6. Education to a Girl Child

Kathir, a factory laborer, was blessed with a girl child. He was the happiest person in the world. The daughter filled each and every moment of his life. He decided to give the best of everything to his daughter. 

He understood that education is a powerful tool to transform lives. He ended as a labor in a factory just because of his lack of education. He had no parent to give him higher education. Of course, he received basic education from a school attached with an orphanage. He decided to equip his daughter with education, to the maximum possible by him. The journey of search for education started in him. 

As a first step, he thought, he should equip himself with minimum education. As he was the only bread winner, he could not join any formal course or offered to spend money on him. He started reading English Grammar, and started learning a lot of books from the Library. The Librarian saw the interest in him to study for himself and for his daughter. He encouraged him by giving the right book subsequently and asked him to practice writing to improve his handwriting and writing skills. Kathir did enough writing practice whenever he got time.

Being from a very remote village, where educating a boy was considered a big thing Kathir decided to educate his daughter. In his opinion, education is not restricted to learning to read and write. Apart from school education, he also he trained her daughter to ride cycle and went around the village and sometimes to the nearby town. He trained her to be independent. In those days, possession of a cycle was a luxury in that remote village. Both father and daughter were found cycling frequently. When the days of motor bikes came, Kathir made his daughter to ride motor bike. She was the first girl of the village to ride a motor bike. Those were the days when even men were afraid to ride. He admitted her in a convent school, 10 Kms away, the best school of those days.  The fees for her schooling took almost everything of his monthly income. She had to take a bus to reach the school. Sending a girl alone is in a bus, was something unique. Kathir was a pioneer in various fronts of parenting his daughter. Many villagers even commented Kathir about his way of grooming his daughter, saying girls should stay home and learn household chores and she should be a home maker.

Kathir was strong in his decision that he would like to groom her as Jawaharlal Nehru groomed his daughter. This was because he had started reading the book “Letters from a Father to His Daughter”. It is a collection of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira Priyadarshini. The book had 30 letters sent in the summer of 1928 when Indira was 10 years old. The letters were education pieces on the subjects of natural and human history.

As Kathir wanted his daughter to speak in English, he introduced her to the Anglo-Indian family, living in that village. On the weekends, the girl spent time with that family. Though she was admitted in an English Medium school, and learnt to read and write, she was not confident enough to speak. Being with this Anglo-Indian family, she soon picked up spoken English and creative writing in English. She also learnt Chess and some board games like Scrabble.

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns. By playing Scrabble the little girl, learnt many English words in a short time. This reflected in her school performance as well. She scored well not only in academics and also shined in extra-curricular activities, especially creative writing. The Librarian also was suggesting a series of books for her to read, most of them were in Reference section. She spent more time in the library than anywhere else. She was a voracious reader.

She happened to appear a National Talent Search Exam, she easily cleared it and got an opportunity to study in a school of Great standard of those days. She was also provided with free Boarding and Lodging. There too she excelled in her education, and creative writing and even was selected to represent in a National Student Exchange Programme. She completed her school education with flying colors. She got the District First seat in a reputed Institution to pursue her college education. Her research paper gained a National Award. Kathir and his daughter went to receive the award.

Now she is an Officer, well settled in her personal life and professional life. It’s time for her to Give Back to the Society. She is actively engaged in career guidance to poor children, helping the poor by all means possible by her. She strongly believes that Education is a powerful tool towards Development. Hence she works to provide education to many.   

P.S.: Photos Courtesy - Internet

5. Librarian - A key to the world of Knowledge

Sankar hails from a poor family, living in an interior village, where there was no bus facility. He studied from a school which was far away from his village for which he walked for an hour daily. He was good at studies. He wanted to study more. College was in the nearby town. Joining a college was like a Herculean task in terms of fees and transport cost. But he had the desire to achieve BIG and prove himself. His parents were against his education ideas. He being the eldest son, they expected him to join a job and earn. For Sankar, studying in a college was more lucrative than running after money. He would read from the wraps of the groceries. He no longer could hear the discouraging words of his parents and decided to leave to the town.

The next day he landed in the town with nothing in his hand. He accidentally met a hostel warden. He explained his condition and he was allowed to stay in the hostel. His ambition was to join a college. To meet his ends and save money for the fees, he started doing any job, big or small, in the evenings.  He got admitted in the college with the help of the warden. He successfully completed a degree and he prepared himself for the job search. He applied for any competitive examinations.  And he kept on studying and practicing with previous years question papers and many books available in the Library. For Sankar, Library appeared to be a heaven, as he loved books and reading than anything in the world.

He got an opportunity to apply for the job of a Librarian. He loved the job, as it was the dream job, where he can earn for makinge others read and he could read as well the whole day. As he was meritorious enough, he got the job as a Librarian to the village adjacent to his native village. He now became a pride of his family and the village. It’s true, he was the first to join a white collar job from that village.

Being from a rural background and had known how the reading could shape a person to a better personality, he encouraged youth and students to use the library. The library was newly introduced to the village. The villagers came to know about such a facility and decided to make use of it. He spoke to the rural youth and invited them to library and gave exposure about the employment news, and books to be referred / studied so as to equip to face the competitive world. He frequently conducted career guidance courses and also explained the token system of the library, with which they can take books home and read for 15 days and return them back to take new books home. This concept was very new to the villagers.

Few youth of the village got jobs with the guidance of Sankar. On hearing this, many people started coming to the library. Now-a-days, the library is jam-packed; the readers were here not for reading for fun, but to equip themselves. Even girls, who were not used to go out other than school, came to the library. The girls were too excited to read books, especially the voluminous, colorful books in the reference section.

Sankar would suggest the right book to the right person. There was a healthy competition to get the best book first. This reading habit resulted in higher scores in the Board exam results. All students of the village scored good marks and for the first time, there was no one failed in the Board Exams. With Sankar’s Career Guidance sessions, they joined courses in various Institutes of National Importance. The villagers were hearing about such institutes only through Sankar. He also had encouraged the students to prepare well for the competitive examinations for many jobs.

The villagers thanked him for transforming the village through exposing them to the world of Knowledge. This happened on the valedictory function organized by the villagers on the day of his transfer, after a period of three years of his service in the village. 

P.S: Photos Courtesy - Internet.