Day 7, July 9: Cloudy with a chance of Monsoon Havoc
As usual I arrived at the school at 7.20 a.m. I was especially excited to go to school as I was meant to go for a community visit to see how & where the kids lived. It was raining very heavily. The sky was overcast and there were loud claps of thunder making an already dreary morning seem dramatically worse.
The class began at 7.30 a.m. — but by 10 a.m. the headmistress said the children needed to go back home as there was fear of flooding.
I left for home disappointed.
Day 8, July 10th: Cloudier with a higher chance of Monsoon Havoc
The rain had not abated all night. The skies looked just as gloomy and dramatic as the previous day. But I had to go to school at all odds — as I had only 4 days left with the kids.
My auto rikshaw dropped me off at the school gate at 7.30 a.m. I saw the TFI Fellows standing outside the school building. About 10 students from grade 7 and 8 were there too. This was not a good sign.
By 8 am, they said the kids needed to go home. I did not want to leave. Soumin and Harshada (2 kids from the 8th grade) came to me and said they had written their stories and wondered if I could look at their notebooks as we stood under umbrellas in the rain.
While it was not a smart idea as we were getting drenched to the bone — the combination of my desire to make progress and not wanting to disappoint the kids made me say “YES”. So we stood there huddled under umbrellas as I provided feedback on the stories in their soggy notebooks.
I was home by 915 — bummed that I had only 3 days left with the kids and I was not sure how this would all end.
Day 9, July 11th: Just Take What You Get!
I got up at 5 a.m. It was silent! There was no howling wind or pounding rain. Siri reassured me it was going to be a clear day. I was cautiously optimistic. Finally, the kids and I would get to work on our stories.
I got to school by 7.15 a.m. looking forward to working with the 7th grade kids. They were equally excited to see me.
I went to the lab to make sure all the machines were up and running and then headed back to the classroom.
Sindhu informed me that because the kids had lost 2 full days of school, we would not be able to go to the lab. I tried to hide my disappointment — but failed. As I sat in the classroom helping the kids with their math and wondering how I would get through the completion of the projects, she came up to me and said that the 8th grade teachers were absent and asked if I wanted to work with them?
“Of-course”, I said with glee, “I will take what I can get”.
The 8th graders turned out to be a rowdy bunch. I had to muster up all my strength and yell on top of their hollering and say “do you want to make a video?”. That got their attention, so I turned on my computer and showed them Spark.
Having learnt from the previous week — I made sure the kids had written their stories and I had checked them for structure before we got to the Lab. We headed down to the lab and sat 3 kids per machine. Harsh had used a service to create temporary Adobe IDs for the 7th grade kids the previous week. We asked the kids to log in using those same IDs — but we were locked out! We could not log in for the life of us. There were two issues. The kids who had used the IDs the previous week had lost all their work and these kids where getting frustrated as they could not get going. But I was not going to let any of that come in our way today.
15 minutes into the lab time, I decided to use my Adobe IDs for the kids (I have three). I was not sure this would work as we would have 4 instances of each Adobe ID running at the same time. By the grace of a wonderful Adobe engineer who made it so that Spark can have multiple log ins at the same time, it worked…and we started creating.
Some kids made more progress than others and in 40 minutes we had to wrap the class as the 8th grade teachers had arrived and the kids needed to get back to class. I was satisfied we got some work done.
Sindhu promised me I would get the 7th grade class the next day and also the 8th grade class so they could finish what they had started.
Day 10, July 12: Digital Literacy in the Face of the Harsh Realities of Poverty
I was up at 5 a.m. It was not raining. I took that as a good sign. I was hell bent on making the day productive. Nothing could go wrong.
I was at the school by 7.20 a.m. I went straight to the lab and personally logged into each machine. My Adobe ID was being used across all 12 computers. The kids unfinished work was all there from the previous day. The internet speed was a little slow — but it was all good.
I went up to the 7th grade class. The kids were whispering “computer class” and smiling at me and I smiled back confidently.
Sindhu and I agreed that I would take the 8th grade class first and then the 7th graders. After the recess we mediated and then the 8th grade students and I went down to the lab.
As I walked in excited… I saw that all the computer screens were blank. They need better screen savers — I thought to myself. As I moved the mouse on the 1st computer I realized the machine was not working. All the machines were dead. I was informed that the main server had smoke coming out of it. A short circuit? There was no immediate solution. The kids were already at the computers trying to get the screens to turn on. Needless to say, the kids were disappointed and my heart was heavy with disappointment.This was my last day with the kids. I could not believe what was happening.
When the 7th graders found out that the machines were dead — there were equally bummed. Muskaan asked me — “Didi today is your last day?”. Technically she was right. But I said, “No — I will come back next week after my trip to Delhi. We will finish our projects.” I got a loud cheer from the class and that was enough encouragement.
The heart wrenching experience is what happened next.
As it was not raining, Sindu and Harsh decided we could go to the community for a visit and meet some of the kids in their surroundings. We were to visit CK’s home. It was a 10 minute walk to the Dongar slum where he lives with his mother, father and 2 brothers.
The approach to his house was through alleyways that were less than 3 feet wide, it was like a labyrinth of houses built on top of each other.
We climbed up two steep ladders like on a ship. The metal door was above our head. We climbed into the small room (you can see the open metal door in the picture below) and closed the door down to the floor. The parents were away — working. The room was about 100 feet in size. No one was home. After some time a cousin came over with his little brother who was full of joy and naughtiness and made us all laugh. We sat on the floor and chatted. There was a small shrine in the room where I paid my respects, a kitchen (the bottom left image) and a bathroom (the bottom right image)
As I took it all in a rat ran across the floor. Harsh said in jest “CK, there is your friend” and we all laughed it off — me somewhat nervously.
After spending about 30 minutes in his home we were on our way back when we ran into Bilkis, another girl from the school. She insisted we visit her place. We went through another set of alleys. I had no idea how these kids made their way to and from school. I was completely lost. Not only were these alleys narrow they were close to pitch dark. It turned out Bilkis is the little sister of Mehzabeen an 8th grader I had met the previous day.
She was ecstatic to see us. She invited us into their little place. Her parents were out — working. Their little home is also occupied by 5 people. Her parents, the two sisters and a brother. She asked when we would have the computer class again? I said soon. Very lovingly she offered us some water. We spoke to both the girls for some time and then we left.
My respect for these kids grew immensely. Their environment is anything but conducive to learning. In spite of that and with no parental encouragement or facility they come to school each day — to learn and become better people and do better than their parents have.
Stand by mode
By Friday the entire school had lost electricity and Saturday we were still waiting for electricity to be restored. The Fellows suggested I skip going to the school till the PCs are up and running.
Not one to accept defeat, I decided I would use the time to get IDs set up for the kids and go through all their stories and make sure they have a good structure… so when we do get access to the machines…we can get going in earnest and have a happy ending.
Please stay tuned….(please check out my link to the Final Chapter)
