Miss Nandini was facing the board writing the question and answers when she was disturbed by a loud sound of glass crashing on the floor. She walked towards the middle row fourth desk in anger as she was almost sure that is where noise must have come from. Advik sat there holding two small broken mirrors, a tangle of wires and a small toy car in his hand. His gaze was fixed on broken mirrors as he exclaimed loudly \”Now how will I power it?\” and banged his fist on the desk. As the entire class looked up from their notebooks to witness yet another dramatic event unfolding, Miss Nandini snatched the things from Advik\’s hand and reprimanded him.
\”Not again Advik, where is your notebook?\”
Advik fumbled through his bag to hand it over to his teacher. Edges of the book had torn and pages from the middle flew into the air. The writing was barely legible and there were corrections in red ink from the teacher in most part of the writing. The last few pages were filled with diagrams of various strange things with meticulous labelling.
\” Where is your today\’s work?\” She demanded.
He stared quietly at the floor.
\” What chapter did I teach you today?\” she asked in anger.
Silence prevailed.
\” Go to the principal\’s office right now…\”she yelled as some of his classmates sniggered at him.
Advik dragged his frail feet towards Principal\’s office as Miss Nandini engaged the class in a writing assignment and walked behind him.
Mrs Saraswathi, the much adored Principal of the school sat immersed in her files as Advik walked in.
\”What did you do this time?\”
\”M\’am he doesn\’t read, write or listen in class. His work is all incomplete. He is unfit to be in this school..\” Miss Nandini spoke from behind.
\” I want to talk to this child alone\” Mrs. Saraswathi ordered.
She had heard enough complaints from various teachers about Advik. That his concentration was deficient, his writing skills were poor; he struggled with his homework his language was weak, his performance in tests and exams was not satisfactory… She hadn\’t quite figured out what was going wrong. The boy seemed bright and enthusiastic when she spoke casually with him. Was he just lazy? Unlikely because she always saw him doing something. Was he disturbed in personal life? Unlikely because had great parents, good home and seemed happy. His main problem was that he wasn\’t interested in anything happening in school. She had decided she would try to figure out why. First step was to talk to him. All alone.
As Miss Nandini stepped out of Principal\’s office Mrs.Saraswati called the boy closer to her and sat him down. Her experienced gaze caught the twinkle in Advik\’s eyes. The white hairs that adorned her fancy bun had come with decades of experience in teaching children from all age groups and various backgrounds. She had a rare knack for making the most shy and silent child in the class open up. Her understanding was that the boy sitting in front of her was in no way dull or deficient in something.
\”Do you like school? \”she looked into his eyes and questioned.
Advik chose to remain silent.
\” You can talk to me… I won\’t punish you if you tell me the truth Advik\” she persisted.
\” M\’am, I find school boring. I don\’t find anything interesting in reading and writing, sometimes same thing repeatedly. I feel sleepy when the teacher is teaching the lessons in class. It is not fun at all. If my parents didn\’t insist me to go to school I would spend all day in my room doing fun things. That way I will have so much time to do things that I really want to do\” he said.
\”What do you like doing that makes you happy child? \” She asked with motherly affection.
\”M\’am coming to school does not make me happy at all. I hate it here.\” His face reflected genuine sadness.
\”M\’am come to my house once, I will show you what makes me happy\” he replied.
Mrs. Saraswathi was intrigued. No child had ever invited her to his/ her house. She had to find out now.
That evening the Kumars had a surprise visitor. After the initial pleasantries Mrs. Saraswathi had a elaborate conversation with Mrs. Puja Kumar and Mr. Sunil Kumar, Advik\’s parents. She came to know that he was their only child and since both of them were working Advik spent most of the time in his room working on something or the other. After sending Advik to play outside, Mrs. Saraswathi informed them about his poor performance in most of the activities at school and asked them whether they knew the reason for it.Advik\’s mother spoke first.
