In my last blog, I took a shot at reminiscing of my school days while watching the Teachers’ Day celebration by the tiny-tots in my daughter’s school. Yesterday I got another chance to visit one of the renowned schools in the neighborhood and glimpsed into their mind during a half an hour conversation.
It felt good within.
To be associated with young minds
of this generation after a gap of 23 years from my twelfth standard passing
days is really an enriching experience from my current standpoint.
I have volunteered for Earthian
2013 (http://earthian.in), a sustainability
initiative sponsored by my current employer, Wipro Technologies, and am
mentoring 4 schools from the nearby areas. As I have always looked forward to
doing something extra towards contributing to betterment of society, in addition
to discharging the professional and personal responsibilities demanded by my
daily life, this engagement provided me with a pertinent platform for me to
create awareness in the future citizens about Water as a valuable resource for
a country like India.
Coming back to my experience of
mingling with the teachers and students, I could clearly notice a sense of
quest mixed with panic, anxiety and a determination to overcome the challenges.
The tentativeness, the awe about interacting with someone from the corporate
world and the innocence of the interactions made me face myself during my
school days. I could see reflection of mine in their faces and body language.
They faulted at the very first step as to how to initiate the activities and
were looking for some guidance. Once we started talking, a good number of ways
and means came out in due course and situation was coming under control.
The experienced teachers also came out openly and candidly about the lack of
knowledge in the subject and how they also need to learn few new things. Yes,
they need to do some finding out and work and am sure, in the process,
they will be more aware.
To me, education is not about
feeding a horde of information rather opening up their analytical mind, thought
process that questions and imagination that is out of the system to a boundless
extent. As we, elders and seniors, will not be around them all the time they
face a challenge in life, we need to make sure that they ask few questions in
the face of it and can figure a way out. To me, there lies the real success of
seniors and teachers in kindling that light inside them about all the things in
life.
I will consider my effort
meaningful if an iota of fruition about water related problems get into them.
Thank you, Wipro Sustainability
team, for giving me this opportunity.
--Jayanta Tewari
No comments:
Post a Comment