‘Camputer’!

We are working regularly with Rahul and Amit. The other children on the brick kiln have started lingering around us. They find our cameras and mobile phones terribly attractive! They have started urging us to take their ‘photu’. As soon as we take a photograph, they want to see it. Today, I took my laptop to show them the photographs. As I switched it on, I asked them, “Do you know what this is?” Some of them replied, “Camputer.” “What is it used for?”, I asked. “To see photos,” they said. I was impressed by their quick wit!

All of them gathered around me, and started telling me about the people seen in the photos.

Radhi said, “This is Mati. She is married to my brother. She used to go to Kishor guruji’s school.” Amit said, “This is Bhagoji baba. He is setting up the kiln.”

I came to know the stories of many people seen in the photos. I asked the children, “If I write all this, would you read it?” All of them replied “Yes” in unison. I copied a photograph into a word file, and started writing what the children were telling me. I wrote it down as they told me, without converting it to the standard, formal Marathi.

Radhi’s parents…

This is Raja and this is Vandana. They are Radhi’s parents. They woke up at 4 AM. They brought mud from the pit, and prepared lumps of mud … Then they wetted the molds and slapped the mud into them. They applied water on top. Then they spread sandy clay on them. They lifted the molds and released the bricks. A row of bricks was ready. They put some more sandy clay on the bricks. Then they molded the bricks using tin sheets. They will finish this mud-work by 10 AM. Then they will clean up and go to their bhonga for lunch.

As I typed, Amit, Rahul, Chandrika and Radhi started reading aloud. Amit, Chandrika and Radhi are able to read somewhat fluently. Rahul is still reading one word at a time. Kishor told me that when he started teaching these children last year, they were not literate at all. Their enthusiasm to read and write ebbed and flowed like the tides! If they felt like it, they would read, or simply declare “I’m feeling lazy” and walk away! But today, seeing their enthusiasm helped us understand something – they may feel lazy to read lessons from their text books, but if the text is connected with their lives, they are definitely interested in reading it.

Kishor and I have decided to capture their life in photographs, prepare text based on the photos and ask them to read it. For those who are not showing an interest in reading, we are going to write their own stories. We believe that if such text is made available to them, they would definitely start taking an interest in learning to read.