Raju Sheikh

Sometimes, all it takes is a rude remark from a kid, to bring out the best in you.

Not long after I joined Ummeed, I met this taciturn, reclusive, introvert, dog-lover kid - Raju Sheikh. In a place, where everyone's quite the opposite, my heart was pleased to find a pacified soul like his. Little did I expect, that he'll stop coming to classes in less than a week. So, I confronted him. But in a wrong mood, at a wrong place with a completely wrong approach. I tell him about the rule I made seeing the computer mayhem at the home - that no English means no Computers. And this otherwise sweet kid tells me how he doesn't understand anything in my class and how I don't know how to teach.

I would have been shattered, had I not found out that he is more of a self-learner. He doesn't like being taught by any teacher at the home, doesn't even like going to school. Had I not been insulted, I am sure I would have been impressed by him. I always see him with a book, with dogs or with small kids. We didn't speak for a month or probably more than that, before I was like - Alright! That's enough! I went and hugged him, said sorry for the way I talked with him that day and asked him to give me another try. Which he does, but later comes and confesses that he still prefers studying alone with me helping him with the words he doesn't know meaning to.

So time passes by, things get great. He even starts helping me with my Bridge English class at times. But, I have this annoying habit of loosing it when I see someone disturbing my class, especially someone who doesn't belong to the class. And he being popular with the Bridge kids, sometimes unknowingly did that. So, last friday, I confronted him again in a wrong mood, at a wrong place with a completely wrong approach. And again, it is his straightforward rudeness that I comment without knowing the details (which is true btw!) that makes me rethink about so many things I almost forgot.

I didn't take this job to just teach them. I wanted to know them, to learn from them and to tell them about all these amazing things that this world is full of. I don't know why I keep forgetting that. And sometimes it takes mistakes like these to remind me. This is crazy, now I have to stay mad at him for sometime to make sure he understands that I don't appreciate rude behavior, when I actually should be thanking him.