Heard about over populated orphanage, children who don’t care about learning and society that doesn’t care?

Let’s open the door to a different world. Here, you get to see and experience twinkling eyes, thankful hearts, genuine smiles and an interest to learn in return of spending one hour with children at the Anatha Shishu Sevashram, an orphanage at Wilson Garden. These 40-odd children are ready with their notebooks and waiting so that you can teach them.

More than an year back, a couple of techies came across this Aashram and the association has resulted in lots of happy moments and much more learning. Ritwik Chatterjee, a software engineer working in Electronic City, with a few others came across this orphanage. The aim was to teach them use the computer. However, when they spoke to the children, they realised that the children could barely speak in English and could barely communicate.

The journey began there. “Thereafter, volunteers kept trickling in and more and more people became aware of this endeavour by word of mouth,” recalls Kaushik A N, another techie who works in the same firm as Ritwik and has put in a lot of effort to train these children.

Once, they had a couple of people eager to devote time, they decided to form two teams. “We have a core team and a team to teach. While the former prepares syllabus, the latter ensures its execution in class,” says Srikanth D V, a software engineer.

Moreover, the children have been divided into different levels depending on their knowledge and their ability to grasp. The course is prepared according to the level , for instance level 0 will deal with basics and the level of difficulty will go up till level 5.

In the span of time, the volunteers have become attached to the children. “During Independence day celebrations recently, one of them delivered a speech in English. Tears came to my eyes with the realisation that these kids, who could not form sentences, have come a long way,” recalls Shrikanth. “Even the preparations for the programme were touching. The children were enthused to do something. It was inspiring,” Kaushik adds.

One wonders about the energy that these youngsters have to take up such an initiative with their grilling jobs. “I have become attached to the children. I feel like meeting them,” is Kaushik’s reason for running to the aashram every weekend. However, Shrikanth has something else to say, “I get satisfied by helping people.”

The kids here unknowingly, teach a lot about life to these adults and the adults makes the little ones feel loved.