I recently interviewed a group of 5 students after class in the computer room. Bitopan Medhi, Bikas Tumung and Biku Patur, all 15, read in class 8. This is probably my favorite class because they are especially good natured and both the girls and the boys participate. The class has a few girls that organize games of dang and aren’t afraid to speak up and everyone catches on quickly when I teach them chalk board games. Bitopan speaks the best English in the class, perhaps in the whole school. The other two students were Sotiesh Tumung, 13, and Bitopan’s brother Rupjyoti, 10, a round, happy kid. The Medhi boys tell me their favorite food is meat. The older boys have all been at Parijat for at least 5 years, Sotiesh for one, and Rupjyoti also for 5, since class KG.

When I asked what their fathers do for work they told me Inland Water Transport, Guwahati Municipal Corporation, and business/land, though this did not give me a clear idea of their day to day labors. Bitopan said his father was a peon (probably a word that many American kids don’t know), but even with his good English it was difficult to get certain concepts across. They each liked their favorite subject because it was “important and interesting” – science, science, English, science, science and math. The science teacher at Parijat is a kind, quiet man named Promen who lived just a few houses from school. He has taken me under his wing on occasion to explain Indian things and goes out of his way to be friendly. Tonight I showed him pictures of my family. Chemistry lectures about substituting metal compounds seems impractical at compared to the rest of the curriculum (English, Hindi, Assamese, math, social science, computer) but it introduces the students to something novel, a way of thinking that they may never encounter elsewhere. It’s an “academic” way of thinking, the only such subject Parijat offers and perhaps that’s why they like it.

I asked them what their goals where. Bitopan wants to be a doctor, Bikas an army man, Biku and hotel manager, Soteish a doctor and a teacher (we discussed the possibility of having two aims) and Rupjoti a scientist. It was good to hear that they didn’t ALL strive to be doctors. When I asked Bitopan earlier what he wanted to be after Parijat he said he wanted to be a “good man” – a ballsy answer I thought for a 15 year old. Except Rupjoti, each had gone to government schools before Parijat but in some cases the schools were too far away to walk (10-12 km) and each only went through class 4. They like Parijat because there’s always something happening; festivals, outings, etc. Uttam organizes events to open the kids’ eyes to the world – on Saturday we took 2 school buses to The Royal Global School to watch primary school Indian heritage dances in a sixth-story, acoustically-designed, state-of-the-art auditorium. Afterwords there were refreshments in the tea garden. The contrast between schools made my jaw drop…I have no idea what the kids thought.

Parijat students are proud that international volunteers come to their school, something that no other school in the area offers, including the Royal Global School. Each volunteer gives them something slightly different, showing them as they show us that people around the world are really, surprisingly, all the same. Their only requests were for teachers to always attend class and for a playground.