The Place
It’s been an interesting few days and weeks
at 3.2.1, enough to make me write a blog after a long time. I am feeling
sentimental, energized, and most of all lucky.
As a lot of you might have heard, a few weeks
ago, a building collapsed in the Dockyard area of Mumbai. This set off
a chain of events that required our team to evacuate our school and move to
another within a 24 hour period. Apparently, our building was one of the most dilapidated in Bombay (no small feat), and we were asked to
relocate.
In some ways it has been a blessing to move
from a loud building with crumbling infrastructure to a quieter building with
strong foundation.
But a big part of me can’t stop thinking
about the old school. There was a certain charm to having our first school in
the “maachli (fish) market.” Coming to school in that chaos, and struggling
each day to create a calm learning environment built character, for our team,
and our kids.
It was the place where on June 15, 2012, we
welcomed 70 kids and their parents to our school. Parents who gave us, a young
team with almost no experience, a chance to help their kids. It was the place
where Gaurav, our incredible leader, inspired us to rise up to challenges time
and time again. The place where Seema and Nandita led our grade teams with
grace and passion. The place where Lara, Nikhat, and Nihar showed us what
excellence and commitment truly mean. The place where Nimmi, Harsh, and Rima
have shown us how to continue learning, while teaching in the process. It’s
also the place where Karishma and Sarika showed us what it means to really immerse
yourself in the details and minutiae of your work.
The fish market is also where we were so
lucky to have the support of others. From towering giants, to budding
entrepreneurs, over 500 people came to visit 3.2.1 at the fish market. Most of
all, it’s the place where our loved ones, our partners, our families came to
see what we were trying to build for our kids. It was the place my father first
visited, to see the work I’ve dedicated the past four years of my life to.
It was also the place that we left after so many challenging days. The place we left to go find solace at the gym, in a good book, or the embrace of a loving partner. It was the place that kept on hitting, but in the process, gave us the chance to come back for more.
For me personally, it was the place where I
learned more than I ever have. The place where I had countless examples from an
incredible team.
Seema, Lara, Nikhat, Nimmi, Harsh, Nandita,
Nihar, Rima, Sarika, Karishma, and Gaurav, I am humbled to learn from you, and
grateful for all that you’ve taught me.
More than anything, it’s the place where I
got to learn from and teach an amazing group of kids. The fish market is where
I fell in love with Bharat and Pranay, the two people who have perhaps brought
me more humour and joy than any over the past year and a half. Pranay, one of
our tiniest kids, would walk up in the first days of school, slightly
off-balance because his head was disproportionately large to the rest of his
body. Bharat, had no proportion issues as such, but still found himself (and
still does) constantly off-balance or upside down. I can’t describe how much
happiness these two boys have brought me, but I owe it to the fish market.
It’s the place where I left school to spend the night with Sakshi and her family, on the street
outside Metro Cinema, for one of the most memorable, challenging experiences of
my life.
And now we’ve moved to a new place. A place
I’m sure will give us many more memories to share and challenges to overcome.
Right off the bat, we’re lucky to be teaching 80 kids for the first two hours
of the day in a hallway.
I realized how lucky we were when I was
asking my kids what they thought of the new school. Pranay said “I like it.
It’s nice, and not loud.” These kids are so gritty, that in the mid-day heat,
with no fans, they sat in a hallway and learned how to break patterns into
units, how to subtract in a story problem, and how to differentiate between non-fiction
and fiction books. And there wasn’t a single complaint. It was as if they were
thinking “okay, slight change, but its school, so now I guess we just keep
doing what we’ve been doing.”
Thank you to the fish market. You gave us a
home, a place to grow, and a place to learn with our kids.
