When you post after a 3 month hiatus, it had better be good.

I though this would be a good way to return.

I received this via email from a colleague.

Who personally knows Aditi, the author of this email.

So I’m doing the next best thing I can.

Asking you to read it as well.

__________

Dear All,

This email is actually an appeal and since I want you to truly understand what I am trying to say, I will not take any short cuts.

As you may all know I am a fellow with Teach For India. This stated very simply means, I am a teacher. I teach 45 children in a low income school in Goregaon East and make a difference in the lives of about 300 children in the school, in different ways-big or small.

My co teacher and I took 6 of our students to Oberoi Mall, Goregaon, the other day. This outing was conducted with the aim of celebrating their success. Each one of the 45 children was given a differentiated goal to achieve, 6 of them made it.

At the end of a very happy meal  we took them to Crossword Book Store. The sale was on and all the books were out on display. My kids walked in and were truly mesmerized by the sight. The colours, pictures and everything there, was a treat. They picked up books and sat on the carpet, reading.

Some understood, while others simply read.

This is the thought I had while we were there. If you put any child in a place that offers learning, a child will learn without being taught. This store had so much to give.

My class is really colourful. Its walls are plastered with a lot of information. They have storybooks to read, but most of them have been read.

We need books.

Here is my appeal:

In case you people have books, magazines, activity books, picture dictionaries, normal dictionaries, and all or any form of literature suitable for children between 6-14 years – those that you have outgrown, those your children have outgrown, your nieces and nephews, and everyone else – please could you pass them over to me?

I promise, as long as the material is in English, it will be used.

Send me an email on aditirawat@gmail.com and we will find a way to collect the gifts.

Looking forward to receiving support from you. Cause I truly want to believe that everyone wants to help, but does not know where exactly to start from.

Feel free to begin

Thanks!

Aditi

P.S- please circulate this to everyone.

–

Indira Aditi Rawat
Teach For India Fellow.
Class Teacher- 2B
Divine Child High School
Sanjay Nagar
Malad East, Mumbai.

“One day ALL children will attain an excellent education”

PS: Aditi’s kids won in the ‘Top 20 Category’ in the Design For Giving Project. Out of 33000 registrations.

Here is a little video: Click Here

Dear Brother Twitter,

WTF.

I don’t know what that means, but I think it is a popular greeting in your world.

So I am hoping you will like it

In fact in our village we like showing our respect three times.

So here goes.

WTF. WTF. WTF.

I am hoping you will like that more

You will wonder how I found you.

Well, I did not.

Jaggu (aka Jags), our village cybercafe owner did.

You see, Jaggu, Talli and I are country liquor bar regulars.

Every night, we drink and talk about many things.

But lately something happened to Jaggu.

He began talking less.

I mean the Jags we knew wouldn’t allow anyone else to speak once he started.

But this new Jags?

He spoke less. And less. And less.

One night, Jags passed out earlier than usual.

And even as Talli and I were finishing our last one for the road, he started mumbling peculiar words in his drunken state.

Words we had never heard before.

“RT. WTF. Hashtag.  Follow Gulpanag. Follow Kareena. Follow Bipasha.”

We were alarmed, brother.

Why would Jags want to follow them?

Who were these RT, WTF and Hashtag?

Why did he want them to follow sister Gul, sister Kareena and Bipasha?

You see, the last time Jags tried following Bansi’s ex-wife (she walked out on him), he was thrashed by the village ladies.

Had he forgotten that lesson?

We were alarmed.

We were drunk.

We had no one to turn to.

So we turned to brother Google.

And that, brother, is how we discovered Jaggu had found you.

For two days, Talli and I explored your world.

And we understood.

It was you who was making Jaggu speak less.

You did not allow him his usual long-winded conversations.

He who speaks less, knows more, says Masterji.

So maybe that is good for Jags.

But late night in the country liquor bar, we miss his long stories.

We really do.

Another thing.

You may be big time popular with many people, brother.

But I must urge you to consider this.

Don’t follow people.

