I have always had inclination towards community work. And whenever I get any chance of getting involved into such activity, I always work towards satisfying my inner soul. When this community work involves working for kids, it is more soul satisfying for me. More soul satisfying because this is one best way of shaping our future. Catching them young. Shaping kids to prepare them for brighter future of the world. I think this is one best way of giving back the society whatever good we get.
One such opportunity I had got on 23rd July when as a part of our company's initiative, we have to adopt a school for teaching kids about the importance of Oral Hygiene. It was Dakshin Calcutta Arya Mandir of Kolkata where I was scheduled to go. The time given to me was 7:30 in the morning. The day was Monday. Getting up so early on Monday is one herculean task for me as we often kind of suffer from Mondays Blues if it takes to go to office on Monday. But since it was one work that I like the most, getting up at 5 am was not that difficult for me. So I was in the school at the scheduled time i.e, at 7am. The school was a 3 story old building with no playground for children. This was a Hindi medium school where mostly kids of north Indian origin were studying. The students mostly were belonging to the lower middle class of the economic strata of the society. This was a co-ed school. The presentation was being held at 1st floor of the school. I was at first floor where just near the staircase an old notice board was hanging. Two beautiful pastel color painting were hanging on the board where one was depicting holi festival celebration and one was beautifully detailed village landscape. This had taken me back to my school days where getting place on our school notice board was considered as one big achievement, and I unfortunately never have got my paintings hung on that. Wow! This school visit was acting more like time machine for me that had transported me to my old serene pure days of childhood.
I have been told that I'll have to give presentation on Oral hygiene to Std. 1 & 2 students. I was happy to hear this as educating kids at such an early age of 6 - 7 years always makes a long term impact on their habits as at this early age, kids don't learn things with any pre - occupied notions. Moreover things learned at this age always makes a long term impact on their habits unless they develop a thoughts of their own of differentiating it with the better learned or improved learning.
The moment I entered the classroom, I heard those long pitch "Goooood Moooorrrrning Siiir" long sound. This one good morning wish had already made my day. There were some 100 kids stuffed, literally stuffed in that small classroom. I enquired from the class teacher if they all are studying in this class room like that, he replied, “No they are from two different classes (1st and 2nd Std). But since you have to give presentation on something and we don’t have any conference hall, we had accommodated all the students of two classes in one room.”
This had made me feel a little uncomfortable as I was feeling guilty about this discomfort of the kids. But it was not what I was here for. I just came out of this thought and put myself back to the work. So, one of the tips given to kids for Oral Hygiene was “eat vegetables and fruits and milk. This gives nourishment to our teeth.”
A pause… and my question to kids, “OK, how many of you drink milk?”
And as expected all hands raised in the air. I was walking in the class while giving my presentation. Wait, not all hands were raised. There a kid didn’t have raised the hand. I went to him and asked, “What is your name boy”.
“Amar Gupta”.
“And you don’t like drinking milk.”
“I like drinking milk. I like it so much.”
“Then why you didn’t have raised your hand!”
“Because my dad does not bring milk so I don’t drink.”
There are very less situation when I feel short of words and this one answer of Amar Gupta was one of such situation. For few seconds I literally fell short of words. What to say? I never have felt so helpless than this one situation.
But suddenly I realized that I am not here for this and I am here to perform some task. The problem of one kid cannot and should not hamper the interest of lot of kids sitting in the classroom. And with this sudden thought, I moved on to finish the task for which I was there in the school.
The entire presentation went well. It had been one very much participative presentation where almost all the kids, including that Amar Gupta, was participating in the quest of understanding the good habits of Oral Hygiene. But this entire session has raised one question to me, “Though it was participative and successful presentation, was it a complete presentation? Could I be able to close the entire loop to ensure 360 – degree effectiveness of this entire session? Is it just sufficient to ensure 100% healthy smile of our future?”
I don’t know I was a little more sensitive towards that one Amar Gupta or was a little rude towards my own presentation! But that long pitch, long sound of "Goooood Moooorrrrning Siiir" had given me some milk for my thought.
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