I was traveling to various schools in Haryana on a field visit to assess the teachers’ training program. Around 1:30 pm we took a lunch break. I was really annoyed by the trainings, so decided not to eat anything. Since I was in a school, I just sat on a chair and watched the small children play with each other. There I saw this little kid who had made a paper airplane for himself. He was alone and totally engrossed in understanding the flight of the airplane. He would throw the airplane as high as possible and enjoy watching it fly. Now before I go further I would like to tell you about this boy… his name was Mitesh. The zip of his pant was broken and around half of the buttons of his shirt were broken too. He was wearing slippers which were at least 3 sizes bigger than his foot size and his nose was running. Yet he didn’t care about any of these and continued throwing his paper-plane as high as possible. One time Mitesh put all his energy into giving his plane the highest possible flight… with the result that his plane gets stuck on a tree. Mitesh then took his slippers in his hand and started throwing them at the tree in order to get his airplane down. Mitesh finally managed to get his airplane down but then his slippers get stuck in one of the branches of the tree. But Mitesh absolutely doesn’t care that his slippers are stuck. He was just happy to get his paper-plane back and again got totally engrossed in throwing it as high as possible…


PS: While our friend Mitesh was busy flying his airplane, I and the rest of students of the school were busy getting his slippers down….which eventually we did. Mitesh however was totally lost to the world………
By: Abhineet Singh, Delhi

10 year old Somnath alias ‘Pintya’ met Pratham staff at midnight at the CST Railway Station. A run away from Pune, he had been to 3 different shelter homes before. During the interaction it was found that he had been through an extremely traumatic childhood. He was caught by the police in Pune Railway Station and was badly beaten up. Pintya was a victim of verbal and physical abuse at his home front. He was used to being beaten up by his drunkard father. Fed up of his circumstances he eloped from home and reached Mumbai.

It took a lot of convincing and dialogue with Pintya to get him to the shelter home. He came to the shelter home in April 2008. During his initial days he disliked the rules and regulations in the shelter. He abused everyone in the shelter home and wanted to run away. Just when we thought Pintya would not be able to stick around for long, he proved us wrong. He was engrossed in the drawing and would not get distracted for a second. After about ten minutes he would go up to the shelter staff and proudly showed them his drawing. That was his first step towards getting used to the routine of the shelter. Within no time he became the biggest prankster and regular member of the educational classes. He was seen engrossed trying to write and spell basic alphabets in Marathi. He struggled his way through the textbooks but kept trying hard to match his friends.

One day in an agitated mood he said “I just fought with the teacher who comes to teach us.”
When asked why, he replied “She told me she would enrol me in school next year? His face was red with anger. He got irritated and then replied. “I fought with her because she told me that she would enrol me in school next year, but then I want to go to school this year…..you have to tell the teacher to put me in school this year. We will also go and meet my mother once in Pune. I manage to stay without her during the day but when the night falls, I miss her a lot. We will go meet her because I want to tell her that I am safe and I am going to go to school very soon. I will also tell her that I will become a big man some day and will own a car and will bring her to Mumbai.”

In June 2008, he was admitted in the Janabai Rokade Municipal School, in Std. I at age 10. Looking at his progress the teachers promoted him to Std. II. This was indeed a big achievement for him and his conviction became stronger. This year Pintya stood Second in his class and has made it to Std. III. He aspires to be first in his class next year.