Learning has never been so wonderful

By Mrs Tinku R Gupta

Learning had never been so wonderful until I started tutoring students at Pax Populi Academy.

For years, my domain of interest has been Afghanistan. It has been amazing to meet eager youngsters who are keen to develop themselves not for their individual gain but for giving back to the society, which has been ravaged through decades.

My students, Jamal and Manizha, have taught me lessons of patriotism in their own ways. These warm friendly and extremely energetic young people looked beyond a tutor to a human being who would understand their woes. They had so much to say, so much to learn and were extremely eager to pass on their acquired knowledge to their younger generation.

Beyond the regular session we kept interacting through social media, sharing jokes, discussing politics, feminism, goals, success, achievements, sadness, sickness, misery, family, culture and many, many more things. There was no end to the topics.  The more frequent the interactions, the closer we became. And a time came when we were part of one big family – a family desperate to establish PEACE.

I remember Manizha sending me a message about one of her students who had been suffering from blood cancer for quite sometime now. She had felt helpless at not being able to help the poor student. Tears rolled down my cheeks when I read her message. I thought here was a kind softhearted noble soul who was just SO human and helpless. She had shared her feelings with me because perhaps she felt comfortable communicating with me, or perhaps she was hopeful — but to me it seemed as if we were communicating as sisters. Boundaries didn’t matter and cultures faded as we were united in grief. Feelings were mutual. I had reached out to Manizha’s student with my limited resources checking with doctors and raising funds for the patient’s treatment.

Jamal had also touched my heart similarly when he had told me about his dream of being a highly educated person who wanted to study abroad but planned to return to Afghanistan to teach the generation younger to him and build a new Afghanistan.

My experiences at the Academy taught me one thing – PEACE can not established unless we reach out on a personal level.  Its not about being a passionate teacher or a stereotype tutor. What really works is putting oneself in other’s shoes.

Our Academy is built on these lines and our success lies in not only living up to its motto word for word in preaching peace but practicing it at every step.

THANKS PAX POPULI TEAM for making me a better human being. Without the tireless and dedicated teamwork of our Academy, I would never have realized that LEARNING HAD NEVER BEEN SO WONDERFUL!!