A laughing epidemic attacks schoolchildren

It started harmlessly enough in 1962 in Tanganyika in Tanzania — three girls giggling helplessly in class (who doesn’t do that?), but soon, nearly 95 of the 159 pupils in the school began to laugh uncontrollably, and this laughing epidemic forced the school to be closed in March. Alas, when it reopened in May, there was a second outbreak affecting 57 students. The symptoms of uncontrollable laughter ranged from a few hours to a scary 16 days in some cases! Soon, many other schools in the 100-mile radius were also affected. While the schools probably considered it a big ‘student’ conspiracy to miss classes, doctors, however, considered it as a stress-induced response in the young population.

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Homework and exams, a daily affair,
Yet friendships and laughter, always to share.
In this journey of youth, we strive to excel,
For in these moments, our stories we tell.

Through ups and downs, we learn and grow,
The path may be tough, but our spirits aglow.
Class 10, a chapter in our life’s grand scheme,
We’ll cherish the memories, like a cherished dream.

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“We shall play school,” the third-grade boy gathered the village children at the backyard of his house. “I am the teacher. And you are all students,” he began.

What Babar Ali began as a game with eight children in 2002, he continues till today. But now he has more than a thousand students. “It began as a game. But we got very serious about it very soon,” says Babar, who was born on 18 March 1993. In his Beldanga village of Murshidabad district, West Bengal, there was no school then. Since many children, including his sister, were unable to go to school, he began to teach them after his school.

While Babar went to school in the mornings, he taught in his “school” from 3 pm to 7 pm in the evenings. After his matriculation, he attended Behrampore Krishnath College, 15 kms away. He obtained a degree in English (Honours) and an M.A. in English and History, while continuing to teach in his school.

His middle-class parents, Mohamad Nasiruddin and Banuara Bibi, encouraged his teaching of the village kids. His father, a jute trader, also offered him money to purchase books and other materials for the students.

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“Jay, you really expect me to believe that your dog ate your homework? You know the new headmistress is taking rounds of the school and you still didn’t do your homework! This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable! Stand outside the class!” Ms Smita scolded.

“Sorry, miss,” Jay apologized.

“Shlok, you’re late! Did you bring your homework or was your homework eaten by dogs, too?”

“The dog did not eat my homework… he only tore it.”

“Enough of these lies, stand outside the class! I didn’t expect this from you, Shlok!”

Ms Smita was right to not expect this kind of behaviour from Shlok. After all, he was one of the best students in the class, hardworking and always ready to help his classmates. But she was wrong to think that Shlok was lying…

Earlier that morning, Shlok was walking to school with his homework sheets in hand that he had remembered to grab at the last moment, when he saw a dog that was chasing after a cat, run straight into a lady carrying many paper sheets in her hand just like him, making all the sheets fall to the ground. She began desperately trying to collect them but they were flying all over with the wind.

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Some months ago, a group of senior students aged 16-20 from a reputed college went to teach younger students aged 6-15 in a tribal hamlet of Taralpada which is some 130 km from Mumbai. Schools had been shut due to the Coronavirus-induced restrictions, and these children were almost forgetting all that they had learnt in school. Under the guidance of these college students the school became a fun school where the children played informative games, and sang songs along with their regular syllabus. Around 30 children gathered at 9 o’clock every morning. These senior boys and girls whose college was also closed due to the lockdown had taken the initiative to teach the younger kids. A highly commendable initiative certainly, because at the end of the day, the ultimate purpose of education is to spread knowledge and understanding and not keep it to oneself. These young minds learned this because education has helped them become enlightened and other-centred.

It’s time for you students to get ready to go back to school after a long period of time, that is, after the long COVID-19 lockdown or the holidays. It is, therefore, important to ponder what education really is. Swami Vivekananda, our great spiritual genius and guru, has said, “We want an education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on one’s feet.” He highlights four key elements of education, namely, the formation of character, strengthening of mental stamina, expansion of intellectual knowledge and making one self-reliant. Education is meant to help people become enlightened and empowered and to stop one from becoming egoistic and arrogant.

Essentially we live by choices, and not by chance. And so the commencement of a new academic year offers you an opportunity to get motivated with the right objectives rather than get manipulated by the whims and fancies of some vested interests. It is a time for you to become creative and bring about due changes in you. Be helpful to people around you. Choose self-esteem and not self-pity, strive to excel in whatever you are endowed with, and don’t compete with others, but compete with yourself. Listen to your inner voice and let your school curriculum this year help you create a clear vision for your life and thus aid you in becoming a partner in the mission of ennobling this world.

The June 2022 issue of TTT is dedicated to all of you students who are beginning your new academic year. TTT wishes you, through its contents, a wonderful scholastic year, with excellence in your academic performance marking the nobility of your deeds!

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Those corridors,
Deserted of our happiness, 
Must be empty now 
Without our silly mess. 
Those big grounds, 
Where we used to complain
About not wanting to run, 
Oh, I wish I could again!

All that chalk dust, 
Back on our shoulders, 
All those arguments, 
To see who was taller. 
The chatter of kids 
Near the canteen, 
Silly excuses 
To get out of tennis practice! 

So here’s what I want to ask… 
Did you like those crazy times better? 
Or these crazy masks? 
Just a silly poem, 
From just a silly girl, 
Who wishes to go back 
To where we all were!

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In my class there was this girl, too
Who could barely open the window,
For she was short and slender,
Though her soul was packed with wonders.

The teacher one day took a test
One minute was all we had
To say whatever our mind suggests
About the world, our life and our pity unrests.

It was HER turn
To come in front and speak.
All of us were on the edge of our seats
For this was the first time we would hear this bird tweet.

