स्मृतियों का टकराव और पहचान का बिखराव - लवकुश सिंह यादव

यह अंश पारिवारिक इतिहास, व्यक्तिगत बदलाव और स्मृतियों के धुंधलेपन की एक बेहद मार्मिक और जटिल तस्वीर प्रस्तुत करता है। लेखिका तारा वेस्टओवर जब अपनी माँ की शादी की पुरानी तस्वीर और अपने पिता के अतीत को देखती हैं, तो वह केवल एक कहानी नहीं बता रही हैं, बल्कि पहचान के उस गहरे अंतर को तलाश रही हैं, जो समय के साथ उनके परिवार में आया।

इस अंश से जुड़े कुछ मुख्य विचारणीय बिंदु इस प्रकार हैं:

1. दो अलग-अलग दुनिया का टकराव

अंश की शुरुआत में ही माँ के मायके (शहर की सुसंस्कृत और आधुनिक दुनिया) और पिता की दुनिया (पहाड़ की धार्मिक और रूढ़िवादी दुनिया) के बीच का गहरा तनाव साफ दिखाई देता है। लेखिका की मौसी ‘लिन’ का माँ को शहर की दुनिया (गैबार्डिन के कपड़े, क्रीम जूते) में बनाए रखने का प्रयास और पिता का हमेशा शहर के लोगों से रूखा व्यवहार यह दिखाता है कि यह शादी केवल दो लोगों का मिलन नहीं, बल्कि दो संस्कृतियों का टकराव थी।

लेखिका का यह वाक्य बेहद गहरा है: “माँ की शादी का मतलब हमारे परिवार का विघटन था... कोई एक ही उसे अपने पास रख सकता था।” यह दर्शाता है कि कैसे एक महिला को अपनी शादी के लिए अपनी पुरानी पहचान को पूरी तरह छोड़ना पड़ा।

2. समय और परिस्थितियों का क्रूर बदलाव

इस अंश का सबसे भावुक और गहरा हिस्सा वह है, जहाँ लेखिका अपने माता-पिता की शादी की एकमात्र तस्वीर का वर्णन करती हैं। तस्वीर में दिखने वाला युवक खुश, बेपरवाह और बड़ी-सी मुस्कान वाला है। लेकिन लेखिका के लिए इस सच को स्वीकार करना असंभव-सा है, क्योंकि उन्होंने जिस पिता को देखा है, वे हमेशा डरे हुए, चिंतित और दुनिया के अंत की तैयारी में खाना और बारूद जमा करने वाले व्यक्ति रहे हैं।

यह विरोधाभास हमें सोचने पर मजबूर करता है कि समय, मानसिक स्थिति और कट्टर धार्मिक विचारों ने एक हँसते-खेलते युवक को इतने शंकालु और गंभीर व्यक्ति में कैसे बदल दिया।

3. स्मृतियों की अविश्वसनीयता

तारा वेस्टओवर स्वीकार करती हैं कि पिता के अतीत के बारे में वह जो कुछ भी जानती हैं, वह केवल “टुकड़ों-टुकड़ों में मिली कहानियाँ” हैं। वह कहती हैं, “मैं उस व्यक्ति को नहीं जानती जिसे मेरी माँ जानती थीं।” यह पंक्ति यह दर्शाती है कि बच्चे अक्सर अपने माता-पिता के उस रूप से कभी नहीं मिल पाते, जो वे शादी या बच्चों के जन्म से पहले थे।

हमारे माता-पिता का एक अतीत ऐसा भी था, जहाँ वे आज से बिल्कुल अलग और आज़ाद थे, जो बच्चों की पहुँच से परे होता है।

4. बदलाव के शुरुआती संकेत

अंश के अंत में लेखिका पिता के व्यवहार में आए शुरुआती बदलावों को टटोलने की कोशिश करती हैं। वह सवाल उठाती हैं कि क्या अस्पताल के बजाय घर पर दाई से डिलीवरी कराने की ज़िद सिर्फ एक “सनक” थी या फिर समाज और व्यवस्था से अलग होने की उनकी सनक की शुरुआत? यह दिखाता है कि कैसे धीरे-धीरे उनका परिवार आधुनिक दुनिया और चिकित्सा सुविधाओं से कटकर पूरी तरह पिता के कड़े नियमों के अधीन होता चला गया।

निष्कर्ष

यह अंश हमें यह सिखाता है कि कोई भी व्यक्ति जन्म से कट्टर या अलग-थलग नहीं होता; परिस्थितियाँ और विचार इंसान को धीरे-धीरे बदलते हैं। यह इस बात का भी एक सुंदर उदाहरण है कि कैसे पुरानी तस्वीरें हमें इतिहास के उस सच से रूबरू कराती हैं, जो आज के वर्तमान से बिल्कुल अलग हो चुका है। तारा का यह लेखन पारिवारिक रिश्तों की गहराई और उनकी कड़वी सच्चाइयों को बहुत ही ईमानदारी से सामने लाता है।

लवकुश सिंह यादव

My Village, My Problem. And I Am The Solution

Read and Lead 
To read from Every Last Girl by Safeena Husain and discuss the Educate Girls campaign’s growth and strategy.

