When Roabin informed me that I was to mentor an 11 year old child, Nilesh, the entire thing came as a bit of a surprise to me. Up till then I was doing a lot of soul searching, writing about my experience at the Saathi office, and venturing, as a learner, into the field of video editing. I never expected that I would be doing something like this so soon. Unfortunately I didn’t look at it as an opportunity immediately. No. I was my usual apprehensive self. Being a self-proclaimed introvert, I had absolutely no clue as to what I would do when I met Nilesh and his mother. Roabin delivered to me a set of very basic instructions, regarding sensitivity and respect (I would’ve been glad if it hadn’t been so very basic. Even though I oppose the idea of a rigid structure or strict protocol, in contradiction to that fact, I am also someone who revels in being told what to do. Maybe that’s because the former involves quick decision making, which is something that requires a lot of gumption). I was to refer to Nilesh’s mother, Nanda, as Nanda ma’am at all times. I was told that the object of this endeavor was to gain the trust of Nilesh and his mother. It was by gaining their trust that I could allow them to lower their guard against me and truly understand them. And by understanding I myself would be able to figure out what I could do to help Nilesh. This process is as complex and intricate as it sounds.
After being given these details by Roabin, I was left to ponder what I was going to plan for our first meeting. Pondering took me nowhere and I finally decided I would just meet Nilesh and Nanda ma’am, introduce myself and just have a conversation. As per instruction I also took my camera along. I was initially wary of doing so, unwilling to create unfounded suspicions, but Roabin was of the opinion that the camera would play a role of an object of interest for Nilesh and would help me connect with him. And he was right.
I reached the designated area, a park, on time. Nilesh wished to see me at the park to create a better first impression than he believed he could achieve at his home. The fact that this kid was already trying impressed me deeply. He had, quite cleverly, brought along a friend, a peer, to keep him company while he tried to get to know this strange new guy. Once Nanda ma’am gave me the “go ahead”, I brought out the camera, and started filming. He was initially embarrassed to answer questions in front of the camera, but once I told him to pretend he was an actor he overcame his embarrassment marginally. I involved both Nilesh and his friend Vishal in the filming of their introductions. Vishal, having studied in an English medium school and being 2 years older, was quite confident speaking about himself and his ambitions. His desire was to become a pilot. Nilesh, on the other hand was undecided as to what he wanted to become. Hopefully he was reassured once I told him I faced a similar dilemma and that as long as we gave the issue sincere thought there was nothing to worry about.
The camera turned out to be a great way to connect with the children and keep them interested. Initially they were all too glad to pose, but were before long captivated by the functioning of the camera, and as children to, they picked up its functioning and use rapidly. It was at this point that I tried to teach him 2 basic introductory lines. While he could say “My name is Nilesh” perfectly, the sentence “My age is eleven” proved to be too difficult. We made an attempted to say the sentences repeatedly. I later learnt the follies of this method were manifold. Not only was it getting us nowhere, he was also learning by rote and I wasn’t keeping things interesting. Not wishing to overburden him I called it a day. Nilesh seemed to be quite pleased with our meeting and as we said our goodbyes I decided tomorrow would be a new day, and another chance for another attempt.
P.S: I would to be grateful to receive suggestions as to how I could help Nilesh learn English and also attempt to help him understand the things he could achieve in his future.
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