The Best Beginning

Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of the second and final year of the Teach For India fellowship. All excited and eager to make sure we have a memorable start, I spent hours prepping and even got my friend involved to help me with my ambitious craftivity.

And then came the anticlimax. Barely any students had shown up. Not just in my 8th grade class, but across school. So much so that we were able to fit all the high school students in a single classroom.

I couldn’t do the activities because it was a mixed group and I was just so disappointed with the state of affairs that I ranted to every friend and family member who would listen.

The children told me that it’s an unofficial understanding that almost everyone returns to school only after June 1. Can’t really blame them, especially while I had simultaneously started planning my own disappearance for the next week, somehow. But when I found no plausible way to make that happen, I resigned myself to my fate and showed up again.

That’s where things got interesting. Today, there were even fewer students. Well aware that there was no point getting started with any real teaching, they had all come in fully expecting to chat and nap while away the hours till it was time to go home.

Just to get a reaction out of them, I asked them to take out their books and open them to a fresh page, fully expecting that they would whine and bargain their way out of it. But out of habit, I used my serious voice, and out came the notebooks. Now I was the one caught on the backfoot as I hadn’t really thought about what I would ask them to do.

In the spur of the moment, I came up with the instruction- write a story starting with the words- “I got out of bed at midnight…” Two full sides, no less.

After the predictable minute of groaning and bargaining, heads slowly bent over notebooks. One by one, the room fell quiet. That moment filled me with amazement. I often have these moments of complete wonder when adolescents take things seriously without resistance.

However, the surprises didn’t end here- they spent the next entire hour, working in absolute silence, crafting wonderfully imaginative narratives! From braving pink fogged forests to discovering utopian lands that were far better governed by animals than humans, from being met with betrayal aboard a ship while fighting a mysterious organism to unearthing an organ-stealing racket, they brought to life incredibly engaging ideas.

I had walked into school expecting to launch the year with carefully planned activities and unforgettable beginnings. Instead, on a day that I was prepared would be unmemorable, an accidental writing class became a lesson that children often surprise you most when you stop trying so hard.

For someone who plans every minute, every question, and every response in every class, this felt like a much-needed reminder: maybe the best beginnings are not always the ones we plan.