Some quotes get stuck inside your head and one
of them which is inside me and keep remembering it when I cross a threshold. “What
seems to be an end is the beginning of something new”.
Yesterday was one such moment – when Joyee
passed out of the Rishi Valley School, her home for last 6 yr, since her 12th
was mostly from home. A year she would like to forget. Before that Niki had
spent 6 yrs. From 2012 every year & the 7 – 10 days we would spend in the valley when we were invited to visit the children were like a gasp of fresh air from the rest of the year.
The moment you turn into the road leading up to the valley the hush of the valley with chirping birds, trees, vast sky and mountains all around – had a profound impact on my senses. It was like suddenly everything else have fallen away and this is the world I would like it to live in even if it’s for few days.
Add to that the children all around me just doing what a child should do, climbing trees, eating mangoes with their hands – tearing the skin and biting into the mango, younger kids rolling all over sand. It was not something from a playbook or a brochure – it was real. It took me back to my summer holidays when we would all pack our bags and go the village and there would be 20 kids doing all the above and parents having no clue – who is eating where, who is sleeping in whose house. The only time they will come into the picture is when some one has fallen from a tree or someone is drowning or bitten by a leech and such unfortunate incidents.
But of course, the school is much more than what
I wrote above. It’s only when I interacted with the akka's (it's a word in telegu which means elder sister & that is what the children call teachers) and spoke to Niki
& Joyee that I could understand the deep involvement with every single child.
They would know them almost like we know them – their 4-page pdf about how they
are doing in school gave us very different insights bettering our understanding
of how they are growing up, the conflicts they are facing and of course what they enjoy the
most. It was never about chapters completed & exams conducted - it was
always about what the child can do, what is she good at.
Niki who hated sports was the sports captain when
she left the school and now runs marathon with me. Joyee was always keen in sports
but can create art works overnight – like she did yesterday when she wanted to
create a card for her friend and left it at the school.
The underlying approach and the foundation are
of course set in Krishnamurthy’s philosophy of creating a better human being who
can create a whole new world which she can do only if she is treated equally
and gets an opportunity to find her calling.
His approach is unique – I don’t know who gave me
the book ‘The fire in your mind’ – a yellowed version of the book remains after
30 years but that was the start of the journey and he has been with me as a
friend and a foe always challenging me – even now off and on I will pick up his
book or see his talks he still jolts me and challenges me like no one else has.
My children may have left the valley and they
may have not enjoyed the K Talks like many children, but I know they will
always carry the air and sound of the valley wherever they go, and their mind
has absorbed what was spoken in K Talks and will shape the future they are chasing.
And who know where their children will tread….