Key Takeaways

• Volunteer Growth: Educate Girls’ volunteer force, “Team Balika,” grew from 140 in 2009 to over 1,000 in three years, defying scepticism from government officials and new recruits.

• Intrinsic Motivation: Volunteers are driven by personal stories of educational struggle, adopting the motto “My Village, My Problem. And I Am The Solution.”

• Movement Building: The campaign built a powerful movement by connecting volunteers, providing training, and fostering a shared identity, which transformed individuals into local leaders.

• Strategic Pivot: A “geographical lottery” of out-of-school girls prompted a strategic pivot to data-driven targeting, moving from “carpet bombing” to focusing resources on high-need “hotspots.”

Topics

The “Geographical Lottery” & Strategic Pivot

• Problem: A 2017 analysis revealed a “geographical lottery” in Jhadol Block, where a highway acted as a stark dividing line for girls’ education.

  • South Side: Villages had hundreds of out-of-school girls.

  • North Side: Villages had few to none.

• Inefficiency: The “carpet bombing” approach wasted resources by deploying full programs in villages with no out-of-school girls.

• Solution: A meeting with data expert Dr Neal Shah prompted a strategic pivot.

  • Goal: Use data to find high-need “hotspots” faster.

  • Rationale: The problem is uneven, requiring targeted intervention to maximise impact.

Team Balika: Growth & Motivation

• Growth: The volunteer force grew rapidly, from 140 in 2009 to over 1,000 in three years, becoming an “army of gender champions.”

• Scepticism: The growth defied naysayers, including a district education officer who claimed, “Nobody believed that the early success... would really be something we could deliver at scale.”

• Motto: The volunteers’ shared experience led to the motto, “My Village, My Problem. And I Am The Solution.”

• Personal Stories: The author’s own story—being saved from marriage by an aunt (“Aunt Mahe”) who championed her education—mirrored the volunteers’ motivations.

Volunteer Transformation & Movement Building

• Personal Gains: Volunteering provided significant personal benefits for Team Balika members.

  • Anisha Kumari: Gained mobility and social interaction, escaping the “bat and broom” dichotomy.

  • Babu Lal: A housebound young man with a disability, found belonging and purpose.

  • Farzana: Transformed from shy to a respected leader, completing her 10th-grade exams after an 8-year gap specifically to join the team.

• Movement Building: The campaign fostered a movement by connecting volunteers across villages.

  • Methods: Regular meetings, training, and a help desk.

  • Outcome: A strong sense of belonging and collective action.

  • Symbol: A simple logo (a girl with red pigtails) on uniforms became a badge of honour.

Next Steps

• Group: Continue reading the book next Thursday.

• Pushpita & Akanksha: Invite more students to the reading session.

• Brinda: Explore contacting Educate Girls to express appreciation.

The Eklavyas of AFA- Minakshi Prasad

People learn best when their interest is piqued.

In this tiny little village called Bandarjoor, where I now reside, I experience many quaint incidents that touch me deeply. Arthur Foot Academy is surrounded by small houses with large families. Most of the children here either attend government schools or do not attend school at all. Yet, their eyes are full of curiosity.

These children keep peeping into the school with wonder. To them, the school is both a mystery and a magical place — a dreamland. Some of them got their first taste of AFA during the Summer Camp in June. Since then, these starry-eyed children stand near the gates and walls, eager to catch any crumbs of fun and knowledge they can.

Recently, they learnt an English song, almost to perfection, while playing a game. Their enthusiasm and joy know no bounds when they are invited inside the school after regular hours. Tell them a story, and their eyes sparkle with delight. Teach them a song, and you will hear their gleeful voices echoing far and wide — "a hundred mile, a hundred mile."

Minakshi Prasad

Director 

Arthur Foot Academy

Arthur Foot Academy - A matter of sunshine on a rainy day

In the midst of heavy rains in Uttarakhand, a courageous person who drove from Dehradun to Arthur Foot Academy came along. As you enter the roads leading to the school, you're surrounded by tall trees, low trees, and other vegetation. I was happily welcomed by Ms. Minakshi Prasad and Reena, the Principal at Arthur Foot Academy. They both took me around the school to meet all the young teachers, some of whom have been with them for many years and some who have recently joined. 

