Ranjeet and Sanjeet are two brothers,
enrolled with us for free tuition classes. Sons of a rickshaw puller, they
would occasionally substitute for their father in the rickshaw queue on the metro
station waiting for a customer, while their father would drink a quick cup of
tea. Stopping this practice became our pre condition to teach them, and they agreed.
They are poles apart in their nature and intelligence level. While one has a
flair for Maths, is blessed with a photographic memory, he lacks interest in
regular way of learning. Other one makes up for his low IQ with his sincerity
and hard work. They are generally on no talking terms with each other.
Soon we all realised that they
never come together. They were rather taking turns to attend classes. We all thought
sibling rivalry (or hatred in this case) was the reason and closed the file. After
all we have seen enough of the world, isn’t it?
One fine day when I had only two students, I managed to get the
introvert brother in a talking mood (using all my counselling skills, I must
say!). Beside other things, the shocking truth which emerged was that the main
reason of their fight was who will come to us for study. The bone of contention
here was the one pair of slippers that both the brothers were supposed to share.
I remember watching one award
winning foreign film (Afghan I think) on TV once, where a brother and sister
were sharing a pair of running shoes. Beautiful touching story, very well narrated.
Convincing because that was happening in some war affected country. Believe you
me, in my wildest dream I wouldn’t have believed that such things happen right
under our nose, in the capital of the country, not in any remote area!
I discussed it with other
volunteers of Setu and soon project “Chappal” was launched. Just to maintain
their dignity, we decided to buy a pair of slippers for all of them. We were
keen to get some “good quality” branded stuff but they vetoed it. All of them
had seen and liked something in local “shukkar bazaar“ (Friday market). Girls
come to us in the evening while boys attend evening classes in government
school. Without mobile phone, assembling at one place was a major task in the
crowded market. They coordinated beautifully, bargained with shop keepers, made
sure that all the little ones take something, slightly bigger than their
current size and made everyone happy.
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| Children at the local market |
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| Ranjeet and Sanjeet |
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| All the children with their "Chappal" |
