Everyday Heroes! Nilam

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”

She walked into the office, smiling. She had just returned from her paternal village, she said and couldn’t wait for school to start again. No, she wasn’t a student, though she did look like one. ‘I am a teacher’, she told me with pride that shone in her eyes.

Nilam never thought teaching children at Manav Sadhna would prove to be such a moving and satisfying experience. So much so that today she confidently says that imparting education to the poor is her primary goal. ‘Children in private schools have no dearth of teachers’, she says when I ask her why she wouldn’t work in a private school for a better pay. ‘It is the children in the slums who have no access to education. Many people hesitate to work in the grassroots and hence it becomes difficult to get teachers to teach in the slums. It is the children here who really need us so as to help uplift their condition. And education being the only permanent answer to their problem is the key to any betterment that they may see.

 Teaching a classroom of first graders at the Manav Sadhna Community Centre, Nilam also helps organise the curriculum that teachers follow through the academic year in Manav Sadhna. Her worth as a teacher has today won her a place on the team of Ekatva, a special project taken up by Manav Sadhna wherein 16 slum children being trained in the performing arts would be taken to different parts of the country to perform. Nilam is on the team as their teacher so as to help with value based education for these children and also to help the children cope up with all the lost lessons from the classroom due to their hectic schedules.  In addition to Ekatva, Nilam is currently even working on a very interesting project called Swagyaan. Talking about Swagyaan, she says ‘Every child has a dream. He may be living in the bleakest of homes, in the most dark of rooms but his dreams and aspirations are often Technicolor! As their teachers and well wishers, it is our responsibility to make sure that they realise these dreams. Often they know what they want to be but do not know how to get there. Swagyaan is going to be all about helping these children get there.’

Teaching surely is one of the most noble of professions. For, in the willingness to share your knowledge with others is hidden your willingness to give. ‘But the beauty of this art is that the more I give, the more I get’, laughs Nilam. ‘There is not one day when I haven’t learnt more than what I have taught!’

Nilam with her beautiful smile, her selfless love for her students, her enthusiasm for her work and her will to make a difference in the lives of poor children through education is our everyday hero! To Nilam and to all the other teachers who inspire... we bow!