Meeting all these teachers reminded me that there is a lot of joy and hope when some people choose to teach and are concerned about a child's learning. Ms. Minakshi, Ms. Reena, and I believe that all the teachers at the Academy are eager to learn and improve. They were sharing their classroom challenges with a lot of openness. Math teacher Mr. Sushil was discussing the benefits of learning by playing, and if there is even one person in the school who believes there is a way to learn like that, half our work is done. 

We discussed how, in the coming weeks, we can come together on Zoom to read and uplift ourselves as teachers, bringing the same joy to our classrooms for children. Interestingly, children with even a few chairs in a school were so hungry for learning. They had some beautiful posters up on the wall. 

Arthur Foot Academy has a significant opportunity ahead, and the time is ripe to empower teachers through collaborative learning, reading, discussion, reflection, and sharing. There is so much power in a classroom, between the space of a student and a teacher, for both. 

- Neelashi Mangal, Program and Training Lead with the Learning Forward India Foundation, you may email her at NM@LearningForward.org.in

Simplicity and Trust - Achievers JMMS

Simplicity

“Simplicity is not about deprivation. It is about a greater appreciation for little things that really matters”. 

It is the fact that something is natural and not complicated. It is being simple. Simplicity mainly focuses on the main and important things and let go of the rest of the things. Simplicity is that which is easy to understand and explain. It is adding no luxury items and showoff rather its motive is to be clear in our thoughts. Simplicity means being pure from inside as well as from outside. 

Example: Getting into the new class makes a child learn different new things. But teaching them in a complicated way makes their morale down. The students get demotivated when they are not able to learn the simplest things. It is the duty of the teachers to find out the simplest way to make students easily understand.

Trust

Trust is a foundation of whatever we do. 

Trust is the best source of learning anything. Simplicity and Trust are related to each other. Simple things are easy to trust. Trust is the belief of being honest and expect that something is true. All the relationships are based on trust and understanding. It’s a belief that you can depend on someone blindly. 

We can only trust someone when we have faith in them. It is the belief that somebody is good and honest.

Example: A child has full trust on the teacher that whether whatever doubts I will have the teacher will never say no to whatever I ask. The trust of a child will always inspire a teacher to perform better and the teacher will do his /her best to maintain the trust of the students. 

Story of Simplicity and Trust

During my schooling, I use to go to the tuition where the students from the backward areas or from the families who cannot afford the fees or expenses of expensive schools use to come. The head of the institution made sure that every child who has an interest in learning something is there in that tuition class. He without any fees educated each and every child of the village. In the village also he was known for his simplicity. He used to love the children. He always used to encourage everyone to study hard so that they can become successful in their lives. He taught everyone to be clear in their thoughts and whatever they say should be to the point rather than adding extra things and make it complicated. 

Also, he had trust in everyone that they will surely get success in their lives if they keep on working hard. He taught the students to he presentable. And now the students who were taught by him have succeeded in their life and this only happened due to the trust he had in them. 

Achievers JMMS @ John Martyn Memorial School, Salangaon, Dehradun - Sweta Thapli, Meena Kukreti,  Jyoti Joshi and Nisha Pundir 

Responsibility and Cooperation - Engaging Minds BHIS

Stone soup for the Teenage Soul. 

The real deal Friends.

Once upon a time, there was a distant village which was experiencing extreme famine. Villagers did not have much to eat and each villager even guarded what little food they had.

One morning Nishant thought of an idea. He stood in the village square and pulled out his bag, all the villagers closed their doors thinking that he may ask for food but Nishant announced loudly “Oh! It is breakfast time, I must make some delicious stone soup”.

People felt he was just mocking, and they paid no heed to him but two of his friends Vansh and Sameer came up to him. Nishant said something in their ears and soon they began to call out - “Let’s make the stone soup!” 

Beginning of Cooperation with Responsibility

Vansh brought a large cooking pot, Sameer brought some wood and they lit a fire. Children started clapping with happiness.  Hearing the cheerful sound of their kids, the villagers came out.

Nishant sniffed the broth that was only water and said “Oh! this smells delicious! If only onions were added to it!” The villagers began to overcome their mistrust. Few villagers ran and brought onions from their house. Nishant tasted the broth again, and licked his lips saying, “If only it had some tomatoes!”. Soon a villager ran to his house and brought whatever he could find and so it went on. 

Soon the big pot was bubbling over and steaming. When the soup was ready, everyone in the village drank the soup to their hearts' content. 

The villagers, curiously,  asked Vansh and Sameer what Nishant had whispered in their ears. They said, our masterji has taught us in school “Coming together is the beginning of Cooperation as it always seems impossible until it’s done with a Responsibility”.

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything and it takes both sides to build a bridge.

Engaging Minds @ Billabong High International School Thane 

- Ginny Franklin, Yojana Suryarao, Ishita Thakkar, Kiran Pandey, Nilka Gandhi, Geeta Mali, Meenaz Khan.