Fig.01: Hemalata and me and Dr. Sundar, the administrative director of Samskar

Fig.01: Hemalata and me and Dr. Sundar, the administrative director of Samskar

Fig.02: The headmaster, Mr. Naveen, and me and an elegant lady who is in charge of the school's kitchen.

Fig.03: A plough in a nearby field.

Fig.04: An ox-cart

Fig.05: Women planting rice

Fig.06: Toting wood (the main fuel for cooking)

Fig.07: Average-quality houses in a nearby village

Figs.08 & 09: The worst house I saw, and the family who live in it

Fig.10: The best house (as far as I know) of any family that has sent children to Samskar Ashram Vidyalayam. (Two nuclear families - headed by brothers - live in this house.)

Fig.11: Diligent children doing their laundry

Fig.12: How to make unleavened bread (chapatis)

Fig.13: Students helping the elegant lady prepare chillies for dinner

Fig.14: The view from the top of the building where I slept. The three-storey building shown in the middle of this picture contains the older children's classrooms. The ground floor of the two-story building is the dining room for the 150 boarding students; the upper story of that building is the dormitory for the 75 girls. (They and the 75 boys, whose dormitory is elsewhere, sleep on mats on the floor. They go to bed at 10:00 p.m. and get up at 4:30 a.m.) The piles of gravel etc. are for the construction of a factory for notebooks.

Fig.15: An Indian sport. In the background is the school's assembly-hall and, next to it, the half-completed factory. Behind them is the building from which the photo shown in Fig.14 was taken.

Fig.16: Cricket players

Fig.17: Youngsters reacting to "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" as sung by me

Fig.18: Day-students going home around 4 p.m. They wear sandals and have quite rudimentary bookbags. The little tins are their lunch-boxes. The small building on the right is the school library; the three-storey one behind it is the one shown in Fig.14. To the left are the younger students' classrooms. (Originally the school consisted of just two such huts, and in those days, a dozen years ago, the same huts served also as dormitories. At night a watch-dog at the doorway of each hut would scare away the snakes.)

Fig.19: Well-to-do boys (notice the shoes and neckties and elegant bookbags) going to another school in a nearby village

Fig.20: Samskar students assembling for the morning ceremony in which they pledge to care for the welfare of India's people, to take pride in "her rich and varied cultural heritage" (e.g. her citizens with different religious affiliations), to respect their elders, including their teachers, and to treat everyone courteously

Figs.21 & 22: Day-students taking lunch. (They have no dining room.) The boarders eat in a dining hall where, at the beginning of each meal, they say: "We respect this food. We wish that every child in the world may have food, clothing and shelter, as we do. Peace and friendly co-existence are our guiding principles."

Fig.23: The playground late one afternoon

Fig.24: Listening to an evening radio program

Figs.25-27: Planting and watering trees.

Fig.28: Day-students on the road.

Figs.29-34: Some examples of social work carried out by the day-students in their respective villages:Fig.29: Requesting the liquor-dealer to take up another profession instead. (Look closely at his face!)

Figs.29-34: Some examples of social work carried out by the day-students in their respective villages. Fig.30: Requesting a lady who sells candy, soap, etc. to stop selling a nasty kind of chewing-tobacco called "gutka."

Figs.29-34: Some examples of social work carried out by the day-students in their respective villages. Figs.31-32: Posting the latest international, national, provincial and local news.

Figs.29-34: Some examples of social work carried out by the day-students in their respective villages. Fig.33-34: Conducting a socio-economic survey. (See www.varni.info)

Fig.35: Recording political songs.

Figs.36-40: Some of my activities in besides teaching English. Fig.36: Playing chess.

Figs.36-40: Some of my activities in besides teaching English. Fig.37: Chatting.

Figs.36-40: Some of my activities in besides teaching English. Fig.38: A detail from Fig.37.

Figs.36-40: Some of my activities in besides teaching English. Fig.39: Attending athletic meets (and rooting of course for the Samskar teams).

Fig.40: Inaugurating a computer donated by friends from abroad. (The different screens show the same thing, so that a class of 30 students can be served.)

Fig.01: Hemalata and me and Dr. Sundar, the administrative director of Samskar