'Not always, no, but I do now.'
This was music to our ears as we enjoyed our final evening at KCS in the presence of Parsuram and Anmol, our two star teachers. Wow. Two twenty-something charismatic best-friends who have discovered that wealth is often not material.
We met Anmol and Parsuram properly during our first weekend in Pedong back in September. During a walk to the best viewpoint above the town (had the cloud not laid our plans to waste, it is one of the rare spots where you can see 14 turns of the Teesta river down at 500m or so and Kanchenjunga at 8500m), Sarah and I enjoyed lovely conversations with the two of them: life in Pedong, families, teaching, and from Parsuram his understanding of soft skills from a career before he turned to eduction. The closeness of the two was apparent from the start, and tales of late night liquor sessions together after hard days at school, and glorious banter between them has been delightful to watch.
Both boys are 25. Anmol has an oriental face, and above it a neatly slicked back mane which wouldn't look out of place in Bugsy Malone. He's always smart, and gives an air of confidence and on first glance aloofness. But that's just a front. Behind it he's friendly, kind, and bright. He's been a further source of intrigue as we have seen him walking away from school in the evenings with one of the English teachers. Sadly, cultural etiquette means that we haven't managed to find out whether they're actually an item or not. But we were reassured when chatting to another of the teachers, Samrat, to find that all the other teachers had been asking the same question amongst themselves. Nothing like a bit of good gossip.
With frighteningly angular cheekbones, Parsuram is the geeky kid in the clothes that don't quite fit. All his clothes are too big for him, as if his Mum still believes there's room for growth. Perhaps his charming, but sadly silent on account of her not speaking a word of English, wife likes him to look a little bigger than he is. Both boys are typically slight and short. You'd mistake them for teenagers in the UK. But sparkly eyes echo his endearing enthusiasm and positive outlook. Even when Gautam has set him some impossible deadline for some impossibly important document which requires preparing on a computer, he remains cheerful and calm. He's unflappable. There was a lovely moment during Foundation Day when, as two of the boys singing on stage suffered an attack of nerves, Parsuram turned away from the audience at his seat in front of the PA system, and sang subtly into the microphone conveniently placed there to help them out. And that's just one example of his selfless attitude.
Together they're an inseparable team. And it is perhaps these two guys who have made the most progress during our time at KCS. Energetic, enthusiastic, and eager to learn themselves, we leave them knowing that the children are in the hands of a couple of people who are naturals in the classroom. Anmol has an ability to explain anything scientific with the most accurate chalk board drawings combined with the use of some of the more activity-based learning we have introduced him to. Parsuram just has a way with the kids which means they sit glued to his every word, and a mind that can spontaneously adapt to the situation. In his thank you card to me he very vociferous about my help in lesson planning with him, but more often than not it was his ideas that were more applicable and the ones we used. Brilliant. Gives us real hope.
So we found ourselves on our final night at KCS sitting in Gautam and Suchita's sitting room-cum-chambre with these two affable friends. A couple of beers (for us) and 'Honey Bees' (strong brandy for them!) later and it was so great to find that we were not talking to the stereotypical staid concept of Indians. When we mentioned Top Gear their eyes lit up - transpires it's just as popular in West Bengal as it is on Dave at home - and the conversation moved from there to g-suits, Topgun, and further still to missiles; from there religion was the catalyst for a dialogue which really opened up. I think that when put into a culture seemingly so different to one's own, the desire to find out more and to compare is always strong. In this case, though, what we found was that although we shared inquisitiveness about each other's homes, we also shared a lot more than that. A desire to do some good, to make a difference. As they effused about life, it was abundantly clear that they are so happy in the Himalayan hills. "We have heard of wifi, but we haven't used, we only have 2G, we are so behind out here. But it doesn't matter, we don't need it. We are very happy. We are so lucky, we have everything we could want here." What a refreshing outlook. They have each other, their families, and of course in that Indian way from which we could learn so much, they have that sense of community which I suspect would be very hard to recreate in the UK. And now they have a lovely means of directing that sense of wanting to help that community. We were left in no doubt that these two, thick-as-thieves, would be the ones to keep putting the effort in at school, despite whatever obstacles came their way, and importantly we have no doubt that they'll share it with us. We cannot tell you how much we look forward to that.
Pictures:
Anmol and Giles teach class 4 all about soil erosion. His dam model was the winner that lesson.
Weekend 1 walking with Parsuram.
Parsuram and Anmol listen as I attempt to help with some teacher training!
Parsuram goes alone with class 4 and measurement. An OFSTED standard delivery!
Both boys are really musical. Their guitar and keyboard playing brought the Foundation Day to life. Anmol told us that if the opportunity had existed when he was at school then he would have liked to have been a musician. But he has no regrets or indeed resentment.
On leaving we were presented by every single teacher and student a khodor (scarf). We couldn't take them all with us onward on our journey, but I am pretty sure we singled out those from Anmol and Parsuram to sneak into our bags.
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