Hundred Years from Now

Stumbled upon these lines on the website of an organization called Dream a Dream which is quite similar to Abhigyaan, they do almost the same job on a slightly larger base.

One hundred years from now,
It will not matter,
What kind of car I drove,

What kind of house I lived in,

How much I had in my bank,
Nor what my clothes looked like.

One hundred years from now,
It will not matter,
What kind of school I attended,
What kind of typewriter I used,
How large or small my church.

But the world may be. . .
A little better because. . .
I was important in the life of a child.

-

First Day

It all started with a call from an unknown number. Although it became quite familiar after the first time we spoke. The guy on the other end of the line was Kaushik and he asked me if I was free and can come to C-Wing, this actually meant that I can join Abhigyaan right then if am willing to.

I remember that before I joined Abhigyaan, I actually never considered it as a place I would stick to for long. I was indifferent towards the fact that something like that existed. I remember shouting at Krishan for behaving like a paranoid when it came to Abhigyaan timings. This was the story untill Durga Puja 2008.

After the Puja, I had reasons.

In less than a week those reasons had a 180 degrees phase shift and the earlier ones started sounding stupid to me, they even embarrass me at times but by now probably the actual purpose of Abhigyaan took over me.

Anyways, coming back to my first day, I took not more than five minutes to reach C-Wing where Kaushik introduced me to Rupa who then introduced me to Umesh, who was my student for the day.

Now being completely new to the system I was actually scared about teaching someone. Considering my previous record I undoubtedly suck at it. I have been so bad at helping others with studies that every time my sister asks for some help I end up shouting at her for asking silly questions rather than patiently dealing with the doubts.(I know, I am bad.)

Now I was blankly staring at Umesh and he reciprocated the gesture with an inquisitive gaze. Umesh had an English text book with him which actually pleased me coz English has always been my preferred subject, moreover, explaining words is easier than teaching numbers.

We read a story about the families of ants and their behavior. The story was fun and the guy was a really quick learner. So I had absolutely no trouble teaching him. An hour passed by quickly and I never even got bored.
This was my first day at Abhigyaan which I proudly cherish now.

Inception

On 15th of August, 2005 when he was addressing the students of BITS on the occasion of Independence day, Prof. T.C. Goel proposed the idea of starting a literacy drive in the campus. "Education for all" was what he aimed at and this very line became Abhigyaan's aim as a club. Dr. Basavadatta Mitra, faculty in charge, Vignesh, Sherin, Krupala and Shwetha, my seniors and Abhigyaan's first set of co-coordinators, were really the pillars that Abhigyaan was resting upon when it was started. Abhigyaan's co-coordinators for the last academic year were Suraj, Vamsee Prateek, Charita and Ramya Sravani. This year a team of six dedicated individuals Ravi Agarwal, Krishan Agrawal, Prudhvi Vasa, Ujwala Kovuri, Ankit Panchbhai and Abhishodh is taking care of Abhigyaan and is party responsible for the tremendous progress that Abhigyaan has seen through the period.

Abhigyaan had humble beginnings, at the end of 2005 there were around 30 students enrolled. These students included kids from the slums around BITS, mess workers, security guards, hostel assistants etc. After three years now, Abhigyaan boasts of around 100 students and the journey is still going on.