Reality Check!

During the last week , i had been eagerly waiting for Saturday to come. Firstly it was supposed to be my first experience with an NGO through the "Teach India" campaign and secondly we were supposed to be deciding about our upcoming trip !!

Come Saturday, my friend and myself set off in the quest of the centre allotted to us(Both had been allotted to the same centre) with great excitement and anticipation of something new and something new we did find indeed! We reached the area but there were so many cross roads that we just couldn't find the centre. Narrow roads, very densely populated and noisy... in this disorder how were we to find our destination?! As we were proceeding through the cross roads, all we could see were people in white kurtha and pyjama with a white cap. They were all over the place. When we were passing through a particular street, everyone around stopped what they were doing and staring at us as if we were from another planet and indeed we too felt as aliens in a foreign land! A kind of unease set around us and we had no idea as to how to find our way...

We spent almost 45 min in our search without any positive results...At one point of time, i saw a huge guy pulling 2 cows. It is a common scenario to find cows in streets here. But still i felt something different at the sight of this...but couldn't realise what. After a while, it struck me that he was actually pulling them to butcher!! There was a numbness in me... all the frustration, anger, pity became a huge ocean of emotions. Wanted to get out of there at that very moment..!
But it was not to be so. We finally found it aften umpteen calls to the co-ordinator.

When we reached the community centre, the other volunteers were already into discussion and we could not get the head and tail of it. When finally it was our chance to interact with the co-ordinator( we were the last ), we were told to choose from 5 modules that were available. After furnishing all required details, the co-ordinator suggested us to take part in the ongoing medical camp to get the touch n feel of the surroundings. Though we were not sure as to what to do, we had no other go but to attend since all the earlier volunteers had already left for it.

Our friends doing medicine had told us huge stories of these medical camps that they had been to and hence we were not very keen on going. But the co-ordinator was bent upon taking us. As if our experiences were not enough to shake us, he started sharing his experiences about working with gangsters, criminals, etc.And then we finally came near the mediacl camp.
That was one sight i will never forget ever. Those were one of the worst living conditions i have ever seen! There was literally no road. Just some space for one person to keep one foot!!Houses so tiny but completely crowded.. Open drains on both sides and people sitting and chatting next to it! Kids playing around. As we were treading along the path, a lady came grabbed my hand suddenly and i totally went bersek by this!! She had seen the doctors and was curious to know where they had come from. When she saw us, she assumed that i was one of them!! I then told her that we have come from so and so hospital and then she let us go...

When we finally arrived at the camp, it was jampacked with people and no way we could get in. So we thought it would be best to return back and with some saboob to the co-ordinator, we headed back home!!

It was a great realisation indeed. All these days i had concentrated my thoughts upon the work, i.e teaching children in this case, and not given a thought to the working conditions and the environment around which most of the work would be needed. But the reality of the situation that it is these people who need most of the help struck me. What better way to help these people than Education!.. and Teach India has really been a great initiative towards this regard!