Helping and Teaching Children

While looking out of my car window, many a times I have seen kids studying under lamposts. And sometimes I have seen kids approach our car to sell some items at a time when they should be in school. I always felt sad for these kids.

I thought if I can motivate them to develop their creative skills, it would be my little contribution to make their future better.

With this thought, I invited about 6 kids from underprivileged households to come learn art from me. To my surprise, those 6 kids bought 6 more kids, so, i ended up teaching 12 kids, the basics of art.

I took their Art class for 1.5 hours and honestly I didn’t realise at all how time flew with the kids. The kids were also happy to learn art from me not just because I gave them small gifts but they felt I taught them really well. I felt so proud of myself.

I experienced genuine happiness in this activity. It gave me positive vibes about what I could do to help kids of my age who are less privileged than me.

Diwali Celebrations

On the day of Diwali , I wished to guide some lesser privileged children in my surroundings through the art of painting.

The children and me together made drawings related to Diwali. After that we painted diyas. Even other kids from my apartment came to do painting with us.

Soon all of us bursted phuljaris but our joy was dampened due to continual showers.

Subsequently, we all had dinner of tasty fried rice and Manchurian prepared by my Mama. I am so lucky to have such a Mama who supports me always in my activities.

To be honest, I had a great time with all the kids. I was happy to be able to share some of my happiness to them.

This was the most wonderful Diwali I have enjoyed till now!!!

Fun with Basti Children

Christmas Celebration

Today when we woke up on the glorious day of Christmas, we were happy. But something else was missing. Then I realized that every special day must have a celebration. So at the evening hours, I called 10 under privileged children to spend Christmas. When they came, I told them the story of Jesus Christ and how he was born. To make things easy for them, I showed them a video about the birth of Jesus and they watched it keenly. Then we did a craft on dancing Santa Claus and they did it perfectly. Then I asked them some questions about Jesus Christ and they also answered it properly. Then I turned on a Bengali story from YouTube called ‘ Bandhu ‘ and they liked it very much. Then we gave them tiffin in boxes containing Karaishutir Kachori and Aloo Dum. Cupcake and candies. Then they all went home with a gleeful face and my heart filled with happiness about the wonderful time I just had.

Teaching in Gyan Deepak

During my winter vacations, I was told to teach a group of students of my standard, in an NGO (Non Government Organisation) called ‘Gyan Deepak’ where many under-privileged children are taught many kinds of things. They get to solve activity sheets solve activity sheets, do crafts etc. I planned doing story-telling the first day, then crafts on the second day and finally and on the third day, riddles, talent show and G.K. Before the first day, I practiced reading the story I was to read. When I reached the venue, I was quite nervous. It was the first time I was teaching in an organization. But I gathered up all my confidence and went into the class. I started reading the story, “The Atrocious Day” from my newly published book, “The Foreboding and other stories”, to them. Since most of them were non-bengalis, I explained the story to them in Hindi. They said it was a wonderful story and I soon found ease with teaching them. Next, I asked them questions about the story and gave them activity sheets. The sheets contained a join the dots drawing and few MCQs. After the class ended, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I was happy and looked forward for the next day. On the second day, I did craft with them. They were very happy to see me as they found me very exciting. That day I did, Santa plate and Reindeer crown with them. They did those perfectly and I also showed them a video about the story of Jesus Christ. They took the crafts home with a smile on their face. Now, I got complete confidence and I had that strange feeling of teaching them even longer. On the third and final day, I went there and the children were even more happy than they were the previous day and they knew I was full of surprises. To be honest, I was. That day, I did G.K, Riddles and Talent Show I asked them few questions on G.K and also gave them riddles. Most of the riddles had puzzling questions but surprising answers and they liked it a lot. The child who would give the correct answers to the riddles would get a chocolate. Next, we did talent show. After they showed the things that they can do the best, we started discussing about the dangerous situations we have faced in life. Each child had to come up and share his experience to all of us. There was one boy, whose situation shook me, where he saved the life of a drunk man who could nearly have died on the rail line as a goods train zoomed by. I gave them drawing copies, foods etc. as gifts. All of them liked my three day classes very much and they were looking forward if I would take their classes again in the future. I also liked teaching them and would never forget the time I had with them… ever…

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3