D.A.A.N - Development Action Awareness Nationwide

Challenges in teaching chess to children

2011-07-20T12:32:00.001-07:00

I have been teaching chess in rural areas around Udaipur for a while now. Between two villages I have regular 22 students. Most of these kids like chess although some did enlist in my chess classes more out of curiosity or simply to avoid other studies. I have made chess a privileged game within Badgao and Havala communities.

My first couple weeks of teaching was a complete disaster. Nobody listened. Classes were big. Kids were simply unmanageable. They could not understand most of what I was teaching. As the time went by I realized many common things going on between two of my village classes.

When I finally "hit the wall" with teaching chess I realized I would need help of someone who is a Hindi speaker as well as a great and patient teacher. I turned to Samvit, the founder of DAAN schools. Sam immediately took over my chaotically disorganized chess classes and started putting things in order. He took the same concepts I was trying to teach for days and presented it in a very efficient clear manner. I learnt a lot from him. He is also great at disciplining kids. With Sam's help things started to get better.

When chess classes in Badgaon center have become more or less organized and kids started making progress Sam insisted that we start the same activities in Havala educational center. At first I was dreading same crazy chaotic experience but then after what Sam did in Badgao center I thought it would be okay. Havala kids were surprisingly different from Badgao children. They were sharper and faster at learning. Also the group we selected for chess was a lot smaller and more manageable. We didn't have second demonstration board so we have to start each lesson by sitting in a circle and looking at one board.

With time I made everybody talk through each move and understand why we are agreeing on that move.

After a while I established the same routine at Havala as at Badgao. 10 min of repetition of previous lecture, 10 min of new lecture and a lot of time for "insane" gaming.

More and more kids started getting interested in chess in both villages. Senior children at Havala would sit every day and wait for their chess class impatiently at front of the school. Some started asking me whether they can take chess sets home and practice there. I had to say no. We would never see these sets again if this was to happen I bet.

I noticed more and more girls started taking interest in chess in Havala village while more boys were interested in chess in Badgaon village.

Badgaon center still remains my main focus. I now have four outstanding students. Surprisingly 3 of them belong to the same family. Girl name Preity, her brother Ashish, her cousin Uttam and one boy from rocky hills settlement - Pushkar. Pushkar and his family (total of 5) live in shanty Badgaon hill village in a house made of mud and paper. They are extremely poor but all kids seem to have very good values and extremely humble. His younger 6-year old brother Karan is now showing a very vivid interest in chess practically begging me to teach him. He watches his brother Pushkar play with Ashish and feels left out.

On the picture below you can see my four favorite students on whom I have started to focus individually. All love chess and come to the educational village center mainly to learn how to play in addition to simple English and math classes.

Preity is playing with her cousin Uttam. Boy next to me is Pushkar playing Ashish.

Ashish has become my personal "shadow". I think I am his favorite teacher. I think he only started taking interest in chess because I like it. I wonder what would he say if I have a change of heart from chess to checkers. Would he immediately quit it too and switch to checkers? ;)

Ashish cannot stand to see his sister Preity lose, so most of the time he plays both boards. One for him and one for Preity. On the picture below Ashish is consulting his cousin Uttam on how to make a bad move so that Preity wins :)

What I have learnt from my extremely unusual experience teaching chess in rural Rajasthani villages? A ton of things. I would divide it all into two categories: how to organize and how to teach.

In terms of organizational stuff;

1) it's important to maintain discipline

If discipline is not maintained the class would drive you crazy. You would have 10-14 screaming children all at once and all for various reasons. You would get one big painful headache and most likely nothing will be taught or learnt. Discipline involves sitting straight, listening, raising hands to answer etc.

2) it's important to maintain a routine

Routine should be something like 10 min beginning of each class to revise what they learnt before. I would revise name of each piece (example: white rook, black pawn etc), how pieces move, what is check, what is the purpose of chess etc. Another 10 min should be spent on new material. Could be learning how to castle, how not to move the king into check, good squares and dangerous squares. Also could be spent on teaching to work with just 2-4 pieces. For example, king against king and queen.

3) it's very important to focus on few students

I noticed it's a huge hassle trying to focus on large group of kids. Nobody really can learn anything. Kids distract each other by talking. Also it gets very hectic to the point where you simply feel torn apart between bunch of screaming kids. Every board wants attention. Teaching two boards at a time proved more effective although it does have side effects. Other kids feel left out etc.

In terms of teaching rules of chess I encountered some major obstacles:

1) kids forget which pieces are theirs and start moving opponent's pawns for example

2) it was hard for them to remember that pawn takes diagonally but marches straight. They thought it can march diagonally as well

3) kids did not understand why you cannot kill the king

4) kids did not understand that the check should to be addressed. Instead after one says "check" the other moves some other piece not-related to the check

5) kids moved knight to the wrong square

6) they would forget the difference between king and queen and start moving king many squares instead of one

7) they would always move into the check

8) they did not understand the concept of stalemate

9) they would forget that pieces other than knight cannot jump over other
pieces

10) They would very often move pawn to the left and right instead of straight. Sometimes even one square back.

