Sarita and hindi medium

Sarita is a young girl of 10 years who studies in a private school that have mushroomed allover Punjab promising better education and the prizes’t of all-English spoken better than the natives! She is a daughter of a so-called Doctor in my village and hence has a better and higher social standing than the rest of the children who attend an evening school that I have been running for a few years. This school apart from trying to teach them their regular subjects also tries to give the girls a voice.

In fact, these girls that come from different communities and from various segregated castes (this division exists) have a whisper of a voice. They are always, anemic, have low self-esteem and no confidence and are always fidgety in their behavior. One of the first things I try to ask them is have they eaten food? So they say, yes and hence I try to give them a voice to speak loudly and to be heard. These male-centric states are trying to change but we fail, and we fail miserably.

So, this chit of a girl, who you would not even glance at, came for class to study with us.

She needs no extra classes, is well read and is one of the sharpest kids that I have come across and just wanted to be with us to imbibe the class that is one step more than rote learning.

And, she became a regular. She surprised me with her attentiveness and her work. Last week, we were talking about Nirbahaya rape case and the consequences and then the conversation went to mother’s day and the importance of being a woman. She kept on listening.

I spoke a favorite quote of mine from Dr Seuss; you have to be odd to be number one. I wanted them to be comfortable in their skin, to be confident about themselves, to be proud and most importantly not to hide themselves just because the system is so screwed up and always is out to lay the blame the girl that she was seeking attention by dressing up or calling upon male admiration.

Sarita studied for one week and I started building a dream of her studying with me, and then college and the civil services and then to become a judge. She wants to be a judge to change the law and make a difference to amend laws to change the society for women. One week hence, she stopped coming to school, as her father didn’t want her fratenisizing with the kids of the other communities and who were studying in government school.

Hindi Medium is a movie that just got released over the weekend and it was a well conceptualized film with a hard hitting message that shows how shallow and driven we have become to school our children so that they are acceptable in this fake society that has become a wrapped up in false values. Today, a measure of one’s success is when we can, talk, walk and even sleep English, a society that places values that are so western and alien to our structure raising confused individuals that are neither here nor there.

This division and drive to educate children in English schools has infiltrated in our villages where they just learn by rote and are left at a juncture caught between the rural and urban divide.

My little Judge girl was snapped away by her father who didn’t want her to study with the Punjabi medium children. She showed grit and character that is so within us and just needs to be kindled by defying her father and coming to school yesterday. I asked her, how did she do this. Her answer was simple and to the point, she said her grandparents brought him up and he has risen to become a compounder and they were illiterate. So, as they are educated, she could become a better person even here amongst her kind.

We, all have wings; it’s a question when we want to fly and how high. Look behind yourself, you all are 99 percent angel and that one percent devil and we all need that right mix to reach for the skies, but never forget we all come to roost at the same place.