While most pensioners spend time taking up small jobs, participating in satsangs and chatting up with friends, they tread a different path. They simply follow their heart. After retiring as deputy general manager of Gujarat State Financial Corporation, he started teaching children of his domestic help. Soon, word spread and students from nearby areas started pouring in. Children of daily wage workers, they all had one thing in common: The willingness to study.
Deepak dada, as he is fondly called by the kids, faced some hurdles initially. He had to put in money from his pocket to buy books, notebooks and pencils for them. But later, his friends too began supporting him. Now he has 100 students from class III to X. Deepak’s wife Manjari has also joined him.
She teaches students of class III and IV. The couple has devised its own syllabus which also incorporates a subject called social responsibility. They have converted two rooms in their house into classrooms and one into library where kids spend a lot of quality time. The bond they share with the children is more than that of a guru and a shishya. They are like their surrogate parents. The couple believes that God helps only those who help themselves.
Is the new job more satisfying? “Oh yes! Absolutely! Just that in my old job I had to sanction the leave of my juniors and now I need to take the kids’ permission to take a day off,” he says.
| Deepak-Manjari Social workers Courtesy : AHMEDABAD Mirror |
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