It is not an activity a decent person like you should indulge in.

It might even get you into trouble.

If Bajrangi (our village wrestler) were to find out Bipasha is being followed, we will not be able to save you from him.

So much for this time brother.

Treat this as advice from an elder brother.

Don’t take it in any other way.

You see, even though we seem apart, we are exactly like each other.

Know how?

My life, like yours, also revolves around 140 characters.

That includes me, Jags and Talli

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS: Can you tell Bipasha I am not following her because I am a good person. I do happen to like her actually…

Dear Brother Internet,

I hope this mail finds you in the pink of health.

And does not find its way into your junk folder.

Is it true that’s why you never answered my previous mails?

But first things first.

This week, you turn 40.

Congratulations.

As Virginia Slims cigarettes said to young ladies around the same year you were born:

You’ve come a long way, baby.

Wikipedia says that is also the title of Fatboy Slim’s second studio album.

In which, in a song, DJ Freddy Fresh sings ‘Fatboy Slim is f#@%ing in heaven’ – a full 108 times.

But that is not the one I was referring to.

I genuinely meant that you have come a long way, baby.

Now to come to the point.

I am older than you are.

And being someone who genuinely cares for you, it is my duty to wish you well.

And ensure that the advice of our village elders reaches you.

~~

Brother, you are at a turning point in your life.

You must be careful.

We had read somewhere a few years back that you had gotten involved with many sites of the explicit sexual type.

Chacha Ramdev had, back then, recommended you be termed an outcast.

Later, when we protested, he suggested you turn to yoga.

I know, in younger days, we tend to lose our way.

I also know you are all grown up now.

But if you HAVE to deal with these sex type sites, then remember one thing.

Always wear a condom.

We are contracting flu from swines nowadays.

Who knows what a site might transmit?

~~

Brother, you are at a turning point in your life.

You must be wary.

Three years back Munshiji received an email at the cyber cafe.

Someone from Nigeria wrote to him saying his dead uncle had left him 50 million dollars.

And to receive the same he would have to wire 5000 dollars first.

Munshiji, after treating the entire village to jalebis, sent the money.

But never heard from that person again.

That is how we came to know of your involvement with those email-fraudsters.

Munshiji demanded that your face be blackened and you be stoned to death.

But after we bribed the Panch, you were let off on grounds of lack of evidence.

Yes, I know you are not like that.

But ALWAYS do a background check of people you befriend.

Better still, ask them for their pan card.

That way you will know if they are genuine or not.

~~

Brother, you are at a turning point in your life.

You must be smart.

Men, it has been written, become wayward at forty.

It is a delicate age.

You remember Bansi?

Well, he got started on this internet messenger chatting with some Savita bhabhi.

It started with being good friends.

He would send her virtual cards.

But very soon things went out of control.

Even when his wife of 14 years walked out on him, he would not stop those sex-type chats.

Till the day he discovered that Savita bhabhi was actually a horny old man.

Bansi called you unmentionable names that day.

But I know you.

You would never know that man.

Nevertheless, in case you get the chance, never have intimate conversations with women you cannot see face to face.

NEVER.

Now with section 377 being valid in our village, Bansi’s case hardly stands a chance.

To think, he also lost the only real woman he had.

~~

Brother, you are turning forty.

You must slow down.

Today, I read on google that you are giving birth to too many social networking sites.

Have you forgotten the virtues of family planning?

Do you know what your children are up to?

Do you even remember all their names?

Remember Bholu, the village panwallah?

His teenage daughter put her picture up on one such site.

Some crook stole her face and pasted it on a porn site.

Now the only man willing to marry her is that 60 year old retired station master.

And the villagers are baying for your blood.

Again.

I know children are children.

But too many are difficult to control.

Always deal with them with a firm hand.

And if your wife wants to have more, tell her what the dispensary nurse told us:

Pehla bachha abhi nahin. Doosra bachha kabhi nahin.

(First child, not now. Second child, not ever.)

~~

PS: Do check in the junk folder in case you missed my earlier mails.