A word about Chand..

Have you felt that you can see something great rolling inside someone else's brain, even when you hardly know that person? I think I feel like that quite often working with kids.

Chand

It was the very first day in Ummeed and he ensured that I'll remember his name thereafter. The kids weren't in mood for a class (which they rarely are, to be honest). I asked them to sit in a circle and in turns, dance a step plus tell me what they wanted to become. The fact that 90% of them wanted to become fighters wasn't a surprise. The real surprise was this kid Chand who was almost reasoning like an adult whether it was the futility of me trying to have a class or the senselessness of making him dance. All of the kids in Ummeed are pretty much free spirited, but Chand is still somewhat different. He keeps moving in and out of class as and when he finds things that interest him. Razor-sharp brains. Not only understands things (that appeal to him) but applies it - the sign of true learning. I always find him fiddling with things or walking in his own world. Alone with an English paper he can't understand, with other kids in mud making bridges, climbing down trees and best- running away from teachers. This republic day, I discussed the saga of our freedom struggle and partition. History being as dear to him as science, or probably more, he was glued that class. Today, after I read them the daily news - the revolution in Egypt, A. Raja. arrest, two pilots die trying to save lives etc., he comes to me and says - "I think the time of Bhagat Singh is going to be back again". I asked him why he thought this way. He said "With all this bad news daily, with all this bloodshed - I think the time of pre-independence struggle, the time of Bhagat Singh will be back again". I've always been impressed with him, but today I'm sure he hit the bulls-eye!!! I hope the system never succeeds in killing his reflective mind.. 

P.S. : I adore all of them. I really would wish the system never succeeds in killing their free spirits either, but I do hope for more order in Ummeed. Sometimes, the heart really questions the point of education if the morals are perforated. Somebody stole Martin's (a fellow German volunteer) iPod yesterday. I wish there was no exams/admission bullshit, I would teach them the real important things in life first; rather than sandwiching it in their classes.