The Pastures Seem Bright Green No Longer

I should have realized that things were moving forward all too smoothly. No journey in life is ever that smooth. There are bound to be hiccups and road-blocks all along the way. And guess what?? I recently met my very first road-block! So let me state my problem --

For two consecutive days I made my way to the park and on both days Nilesh did not arrive. I spent almost an hour at the park in waiting each day, only to end up feeling ever so slightly snubbed. Nanda ma’am told me that Nilesh wasn’t feeling well. However, a day or too later that reason transformed into an outright refusal to come and meet me. As most anyone can guess, I was a little shocked, and for a person who tends to take things at a very personal level, I was a little hurt as well. Be that as it may, there was no time to be wasted. This problem had to be tackled sooner than later. In that spirit (and with a little advice from Roabin) I arranged a meeting with Nanda ma’am.

When she arrived at the park, she brought Nilesh along with her (something that I had expected might happen). We sat down together and I tried to have a conversation with Nilesh. But this wasn’t the Nilesh I knew. This seemed to be some other kid. The Nilesh I met had always been sweet and had always listened. That was not what he was doing now! He refused to look at me as I talked and refused to respond. His “Yes I want to learn English” turned into an out-and-out “NO I DO NOT”. At one point he stormed out of the park with an outburst of anger, and so, a little stunned, I turned my attention towards Nanda ma’am.

She was quite frank and didn’t seem wary about laying all her problems bare in front of me. She relayed her fears regarding Nilesh and what he might become as he grows up. I could see the worry in her eyes. And she could see similar emotions in mine. Here I was, supposedly the mentor, and all this was turning out to be the perfect mood dampener. I was not playing my role well in the least bit. The situation Nilesh was facing was quite upsetting. To me he seemed a victim of his circumstances. Here in the slum, his idols, the teenage boys, were telling him to do the exact opposite of what he was being told by his mother or by me. And as an eleven year old he, like his friends, believed that fun was more important than work and opportunity. It seemed like everything around him was asking him to fail, was begging him to fall into the rut that the others he knew were falling into…

I was in a fix and as a result I resorted to something I later realized was sheer bribery. I showed Nilesh the car I had arrived in that day and offered to take him for a ride and show him the video of our first meeting on the internet to regain his interest….having made this promise I left for the day…remembering only how his face had lit up at the prospect of a car ride…

Once again I beg for your comments & suggestions.
Bye for now. Tschüß. Auf Wiedersehen.