language was alien to me, very pleasing to the ears. The fun continued with the question-answer session that followed the welcome ceremony. As Martin H. Fischer aptly put it “The entire world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind”, the seemingly innocent kids came up with such astute questions that at times even our able volunteers were bamboozled. Questions like 'Who is God?', 'How did the sun came into existence?', 'How does the projector work?' gave us a glimpse into the minds of these little Einsteins. Hats off to our volunteers as they were able to ideate such surreal answers to the tricky questions. The brainstorming session was followed by distribution of books to children at various levels.

As the day progressed the kids were treated with magic shows, educational cartoons, craft sessions and many more fun activities. Irrespective of the activity there was one thing we could not miss. It was an unmistakable happiness in the eyes of those little souls. And considering you, albeit in a small way, have contributed towards the glint in their eyes gave you immense satisfaction. And the fact that these kids gave us a chance to be one of their own helped us regain the child like vigor which was long lost in the swarm of IT savvy professionals. When we had reached here our sole aim was to make them feel special but in reality it was they who made us feel that we were special which was indeed very touching.

The lunch that followed was, I would say, one of the best meals I have had in quite a sometime. After all it had the most important ingredients of all - The warmth and the affection of the village dwellers. As we bid farewell to the village, an epochal responsibility beckoned us - the responsibility of carrying this school forward. This trip was a small step towards fulfilling this promise. I would like to sincerely thank Ashwin Bramhe, the chief architect of this initiative, and the outreach volunteers for giving us an opportunity to be a part of such a noble cause.

Post Script: On our way to the village we were enlightened with the fact that there was another village nearby which was accessible only on foot. People there had to walk for 2 hours just to come in contact with outside world. The name of the village was ‘SINGAPORE’. How ironic!! I thought.

POSTER COURTESY: http://mr-ram.blogspot.com/!