Confidence!

Last week we the storytellers went to a government school whose students hail mostly from poor families. So poor that they engage their children in manual labour (as assistants to parents) during holidays to gain that extra dough to keep the kitchen fire burning. Naturally these parents have a very low regards for education and seldom participate in school related activities, not even helping their kids do their home work. So told the Head Mistress to us.

We went in, unloaded enthralling stories to the rapt attention of 120+ kids and the one hour permission given to us by the H.M got extended to 2.5 hours; nobody asked us to stop, including the H.M who sat through, so we carried on till the school closing time :-)

Once we finished our session and were about to leave, quite a few kids walked up to us, sought our hands to shake and introduced themselves 'I am Nirmala, I standard, thank you Sir, I am Vivek,  II standard, Thank you Madam and so on' - nobody prompted them!

Such a positive attitude from such young kids from poor families in a govt. school! 

Unlike the economists, I say with real conviction, 'We see green shoots for a promising future'!