A Double Dhamakka

How does it feel to get a double bonanza - getting back to your passion and also work with wonderful people to create an impact in the society?

Yes, I got such opportunity and it was an amazing journey of 1 year.

It was almost an year after I came to Hyderabad. One day, I got a message from my fellow toastmaster friend in Bangalore about this NGO called U&I. Yes, you read it right!! It is U&I ("You and I"). And it was a call for teaching volunteers who can help take classes to underprivileged children over weekends. 

Being a person who is very passionate about teaching, also with 3 years of experience as a home tutor and being part of an Edutech startup during the college days, I got more excited and filled the application form for teaching volunteers. I gave the interview and got selected to volunteer as well.

The next thing came out of blue to me. There were no volunteering centres near my place and I got assigned with a centre which was around 20 kms away from my place. Being so comfortable and chilling out on the weekends in the initial days after coming to Hyderabad, I got some doubts on me whether I will be regular and be able to make it. And the only possible commute for me was public transport (bus). 

For the first week, somehow I made it to the class on time (actually even before time). That day left me with an awe. A whole new experience- the way the day started, greetings, interactions with kids, the joy of teaching, the way in which syllabus was drafted, the organizational structure and the list goes on.

With this excitement and motivation, the next couple of weeks went on smoothly. After that, I slowly started waking up late, missed the bus and I felt I might not make it to the class. Still the driving force was the smile of the kids and the inquisitive talks. So, even if I was few minutes late, I made myself present there, even by going on Rapido by spending more. Because the purpose was clear. 

As months went, slowly the camaraderie among volunteers have grown better and the classes went more interesting since kids also felt comfortable and started being more involved during the class. Being a toastmaster, how could I forget to share about my passion towards communication and leadership skills here as well. My kid had a great fluency, but with some grammatical errors. He also had great stories to share. So, one day I made him write a speech, rehearse it and deliver it infront of other kids. What a moment it was!! My eyes were almost welled up with tears to see him stand there and speak. That gave me a sense of awareness that how very little things impact someone in a great way if done consistently and I tried to keep improving the way I plan my classes.

In between, there were days, when I couldn't make it to the class. And I could honestly say I felt more bad than my leaders/ fellow volunteers for not being present there at the centre. There were other personal and professional commitments which I couldn't ignore and that guilt of missing classes was haunting. And sometimes I have really felt how much expectations some of my leaders had on me and their dismay on me being not able to make it to my commitments. It did put me into a state of self-blame and self-guilt for sometime, but it's after all - "coming back", which is more important. I realized it is okay that at times I don't fully meet all commitments, but I still manage/try to do everything I committed to - work, family, classes, toastmasters and so on. And the self-blame slowly reduced and focus changed more towards - "What's next?".

I still remember there have been several times I had to travel to Bangalore or Chennai or Pondicherry for my Toastmasters events or personal commitments. I made sure mostly I complete them by Saturday, travel back to Hyderabad and be present at the centre on Sunday morning. All these couldn't have been possible without the impact that I see every week at U&I and the community that has been growing.

In addition to the teaching, more importantly, there were lot of lessons I learnt as well. I still remember the saying my school teacher used to mention - " The one who teaches is the one who needs to learn more and it is a two way street". Being new to Hyderabad, I am very bad at communicating in Hindi or Telugu. Despite this, my leaders kept confidence in me and gave me the opportunity to be a teaching volunteer, since it was for the English classes. During the journey, I was so blessed to have supportive volunteers and my student kids, who helped me with my language barrier and sail through 1 year successfully.

Apart from the classes, there were other events, games, plays, activities with kids and volunteers were planned regularly at centre and I was not part of/aware of them while planning. And there were some real heroes who did help those activities and went above and beyond the definition of a volunteer. I had felt sometimes truly jealous of them being able to dedicate so much time for such activities despite their other commitments. A true hatsoff to them!!

Similar to how I brought toastmasters to my centre, I didn't miss bringing out the power of U&I in my toastmasters clubs. I recently delivered a speech at International Speech Contest for Club level and area level and the speech was all about how my Sundays have transformed from my childhood until now and the learnings, the impact of the journey. I believe this word of mouth would definitely create some ripples around me.

Finally, this 1 year of amazing journey came to an end in March and I will continue to do the same in the upcoming years as well until I could do my best possible. And of course, this double dhamaka is a true bliss to bring me back on teaching and also trying to make some impact as well. I would like to take this moment to thank all my fellow volunteers, leaders and my student kids for the extraordinary support throughout the year. Eagerly waiting for the things yet to unfold in the upcoming months!!

If you are also interested to join me in this journey, no second thoughts and just do reach out to me.