Hamza's Diary
WOHAA Trip to India
Day 1
The day began early on a Thursday morning with the group assembling at the airport. Some of us were extremely excited with travelling to India altogether since applying for a visa is no simple task for a national of a neighbouring country as both Branavan and I found out; we had only received our visa less than 24 hours prior to the scheduled flight! Nonetheless, after having successfully checked in and said our goodbyes, our journey had truly begun.
Whilst a few of us relaxed, waiting for the right time to board the plane, others, who were obviously not well accustomed to the unpunctual nature of Air India, stressed unnecessarily in fear of being left behind.
The journey was long but we had each other to keep company through numerous games of “thumbs” and inappropriate drawings on the arm were the consequence of falling asleep as Branavan unfortunately discovered all too late.
After a rapid transit through Mumbai and short second flight we had finally arrived at our destination, Chennai, with faithful Ravi Shanker waiting for us at the airport at a respectful 5 am! It was then when we were first introduced to our driver, Lokesh, who undoubtedly made the trip all the more worthwhile with his innovative approach to driving as he dropped us off to the hotel accommodation.
Day 2
Most of the following day was spent recovering from the tiresome journey. The hotel was pleasant with a great view of the city. Once we had all got up, Mr Shanker took us for a car ride of the city. Some of us were quite used to the unorthodox and reckless attitude that is driving in India unlike Matthew who can be described as nothing less then dumbfounded.
Our first stop was the beach which, we were informed, was one of the longest in the world! The beach was not quite as luxurious as those found in Southern Europe yet it still radiated its own form of beauty. As with any other region in India, one could not walk more then 10 metres without finding some form of vendor with delicious, but deadly, food in his cart. After this adventure the bond between Ravi Shanker and Branavan blossomed through their knowledge of the Tamil language. Soon we returned to the hotel to rendezvous with tour-guide - Rajni Sriram. We were then informed of the outline of our trip and had the weekend to look forward to with relaxation and fun before three days in the SSS school of Educare.
Day 3
To our great delight we were to spend the day in a five star hotel resort. There we were treated to a fabulous buffet lunch after which we went quad biking. Then, we cooled down with a swim in the fabulous hotel pool overlooking the sea. At dinner there was live music by two excellent musicians and this had truly been a day full of entertainment. Shiv had kept true to his routine of sleeping at every opportunity from car journeys to hotel lobbies whilst Branavan’s attempt to woo one of the waitresses provided plenty of laughter as we eventually departed.
Day 4
With such an eventful day behind us, Sunday was rather more relaxed so we all took the opportunity to catch up on some long lost sleep. During the afternoon we decided to have a roam around a shopping mall in search of some good shopping deals and, after all, our mothers would not let us survive if we travelled all the way to India and returned without a single present!
Lokesh treated us to his unique style of starting a car persistently in second gear almost as if to suggest that first gear was no more than a myth to him. To ensure we were on the absolute edge of our seats he decided, at one point, to reverse on a motorway and as we all gasped with horror he returned to driving in the normal fashion of local driver.
The mall proved to be much larger than any of us had previously imagined. As a result we dispersed in groups in search of whatever we wished to buy and arranged a time and place to meet. Branavan, Matthew and I met with a local pashmina seller who was originally from Kashmir and the moment I spoke to him in Urdu he lit up and was delighted to find a fellow countryman. Consequently we were offered much discounted prices for top quality produce so we all left quite pleased although this man did inform me that if it had not been for my initial contact, his rate for most foreigners, with a quick glance at Matt, was almost double!
Branavan’s parents had booked their family holiday to Chennai during the same period of our stay in the city so we spent that evening at their hotel and were treated to a fantastic pool and a delicious meal for which we are extremely thankful to kind Rudi.
Day 5
After three adventurous days the time had finally dawned to begin our work with the school – the fundamental reason for our trip to India. An early start is never welcomed by a student; especially so in vacation time, yet we all managed to clamber ourselves out of bed and into the cold shower in an attempt to finally wake up. We all assembled for breakfast and Rajini briefed us on what to expect.
We had already paired up prior to the trip in order to prepare lesson plans for the school children. Although it would seem obvious to teach about England and English Shiv and I thought this might be quite boring for the children. They have lessons everyday and, after acquainting Annamalai in London, we soon knew that their English skills were already highly credible. For this reason we began to think outside the box on subject matter which they may have not encountered before. This led to a trail of weird yet wonderful ideas but none making the cut. After much debate, both of us finally agreed on teaching Spanish, Rugby and the credit crunch.