We weren’t expecting much
And to be honest neither the teacher
But little did I know this girl
Convinced me more than any preacher!

She spoke about her happy life
How she is thankful for what she has
And how she is quiet because
She wants to learn from our ideas.

She said she was worried
About not her life, but that of those
Who sleep on the roadside every night
For they have no place to go.

That day I learned a lesson for life…
No matter what your exterior walls suggest
The true content is the words you quote.

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Tears rolled down cheeks and hearts sank deep
Everyone wished that time should cease
But now we realized that it went with full speed.

Tiffins were empty and minds full of memories
Flashed by one by one, but see, there is still that old brown tree!

We promised to never break this friendship chain
But reality was confused and asked: “Are we going to meet again?”

From bags on shoulders and bottles around necks
To farewell gifts kept on our desks.
Moments were temporary but memories last forever…

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“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.”
~ Chuck Grassley

Named by the BBC at the age of sixteen as the “youngest headmaster in the world”, now 26-year-old Babar Ali is the headmaster of Ananda Shiksha Niketan (Home of Joyful Learning) in Murshidabad, West Bengal.

The eldest of four siblings, Babar was born in 1993 in Gangpur. He completed his primary education at Bhabta Rasidiya Primary School. When he was nine, his father, a small-time jute trader, sent him to Beldanga CRGS High School, about 10 kilometres away. Babar had to walk two kilometres to the bus stand, from where he would catch the bus to go to school. It was this walk that changed the course of his life. While returning from school, he saw children playing in the fields. When he asked them, “Would you like to study if I teach you?” they happily said “yes.” Encouraged by their response, Babar started his evening classes in October 2002. Initially, he taught eight children, including his younger sister, basic reading and writing under a guava tree in front of their one-room house. Classes had to end before darkness set in and were dependent on the weather; if it rained class was cancelled.

Amazingly, a nine-year-old was teaching children aged five to nine! Babar improvised a blackboard from terracotta tiles. He conducted class tests and exams and organized activities like sports, dance and music to make school more fun for his students. When Babar asked his teacher in the school where he studied, to give him broken pieces of chalk for his school at home, she refused at first thinking he would scribble on the class walls. But when she came to know about his noble venture, she started giving him a box full of chalks every week.

Sanath Kar, the Principal of Beldanga SRF College, inaugurated Babar’s school in 2003 and named it Ananda Shiksha Niketan. “I hired a mike for Rs 30, and we had a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by song and dance. I borrowed my mother’s sari to decorate the place. I also invited the local Panchayat members and village elders,” recalls Babar.

“Parents were very sceptical about educating their children. They were not educated themselves so they did not realize se the value of education. We went door-to-door asking them to send their kids to school.”

Babar would pick up partly-used notebooks from the raddhiwala for his students. He gave them sweets bought with his pocket money to encourage them to attend classes regularly.

When he was in Class VIII, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen invited him to Shantiniketan where Babar gave a one-hour talk in front of the former finance ministers of West Bengal, and eminent professors.

In 2008, Babar passed his Class X board exams securing first division. Even days before the exam, he was busy opening bank accounts for his students. “I gave them ten days off during my exams,” he adds.

He motivated his first batch of students to join Beldanga High School where he himself studied and six out of eight students followed his advice. They completed their undergraduate courses and joined Ananda Shiksha Niketan as teachers.

In 2009 Babar featured on CNN-IBN’s Real Heroes and was awarded NDTV’s Indian of the Year Award. In 2012, he appeared alongside Aamir Khan on the TV show Satyamev Jayate. He was also made a TED Fellow and shared his story on TED India Talks in Mysore. Since then, he has travelled to Canada and the U.S. for TED Talks. The Karnataka government included a chapter on him in a CBSE Class XII English textbook.

By 2014, more alumni returned to Ananda Shiksha Niketan with formal diplomas in teaching. The number of students rose to 200 and 21-year-old Babar was officially recognized as the ‘youngest headmaster’ by the West Bengal state education department.

In 2007, he purchased 7,200 square feet of land with 10 lakhs donated by one of his supporters. A new school building was inaugurated in 2015 at Shankarpara village, three kilometres away from the previous school.
The state government does not give any financial aid to the school. The school’s annual expenditure is met by donations. Babar provides students with uniforms, mid-day meals, and scholarships with the help of sponsorships and donations. The school is affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education till Class 8; Babar encourages students’ parents to admit them to affiliated schools afterwards.

Currently, the school’s 300 students are taught by ten teachers including Babar and his sister. There is a seven-member management committee comprising of village elders and retired teachers. No salary is given to the teachers nor any fees charged from the students. The school motto? “We must do something extraordinary in this short human life.”

In the future, Babar is hoping to extend the education beyond the schooling level. “My dream is to extend it to college in the future,” he says. He looks forward to starting a hostel facility and smart classrooms.

Babar was inspired by Swami Vivekananda whose words, “Jeebey prem kore jei jon, sheijon sebichhe iswar” (Service to man is service to God) have been his motto in life.

Babar’s advice to parents? “Never underestimate the potential of children. At nine, when I decided to start a school of my own, a single word of discouragement from the part of my parents would have let me down. They trusted me. My call was to become a teacher. Your child’s might be to become a businessman or a scientist or a writer. Motivate them to do what they are passionate about.”

Babar graduated with a B.A. (Honours) in English and went on to do an M.A. (English Literature). He is now pursuing another post-graduate programme in History.

“I believe that if you are passionate about something then you can achieve anything. Age, finances, other hurdles, just don’t matter and eventually everything works out.”

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