My Experience of Last Decade

Rohit Chauhan

I am a student of Sarthak Prayash (SP), an NGO. I joined free-classes started by SP ten years ago when I was in class 8^th. My mother came to know, from some of her friend, about the classes started by SP for educational guidance of those students who cannot pay fees of either coaching or tuition classes. At that time, I had no goals in my life. I joined the classes at SP in its starting phase in very first one year in 2012

Initially, I faced a lot of problems because I came from a very poor family background in terms of education as well as money. It made it very difficult for me to cop up with what Joshi sir was teaching. These difficulties were mainly due to many gaps fundamental concept. Most of us, like me, just passed the exam and were upgraded to the next higher class. But, due to this gap it created a lot of problems in the understanding concepts in higher classes. This same problem I faced in my school life and my journey in this educational initiative.

The mentoring was upgraded from conventional mode of mentoring (Chalk-N-Talk), primitive form to Online Mentoring in early 2016. At that time, I had entered in class 12th. It was later pursued as Interactive Online Mentoring Sessions (IOMS) under banner Gyan Vigyan Sarita, a non-organizational, non-remunerative, non-commercial and non-political initiative. The switchover to Online mode was based on the fact that our mentor had shifted to his new house far away from my residence and the library of SP. It made him difficult to travel to mentor us in the conventional manner. In online sessions Shailendra Sir from USA and Dhar Sir also mentored me in Physics and Maths, respectively. Me and Vikas were attending IOMS in library of SP, while the mentors were holding sessions from their respective places.

Points which I take from Joshi sir in the whole journey of a decade with him are -

1.    Focus on the concept not focus on the formulae. It helps which helps us remember concepts for a longer period

2.    Mental revision and visualizing what the concept is real life helps to create clarity.

3.    Trying to explain or even teach to other friends and classmates is never a waste of time. It adds to clarity, mitigate some misconceptions about the topic and thus develop more confidence.

4.    In class 10th class I was clear with reasons to continue education in Maths/Science subjects.

5.    Never quit in middle, whatever be the situation and be consistent with hard work.

6.    Keep on upgrading ourselves day by day.

Something that I want to share about my parents. My father is engaged as a labour in a factory. My mother. is working as a house-maid in a society in Vasundhara colony of Ghaziabad, U.P. When I was in class 5th she joined the work due to financial reasons. It got her information about persons who could teach me, single child, for some time. My mother was putting lot of efforts into arranging my teaching for me and she regularly took feedback on how my progress at studies. She kept me away from any of her problem despite many financial limitations.

In this journey, apart from Joshi sir and my mother, mentors who mean a lot to me are Khanna sir for general knowledge and personality development, Prof Ramesh Chndra Sirmaths sir for maths, Shalini Madam for English, Shailendra sir, Dhar Sir and Umesh sir, President (Sarthak Prayash) they always helped me in my learning phase. Further, Shri Sameer Lal, from Canada, provided me a laptop during my studies in engineering college. I believe learning never ends. We must keep learning and upgrading to the newer version of ourselves. Now I am a software engineer at a company MindTree and trying to keep adding up myself from here….

In last I want to say that –

Ø  Never ever stop education in the middle, whatever be the situation, or how much fewer marks we get or how many times you failed. In final run it does not mattee doesn't matter

Ø  Start enjoying the learning, otherwise, you can't d\pursue it for a longer period of time with consistency. Education is a longtime pursuit, and there are no short-cuts in knowledge and excellence

Ø  If everything in your life is smooth and simple, you can't remember the journey that's why bumps in the journey are important.

I take this opportunity to express with the deep gratitude for an opportunity to learn in this educational initiative, at its very beginning in May 2012, and continuity of my association with it all through its journey during First decade. In this period, this initiative has evolved from a single mentor classroom environment into IOMS. With a team of mentors, though small. Since October, 2015, this initiative connects the society through monthly Web-bulletin. It has also built a rich web resource in Maths-science stream  in the form of Mentors’ Manual catering to requirements upto class 12. This manual is supported with question banks and their illustrations.

I sincerely wish that more students from unprivileged families, who are deprived of educational opportunities, associate in such initiative. Further, if more educated persons join the stream of mentors, wherever they are, with a spirit  of returning  to the society a part of their achievements, it will transform lives of many students like me.  

 

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