With Nilesh at his Home

After our first meeting and the trouble I had making Nilesh understand a few words in English, I had a conversation with Roabin. He suggested that I could try and teach Nilesh English by talking to him only in English thereby compelling him to learn; a method tried and tested by many a foreign language institute teaching basic levels of a foreign language (I’ve been learning German quite well in this manner from Inlingua). My mother, a lady of vast teaching experience, gave me an idea as to how I could help Nilesh start a project of sorts. I was to hand him the digi-cam and ask him to go camera-happy all around the park. I told him we would do the same at his house the next day and we would make a scrap book of the pictures that I would later hand over to him.

So our meeting on this day involved a lot of photography and games. This was the approach I had chosen i.e., to have fun with Nilesh, keep him interested and thus gain his trust. After this connection was established I could attempt to give him a few lessons. Towards the latter half of our meeting I sat him down again and spoke to him in English. I made an effort to speak slowly & clearly with signs as an aid to convey the meanings. At times I had to break in to Hindi because the conversation wouldn’t get anywhere. An interesting fact was that one of Nilesh’s friends, who was much younger than Nilesh, was answering my questions and picking up words at a more brisk pace. Nilesh on the other hand wasn’t able to catch on. That did get me a little worried. Once again not wanting to strain the newly developed connection I decided that we could resume our attempts the next day.

Our third day was by far the most interesting. I’d promised Nilesh the day before that I would go to his home for my next visit. Nilesh arrived at the park before me for the very first time, looking very eager and excited. This time too he brought along a string of friends. Once at the slum, the kids took me around to every nook and cranny that held any importance to them. They showed me the play area near the rail tracks behind the slum, the gymnasium, the common idol room, and even their adopted kittens. Another favorite spot was the make-shift “Parallel Bars” that the children used, where Nilesh and Raymond showed me their gymnastic skills worthy of the Olympic Games. Nilesh and Vishal also proudly displayed their photography skill to all their friends and we were able to take some really good photos.

One of the most wonderful things about this experience was how happy he seemed when we arrived at his home. Nilesh’s home was extremely small- a single very compact room. It was about the size of a bathroom of most any middle-class family house, with a small bed forced into one corner, a television and cabinet with pictures of Gods and Goddesses in another corner. Just next to that was a little rack with all the plates followed by a small gas burner which constituted the kitchen.

        

    

Nanda ma’am politely offered me sweet tea and pohe. Eating with Nilesh and his friends at his home was a unique experience for me, having never been in a slum before, let alone eat a meal in one. This certainly was an experience to remember.

Will write again. Bye for now. Tschüß. Auf Wiedersehen.