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Literacy India, Vidyapeeth Centre, Gurgaon

By Udayan Care, Jagshanti Centre, Greater Noida

Ruchi MAHAJAN

Hi,
I am Ruchi, a young girl who always gets into some or the other trouble and for me the biggest trouble is to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning for my yoga classes. Which is almost impossible for me at least. That’s why I told my aunty to make me get up and she is so sweet that she doesn’t even refuse me that’s why I am always on time for my class. The yoga class usually gets over at 6 am or 6:30 am, then we go to our room and rush for the chance to have bath and get ready for the school which starts at 8 o’clock but we have to leave the place at 7:30 as we have to reach before 8 o’clock.
Then my school ends at 2:00 pm and I get back home at 2:30 pm. It takes at least half an hour for me to get ready and go for lunch because I am a gal (girl) and gals are always late in getting ready. And the other reason is that when I come back from my school I am so tired that I hardy move. Sometimes I am so tired that I don’t even go for lunch and for this, I always get scolding from my elders and they always say that “You are so thin and look so weak that we hardly can know that you are there”. I know that they are making fun of me and if somebody makes fun of me, then I go really mad and leave that place.
Then after lunch we have rest time, my favorite time in which we can do anything like go for rest, read story books, listen to music, talk to room mates, etc … . And I usually prefer to read story books for half an hour and another half an hour I sleep.
At 4 o’clock, we have to go back to studies in which I do my homework or study for my exam preparation because I am in 10th standard in which I am having board exam which held in all over India, so I have to study hard for getting those marks which I aim for. Then my study ends at 7:00 pm and then again we have yoga class from 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
Then I have dinner at 8:10 pm and finish it off at 8:20 pm. Then I get time with my television (TV), which is one of my favorite things to do. Then it ends at 10 o’clock.
After I end up with my enjoyment then again I go back to my study. And nearly my study ends at 1 o’clock or sometimes it can go till 2:30 am. After that I go to sleep and in the morning the same horrible trouble strikes at me like a monster which makes me afraid.

By Dhankar Gompa, Spiti Valley (Himalaya)

Namo Tenzin Agrup

Due to the fact that Tenzin Agrup does not speak English, the exercise was done orally with the aid of a translator (a villager). The text below was therefore written by ourselves and derives from Tenzin Agrup’s answers to our questions.

My name is Tenzin Agrup. I am 14 year old. I have two brothers and two sisters. In my region, every second boy of the family becomes a monk and as I am the second boy, I entered the monastery at the age of 5. The eldest son stays with the family and helps farming. At the age of 15, a monk usually leaves for South India where he finishes his studies for another 10 years. After that, most of the monks leave India to teach in other countries like Thailand, Japan or the USA. Some also go to Dharamsala (where the Dalai Lama currently lives).
Every day of the week, I get up at 5:00 am. I study Buddhism history until 6:30 am all alone, so that I am not disturbed. At 8:00 am, we all join inside the temple for the morning prayer, which lasts until 8:30 am. During the prayers, we sing, read texts and play music. Then, we have breakfast (tea and “tsampa”, made of flour). After breakfast, we wash up the utensils in the kitchen (usually the task of the youngest). School starts at 9:00 am. Until last year, I was not properly going to school : my education was given by other adult monks. During the morning class which lasts until half past noon, we usually revise our homework with the teacher. We study Buddhism, Hindi and a bit of English. Then it is lunch break. We often eat rice and “dahl” (a curried lentil dish) or “besan” (chickpea flour balls boiled in water). We wash the utensils and go back to school at 2:00 pm. Class lasts until 5:00 pm. From 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm, we pray in the temple, but this happens only during a month an a half during summertime. During winter, we use that time to study. At 6:00 pm, it is play time. We usually play coins, cricket or “tepla” (rubber ball). From 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm, we all help preparing dinner in the kitchen. Everybody has a specific task, like carrying water, …. We usually eat dinner around 8:30 pm, although it has to be before it is dark, because of some problems with the electricity. We go back to our rooms at 9:00 pm. There are three dormitories of 20 boys each, and two boys per bed. During summer, we study until 10:00 pm and during winter we go to bed (the electricity problem prevents us from studying after day light). Then comes the time for dreaming …

By Literacy India, Vidyapeeth Centre, Gurgaon

Jay Kishan
Raju

Our names are Jay Kishan and Raju. We get up early in the morning at 4:00 am. We study the chapter that we read yesterday, so we get up early in the morning. After the wake up, we go to bathe, then we take breakfast (butter sandwich and one glass of milk) and then we go to school and we meet our friends and talk about our homework. Then we gather in assembly for the prayer and then we go back to our class and we wait for our class teacher for the first period. In second period, we go to the playground. Then we play cricket with our friends. After the game period, we join the third period. I never miss the third period because it is the English period. English is my favorite subject because I love to study English. In fourth period, we skip school and go to cinema to watch movies (“No Entry”, it’s a comedy movie). And then we come back home and we eat lunch at lunch time (we take two chapatis, some rice and daal, a lentil curry). After the lunch we take rest. In the evening, we gather in the playground to play cricket, at sunset we comeback home. And then we finished our homework. Then we eat dinner at dinner time (we take two chapatis, raita (yoghurt served as a side dish), some rice and potato bhajia, which means fries). And then we go to bed and sleep and enjoy our funny dream like riding airplanes inside the rain.