\” Yes Ma\’m we are aware of it. But he is a very intelligent kid. At home whenever we tell him something he understands very quickly. He learns new activities all by himself. Whenever we speak to him he listens and follows instructions. But teachers at school tell us the exact opposite. The only trouble that I face as a parent are getting his schoolwork and homework done. Apart from that he hardly troubles me. In fact he is a quiet and shy kid always keeping himself busy. \”
\” You have to see his room to believe us\” his dad interrupted in between. Mrs. Saraswathi followed them quietly. As she entered the place where this child spent most of his time, she was in for a big surprise. What she saw in front of her eyes just blew her mind. In her career spanning four decades she hadn\’t witnessed any space so imaginatively crafted by a child of this age.
As one entered the room the door pushed a button which was connected by various wires to light bulbs strategically placed all across the room and all of them lit up at the same time. One of the wires led to a small waterfall model from which water started flowing. This flowing water made its way through small tunnels through out the room which had paper boats of various shapes and sizes all moving in different directions. In the corner was a book rack filled with books- encyclopedias to do-it-yourself science experiment books to manuals of electronics, to popular science fiction books. There was a small stool with wheels and a remote control to move it in any direction. A railway track ran across the room with a remote controlled railway engine coursing through it. The room was filled with mirrors of all sizes placed in different angles to focus beams of sunlight entering from different windows to a single location where there were two huge solar panels.
Advik\’s Dad told Mrs.Saraswathi about how he used solar energy to power small toy cars and make them run without batteries. He also showed her his workbook lying on the table containing various diagrams with labelling which were too complex for his age. After carefully analysing this haven Advik had created Mrs. Saraswathi came to a conclusion. This child was by no means lazy, dull or inefficient. He was just a misfit in our education system. A square peg in a round hole!
Mrs. Saraswathi spent next few hours with Advik\’s parents and appreciated them for encouraging his talent by providing whatever he asked them. She also discussed his education options as conventional education system was doing him no good but just killing his time and creativity. All three of them agreed that he would be better off in a school which catered to his imagination and creativity. Mrs Saraswathi, after taking permission of his parents took out her phone and searched for a contact. A friend of hers at National Institute of Higher Learning whom she had last met more than a decade back. He had asked her to watch out for uniquely talented kids for whom their institute had many projects. She had never got an opportunity to respond to him. Now it was about time.
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10yrs later:
Mrs. Saraswathi was woken up by a loud knock on the door. She opened it to find a brand new car in her front yard. A person who stood beside it with bouquet of flowers in his hand gave it to her and said:
\”M\’am I am the CEO of the company manufacturing solar powered cars as a part of the country\’s pioneer project headed by Masterminds in field of solar power. One of them happens to be Mr. Advik Kumar. This car here is a part of first few batches of cars manufactured under this project, running completely on solar power. Mr.Kumar wanted to personally come and gift it to you but he could not come as he was held up by project work so instead he sent me to do the job. He also has a personal message for you\” he said and pulled out an envelope from the bouquet and handed it over to Mrs. Saraswathi with car keys.
She slowly opened the letter inside. It had an almost illegible but familiar handwriting with incomplete letters scrawled in hurry. As she read it tears formed in her eyes but a smile spread across her face. It said:
\” M\’am, I am glad I went to school where you were the Principal. I feel so lucky that you discovered my inner fire and mentored me to reach my potential. But there are many Adviks out there who may not be that fortunate, whose skills are waiting to be honed and whose talents are waiting to be discovered. Please accept this small gift from me as token of gratitude. I have something more important to offer you… As a part of our project we are setting up a committee to search for talented school children from all major schools in the country to train them and make them a part of our team. Could you please accept the position of Head of this committee and assist us in this enormous task? Those children out there with fire in their belly, and dreams in their eyes are waiting to be discovered and mentored by your experienced hands… I hope you can join us soon….\”
Mrs. Saraswathi sighed loudly; the most significant job of her life was about to begin…..