Nandini was the eldest child of her parents, Eliayyah and Lakshmi. The couple was also blessed with two sons, Gopal and Sai. Eliayyah worked as the care-taker of an apartment complex while Lakshmi worked as the maid in several households in the neighbourhood. They enrolled their three children in a local Telugu medium school.
In the evenings, all the children would gather in the apartment basement and play together. Lakshmi, Gopal and Sai were also part of the children´s play group. Initially, there were no issues between the children. But, as the years passed by, the glaring differences in economic conditions started to slowly crop up. The richer boys would physically assault Gopal and Sai when they refused to obey them or agree to their demands. The parents of the rich children would never check their children for their misdemeanour and often scold Eliayyah and his children for troubling their sons.
Nandini started to alienate herself from the group slowly because she felt like a misfit. Being an introvert didn´t help her cause much either. The fact that she entered her puberty further made her feel very self-conscious and she preferred her own solitude for company. But, the main reason that she felt like a big misfit was her lack of knowledge of English. All the girls of her age in the apartment had highly educated parents, mothers more so. Their mothers were so different from her maid mother. They were polished and sophisticated, not just in dressing but also in speech, behaviour and intellect. Even though, they were all kind to her, she started to develop a huge complex about not knowing English and being as sophisticated as the rest of her peers in the apartment.
However, Pragnya started to miss Nandini´s company immensly. Pragnya was the only child of her parents and she was very fond of Nandini. Pragnya´s mother, Shalini was a social worker and she keenly observed the change in behaviour in Nandini. For a long time, she suspected issues of low self-esteem in Nandini and her suspicions were confirmed when she found the classic symptoms of withdrawal in Nandini.
Shalini decided to take matters in her own hands and resolve this issue. Not just because Nandini was Pragnya´s good friend but also because she wanted to genuinely help Nandini. Nandini was a very bright girl barring her knowledge of English. She was intelligent and kind but highly self-conscious of her economic background. More so over the year as the children were growing up and so were their awareness levels. Shalini felt Nandini really needed to learn English and not knowing the language could prove to be a handicap for her future. Knowing English would throw open several doors of opportunity for the young girl and give her hope to change her economic status quo.
Call it Universe´s conspiracy or divine blessings, Shalini learnt about ´Pathshala Funwala´ program by Nihar Naturals Shanti Amla the next day. She was thrilled at this creative mode of learning English. Shalini recollected her own inhibitions as a child. She was extremely shy and had very few friends and could barely muster the courage to go up on stage and speak naturally. Then, she met Sneha, her college friend and they would have regular phone-calls, talking about events, big and small. Soon enough, Shalini became a chatter-box losing all her inhibitions and slowly started making small conversation with other girls in the college. In no time, her social circle expanded. She also gained the confidence to go up on stage and speak in front of several hundreds in her college. She realised the powerful impact of casual conversations, especially phone conversations.
She decided to talk to Nandini personally. One evening, she called the little girl to her home. Over a cup of Boost and some biscuits, Shalini praised Nandini for all her accomplishments till date and advised her to learn a new language, English for starters. She shared Nihar Shanti Amla’s Pathshala Funwala’s toll free number 8055667788 with the little one encouraging her to learn English everyday. Shalini would periodically check on Nandini´s periodic phone-calls and always be there to support and remind her.
Shalini´s good Samaritan act worked wonders for Nandini´s self-esteem and confidence. She saw history repeat itself as Nandini´s personality underwent a radical transformation through the power of a simple phone-call. Nandini soon started interacting with Pragnya and the other children in her apartment and conversing them in English.
This is just a fictional story based on real-life characters. As in the story, it takes very little from each one of us to begin a revolution or bring about a positive change in someone´s life. All it takes is an intent and the transformation will surely follow. Are you ready to make a difference in someone´s life today?
I strongly urge you to share Nihar Shanti Amla’s Pathshala Funwala’s toll free number 8055667788 with people you think need help and tell them how they can learn English easily.
I would like to conclude with this magnimous quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, modern day spiritual monk from Vietnam.
Build someone up apart from yourself today.