Lalita and Her Siblings

   Her eyes gaunt like a martlet in ramshackle whose pinions have been tethered by the burden of family life as she stood there rapt in attention, yet lips pursed shut. If I were to look for a colloquial term for her expressions I would surely term it “exam jitters”. But the irony of the story is, she was just a 15-year-old sister who brought in two of her 5-year-old siblings for their assessment before they were handed over the kit to brush up their existing knowledge.

            Our team at Pratham had arranged for a small gathering at I.T Kendra in Dausa to conduct the assessment of kids studying in LKG. to class 1. A box shaped room, with collapsible iron gates at three corners of the room and no electricity, sweat trickling from every corner of the body would feel rather life threatening had it not been for the never dying cacophony of the villagers expressing their excitement to see their kids perform to be rewarded.

            The assessment was taking time to be conducted on each student, I took the liberty to interact with the parents of the kids to ask them the reason behind their motivation to come over leaving their work behind. Most of them said they were somehow coaxed to attend a short assessment followed by “material collection”. They were told that their children would be rewarded at the completion of the assessment.

            Leaning against one of the collapsible gates like a lost soul in a crowd I saw her for the first time. Lalita Rajbalai brought her siblings Poonam and Shankar for the assessment and kit collection and stood there crouching and barely blinking in a pensive state. I thought she was absorbing the nitty gritty of the assessment but turns out she was rather lost in her thoughts of the many work she was yet to attend after getting home. Since the loss of their father, Lalita took over household chores while their mother became the sole breadwinner of the family.

       Her siblings on the other hand were the most innocent faces I had come across all day long. Brother Shankar dressed up in his best attire, would not open his mouth while his sister Poonam would not stop talking! The bond of a sibling reflected so well during every test where Poonam would not stand in a queue for her turn, rather kept prompting answers to Shankar or repeating the instructions in a baby tone to her brother so he would answer. Sometimes she even held his hand to make him feel comfortable in the crowd, but he refused to answer the questions and poor Lalita’s pupils dilated a little more to almost burst out in tears. She felt her efforts to educate her siblings are not enough. While the other parents kept pushing and patting their kids to answer correctly she stood there rock solid, contemplating where she had gone wrong.

        Gradually it was sister Poonam’s turn to appear for her assessment. She was a kid full of zeal and confidence to answer and was determined to answer all questions correctly. That was the point where Lalita’s facial expression seemed to change. Her eyebrows arched back to where they should be and for once did I see her lips struggle to crack a smile. She wiped her sweat with her dupatta and let out a gasp of air that she had been holding back too. As the assessment proceeded and they reached the final counter for the last test, she finally breathed an air of finality and smiled as wide as her mouth could stretch. Her anxiety seemed to have flapped wings and take off alas.  

        Well for sometime, the smile could have been a sign of relief that it was all over and she could finally get back to her chores without wasting anymore time. To her it was much more than that. When I finally managed to talk to her for a few seconds before she vanished in thin air, pacing to pick up her chores from where she left them she told me, she was rather elated that her siblings had been chosen to receive the gift of education that could probably not be possible considering their economic status. She mentioned how education is hard to impart without the apt materials. Being educated has helped Lalita realize the importance of the material that was being distributed. While the others were there for the material as a symbol of a gift, she was there to see where her siblings stand and how she can teach them later when left to face them alone. If I were to translate and quote her exact words they would be as “One needs to know where to start. With Pratham materials, Now I know what to teach my siblings when I’m done with my work and my studies."
(प्रथम मटेरियल के साथ कहा से शुरु करने की आवश्यकता होती है. मैं अब जानती हूँ की बच्चो को मुझे क्या सीखना है. जब मैं मेरा काम और अध्ययन पूर्ण होगा)

                                                  Prithusha Sikdar