Bay Area Youngsters volunteer at Tribal School in the interior forests of Allampalli, Adilabad District, AP, India

We bounced all around in the car as we traveled on the rutted, dirt road to a tribal school at a remote place called Alampalli.This isn’t a usual scenario faced by a student during his summer vacation, but I was perfectly happy on this journey. I had the chance to help the underprivileged kids.

This summer I went to India with my family for summer vacation. My sister and I decided to spend our time usefully so we asked Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji, the inspirer and founder of VT Seva for volunteering opportunities. He sent us to volunteer at a tribal school in Allampalli. That is the story of how I ended up in a car on a potholed road with miles of thick forest all around me. I was really amazed that Swamiji set up a school here of all places. I mean I doubt anybody knew about this place until the school was established.

We started for Alampalli from Hyderabad (my grandmother’s place) and spent a good chunk of the day getting lost. Even the driver didn’t know where Allampalli was! We had to make several phone calls to different people to get a general idea of where we were going. We also had to ask people on the way to stay on the right track. About six to seven hours after we started, people said that the dirt road to Alampalli was just ahead of us. The road to Alampalli was in the middle of a forest. I half expected a wild animal to come onto the road we were traveling on. After a while, we reached a community called Allampalli.

As we were going to the tribal school (known as the Jeeyar Gurukulum), all the villagers stood along the road to welcome us. Then we finally approached the Jeeyar Gurukulum in the evening, just as the sun was about to set. The Jeeyar Gurukulum consists of two main structures. One is the main school building. It was inaugurated on the Indian Republic Day in 2006. It is an imposing circular structure with two stories. Preschool through seventh grade classroom are on the ground floor where as grades 8-10 are held on the top floor.

The second main building is the hostel.Students from different communities (called thandas) walk for several hours everyday to get to the Jeeyar Gurukulum. Kids that live too far away to walk are provided with free accommodation at the hostel. Everything is provided to the students for free. Lunch is free for everyone and dinner is free for the hostel students. Students are also given free uniforms, pens, notebooks, and other various materials. There are approximately 550 students enrolled in the Jeeyar Gurukulum and half of them live in the hostel.

Immediately after arriving at the school we started looking around and talking to the teachers and students. What I observed immediately was the desire in the students to learn as much as possible. They were very curious about life in America and wanted to know how everything worked. They quizzed me about how a plane works, how fast it travels, etc… They also were very interested in my day to day routine and my school. They kept comparing my school with the Jeeyar Gurukulum. The kids, even the very little ones, were incredibly disciplined and well behaved. They always went everywhere in lines. Students had different jobs. Most students were either taking care of the garden (by watering it and weeding it) or studying their lessons.

My job at the school was to see it for myself and compare it to schools in America. I had to observe the daily routine of students and teach a few classes by myself. I had to go to the different thandas and observe the life there.

The daily routine of the tribal students(in the hostel) is very rigorous. Everyday they wake up at approximately 5:00 a.m. and keep their belongings in order. Then they would get ready by brushing their teeth, taking a shower, etc… Then all the students practice yoga for a certain amount of time. The students are proficient in various postures (called asanas). They practice these asanas everyday to become fit and intelligent (kind of like P.E.). After that they read Prathahsmaraniyam (slokas or songs that are read in the morning everyday). Then, all the students and teachers eat breakfast.

After that, everyone lines up for the morning assembly in neat lines in front of the school building.They go through a few drills and finally go into the school in neat single file lines. School goes on until lunch. Students eat in three batches serving each other lunch. It was really amazing to see them serving food and even cleaning up after each other. About 150-200 students eat at one time and there are approximately ten students serving them. After lunch, classes go on until 4:30. After that there is an evening assembly and then the Jeeyar Gurukulum closes for the day.

Students then take an evening shower and play/relax for the day.I saw them playing various outdoor games like kabadi and coco. They were also playing indoor games like carrom board. After relaxing for a while, the students do their homework and start studying. They also tend to the garden. The students also do various extracurricular activities like dancing and singing. They hold programs at every special occasion like India’s Independence Day.

My sister and I taught a few classes everyday in the morning and in the evening. The first class I taught was kindergarten. I really didn’t know how to start off so I decided to see how much arithmetic they knew. I started quizzing them on their multiplication tables and they started rattling them off. They all started chanting multiplication tables from two to five in one voice. It was pretty incredible. I doubt that I knew my multiplication tables when I was that young. After that I decided to teach them the sixth multiplication table. They caught on incredibly fast. All the kids were so intelligent and had such good memories that only after a few times of repeating it they got it down. I started quizzing them and gave the kids who got my questions right pens. I ended up exhausting my pen supply giving one to every kid in the class.

I also taught a few English classes to kids who were in higher grades. I started out teaching them educational games. I first taught them the word game. All the kids enjoyed it and were begging to play it over and over. Then, before I could teach them another game, they taught me one. It was kind of like scrabble except it was played on a chalk board, there were no tiles, and you could use any and any number of letters at a time. After that, I read them a story and asked them a few questions about it. This took most of the class period. Then I gave them a long word, photosynthesis, and asked them to make smaller words out of it. They impressed me. After about five minutes, most people had about twenty words. Even I didn’t think of that many.

My sister and I also came here to learn about the lives of villagers in different thandas before the Jeeyar Gurukulum was established. One evening we went out to a thanda and conversed with the people there. They asked my sister to sing a bhajan (song) for enjoyment. We wanted to record the interview but the light was too poor and nothing showed up in the camcorder. However, I did get a good look at the surroundings. All the villagers lived in thatched huts and in poverty. Then we had to go since it was getting really dark.

We went to the same the next morning to actually record the interview this time. We learned the life of the villagers before the Jeeyar Gurukulum was established. Before the gurukulum was established, the children used to work in the fields in the morning and afternoon. After that, they used to loaf around and waste time in the evening. They used to fool around and get involved in many bad habits. They used to drink liquor, smoke cigarettes, and chew tobacco. Their parents used to do the same thing. After working, they used to do smoke and drink excessively. They didn’t have any sense of cleanliness or hygiene. They never even used to take showers and rarely brushed their teeth. There was no way to get any medical help. Most of the adults and kids had diseases.

After the Jeeyar Gurukulum however, living conditions gradually began to improve. Now, children and their parents have given up their bad habits. They are now more conscious about hygiene and started keeping themselves and their surrounding more cleanly. They regularly started taking showers and brushing their teeth. They work really hard in order to obtain a brighter future. Their optimism affects their surroundings by making everyone around them happy.

After that, they sang some bhajans, and some students showed us what they had learned after the Jeeyar Gurukulum came. Some of them read poems (or padyalu as they are called) and slokalu (songs). Then, the adults came forward to do a traditional dance. They danced around in a circle while singing. It was really quite a sight to behold. After that, the villagers showed us around a little. They even showed us twin cows that were born during the time that the school was established.

After the interview, we had to go home. It had been almost a week since we came to Allampalli. I didn’t even notice that a week had gone past. Time flew past us during the time we spent volunteering at the tribal school. It was truly remarkable to see all the students going through so many hardships to learn. For them, education was a gift. For them, they are incredibly lucky to have such an opportunity. I just take everything for granted. I never realized how lucky I am to have such a life. I finally realize that every opportunity I have would be a luxury to many kids around the world who are not as lucky as me. I finally realize how many kids around the world are craving for an education but are unable to get one. I promise that I will not waste the opportunities that I have and will continue volunteering to help these children and their communities.

- Sukumar Kalvapudi (9th Grade)