Upon arrival at the school we were extremely warmly greeted by the Head Mistress, Deputy Head and Management. With their wide smiles we were guided into Management’s room which was to be our base for the following two days. After all the introductions had been made we were led to respective classrooms to begin our teachings. Shiv and I began with year 7 to teach them Spanish. Initially it appeared daunting to be standing from the perspective of a teacher. 30 eager children and 30 pairs of eager eyes are watching your every move. Nonetheless it was a challenge and we started the lesson. Soon we realised just how special these children are. Their attentiveness and attitude towards learning was astonishing. Within seconds the invisible barrier had long disappeared and the children were chanting out ‘hola!’ and ‘uno, dos, tres, cuatro…’ in unison. In no time at all the children grasped hold of the numbers one to ten, and simple questions such as ‘how old are you?’ and even how to answer them in Spanish. With this first lesson being a success we repeated the class with the Year 6 who were equally enthusiastic and thrilled by the original lesson.
After eating a delicious, traditional Indian lunch we began our afternoon classes. For our pair, we were scheduled to teach Rugby to Year 8. We started with a question, ‘does anybody know anything about the sport rugby?’ Surprisingly one boy did and enlightened us on what he had heard. From this point we spent a double lesson informing them of the ins and outs of the game. From how to play to the top nations the children continued to question. By the end, we were quite almost exasperated after having been tested on everything even we know about the game! This inquisitive nature led us to then ask the Deputy if we could then play a short game of rugby with the boys to put some of these learnt rules into practice. We were granted permission and so under the heat of the Indian sun we set up a match of touch-rugby. The boys seemed to have understood perfectly as the first run ended with a try! The look on the boys’ faces told the story of just how excited they were with this new sport to them. Some boys even demonstrated how to perform professional tackles on unsuspecting fellow classmates. Although the boys did tend to form huge groups who uniformly chased after the ball, we thought our endeavours had served its purpose sufficiently.
We ended the day with the school by playing a match of volleyball against the school team, who happened to be state champions! Initially we had to be taught the rules as none of us had properly played the game before. The game began and we soon appreciated just why they had acclaimed such a title and even though we lost all 3 sets we managed to put up a good fight with the gigantic Shiv spearheading our team to a great comeback. After that we returned to the hotel exhausted with our day’s achievements. That night we all relaxed in one of the rooms before heading for an early night.
Day 6
As with the previous day, a prompt start awaited. For a change, Shiv and I decided to begin with the oldest year in the school, class 10. We felt the maturity and knowledge of these boys would best suit our credit crunch lesson. We were not disappointed as the boys were extremely sharp in taking on board the concepts and examples of Economics and apply these to the modern world. The complex subject matter continued to go further and further into deeper analysis yet the students followed with a highly credible level of understanding. Teaching is a skill that really tests the extent to which one knows their subject. The experience of sharing our learning both taught others new skills and viewpoints as well as improving our own grasp of the material. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and we hope to have enlightened them of some of the key issues in the present day.
Later that afternoon we were taken to see the science exhibition which the school had put on. A few of the students had prepared a fantastic presentation and model raising awareness for the problems associated with fertilisers and the best organic alternatives. As a reward for this brilliant effort, the boys were entered into a national competition which is to be held in Delhi. With this being our last night before the grand show which the school had arranged. We decided to put the final touches to our short play and continued to practice into late hours of the night.
Day 7
Our final day at the school had arrived and our trip was soon to be over. Time had flown by. Once we arrived at school we began our final lesson, Shiv and I took a year 3 class and did drawing with them along with singing famous children’s songs – bringing back numerous childhood memories for me!
The afternoon arrived and the school production was extremely well rehearsed with some excellent demonstrations especially the dance from the younger children and the karate from the boys. Time had arrived for our contribution, with Branavan trying his best to act as a Bollywood actor, Shiv a mad lunatic and Sahil a dopy, lazy student the laughter from our audience inspired our performances. Matt adopted the narrator role whilst I purposely mimicked every move that Sachin made. Our screenplay was based on our journey all the way from selecting our group name till the awards ceremony at Wembley stadium. Once all productions finished there was a brief prize presentation including the video-camera which I had donated to the school, and Branavan’s 150 T-shirts that his father’s company had produced. The school very generously even presented us with a gift each.
The trip was an unforgettably unique experience. We all had a marvellous holiday yet within a short space of time we managed to accomplish a lot. Undoubtedly, the most rewarding part was spending time with the children. The value-based learning is clearly a very successful method since the students’ work ethic and attitude towards learning is exemplar to all English institutions. Their manners were impeccable and it was a real joy to have been rewarded with this opportunity. It has been a great honour to work with the brilliant work that the charity does and I hope the school continues in the brilliantly successful manner it has been going.
