Hello everybody!! I am Rohit Singh. I belong to Ghazipur in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh but born and brought up in the beautiful city of Guwahati (Assam).I passed my engineering (Electrical & Electronics) from Ghaziabad (U.P) in the year 2011.Before sharing my experience, I would like to make a few points clear that would justify my motto behind coming for this wonderful rural internship programme:
1) Right from my childhood, I have been very proud of my India. Its vast diversity seduced me a lot and I always cherished a desire to explore its diversity. I always desired of identifying myself with each and every Indian irrespective of his/her caste, sex, religion, region etc and the very internship played a very short but very vital role in this regard.
2) I want to give back something to the society, to the country. I want to bring about a change in the society either by joining the civil services or through constructive and good politics. But before doing so, I feel it’s very necessary to understand the ground realities and experience the problems/issues at the grassroot level of the society and the country as a whole.
3) To widen my world view and understand issues from different perspectives
As a part of the SMILE internship programme of Pravah, I was placed at ALFA Educational Society in the beautiful village of Karawara, Kherwara, Udaipur, Rajasthan. For me, the internship was an awesome one which gave me a wonderful feeling which is inexplicable. The exposure gave me a golden opportunity to explore myself and to come out of my comfort zone.
ALFA Educational Society basically works in the areas of child education and communalism. It is doing a very commendable work and that too, on self support basis. During my stay there, my job was basically confined to documenting, interviewing people and teaching English grammar to the youths and the children of the villages. The overall internship was a perfect blend of work, fun and adventure. The youths and the people of the locality were very warm and friendly which made the internship a memorable one. The place was like a second home to me. The outskirt of the village was a scenic beauty with hilly forests and ponds that acted as a symbol of serenity. I interacted a lot with the youths of the villages and we also shared one’s thoughts with each other. Those interactions and discussions helped me in knowing the ground realities of the villages and understanding the issues through their eyes. I made many new friends and relationships in those few days. Interacting with people like Pathan (an electrical mechanic) and Kantibhai (a tea stall owner) was full of fun.
I am very grateful to my mentor Mr.Lokesh Kalal who tried his best to make me feel comfortable and guided me throughout the internship. He was very supportive of my work and always kept on encouraging me like an elder brother. It is often said that every human being is selfish by nature but when I looked forward to Lokesh, I was forced to give that saying a second thought. His organization has no external funding yet; he is working on an issue as sensitive as communalism which many well established NGOs refrain from laying their hands on. Although, I found that ALFA lacked some professionalism and the working there was not structured but I am quite hopeful that once it starts receiving funds, it would function in a more professional and better way. Last but not the least, I wish ALFA huge success in every endeavor of theirs.
ALL THE BEST!!
Rohit Singh, a SMILE intern from Pravah (December, 2011 Batch)
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