In spite of what seemed to be an impossible task things started slowly to get better. Kids started getting used to seeing the same things over and over again. They started to become cautious. They still have many rules to learn (en passant, how to castle correctly, stalemate etc) but I know they will do fine. For a long time I thought I will not be able to teach them anything at all but now looking at Vivek from Havala village or Ashish from Badgao I know I can! Just takes a lot of time, that's all.

Tomorrow I will visit an old Indian master who teaches chess to advanced FIDE rated kids in Udaipur. I will ask him for some help. Perhaps one of his students could visit at least one of our centers occasionally to continue teaching the kids. Not sure if this is possible. But I should ask anyways.

My chess task is accomplished. I have presented the game of chess into the rural communities as the game of privilege requiring patience, good memory and intelligence. Not sure where it's going to go from there as I am leaving the country very soon. I hope they will remember me wherever the life takes them especially if one day they will play chess somewhere when they are older.

Seniors and juniors

2011-07-06T00:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I took three more pictures of the rocky settlement before meeting with kids and Sorab (the other teacher).

We finally separated the group into two: seniors and juniors. I would be teaching seniors and Sorab will be teaching juniors (5 to 10 years old). We will unite two groups at the beginning of each day and at the end of each day. Half of the day the groups will study separately.

I started teaching seniors English and chess. English is necessary. Chess hmmmmm not really but I want to try.
For a good part of my teaching I tried to teach them that the end of the verbs will differ for "I", "he" or "she". It was tough. Finally it looked like they were slowly getting it. Then we started chess class. It was almost impossible. Every time I teach chess I realize I am failing. We replayed the pawn game with introduction of the king. Now the "purpose" of the game is to make a queen with 8 pawns and help of the king. My class grew to be 10 kids (or 5 boards). They were yelling, doing crazy moves with pawns and basically uncontrollable.

I don't know what to do at this point but take a deep breath and be patient. I know I can get it to them. Just need a lot and a lot of time.

When we united two groups we played a shake-shake game where each student shakes the bottle to imitate teachers movement. The student who does not imitate the exact way the bottle is held is eliminated. It sounds boring but it was a lot of fun actually.

One thing worries me that new children from the rocky hill settlement did not get the game. It's possible that they used to beg on the streets before. Every time I distributed the candy to shake-shake game winners they would line up and beg me to give some to them as well. I don't think they understand they need to deserve the prize somehow. Perhaps today they will watch others and understand.

We finished with usual prayer. As you can see we are getting many senior level kids (they sit at the back).

Convincing villagers from the rocky hills worked!

2011-07-01T03:41:00.001-07:00

Our yesterday's adventure of going from house to house on those rocky hills worked. Today we were surprised to see a large number of kids in the class. Most families from the shanty house community sent their kids to DAAN school. Many were new. We had to redesign the daily class routine on a spot to incorporate new children. I noticed couple older guys. One very tall fellow looked about 18 years old. He was so tall that he reached the ceiling of our little "classroom" every time he got up to answer a question. Looks like he has good memory. He was getting things fast. His name is Ravi.

Most kids on the picture above came from rocky hills settlement. I now know the living conditions they come from. I look at them almost different. Some came very sick. Two kids were coughing and it looked like it was some kind of flew perhaps. When we asked older brother (also new guy in the class) about his sister being very sick and coughing in class he told us not to worry. Hmmm..

Some kids were dressed in school uniform and looked very professional. Some were covered in dirt wearing dirty dresses and pants. I also examined their hair. It looked like it was not washed for a while. Two older boys (about 18 perhaps) sat in the back. I could see they felt a little bit out of place here. They looked bored. I remembered them from yesterday's adventure. They come from the hills.

Mukesh, is the little boy whose younger sister fell asleep in class. She was too small for school. It was touchy to see him protecting and comforting her in her sleep. Very sweet.

We started with UNO, the game which became so popular lately. The kids simply love it. They learnt it very fast and now even utilizing some major strategies such as holding the best cards for later. I make them all practice numbers and colors by saying it out loud. It works even for the very shy kids.

For smaller kids we practice snake game there they have construct different shapes which make sense.

Chess....... What can I say. It's not easy. My chess class is going terrible. After trying to explain so many times so many things I kept failing. So I decided be as simple and entertaining. After 20 min of useless chess instruction I realized that my students are so bored and clueless that something needs to be done ASAP. So I decided to just play the pawn game. With 8 pawns on the board the winner is the one who promotes to the queen. No king involved for now. It's too difficult.

I noticed Ravi, the tallest kid from the hills, was almost sleeping when the pawn game was introduced. He suddenly got all lightened up and interested. Kids became active because it was simple.

Other formal instruction such as queen/king mate did not make much sense to them. At least not at this point of the development.

In addition to games Sorab decided to spent a good hour teaching kids some English through the story from children's book. They seem to learn from those stories although I am not fully convinced about this technique. I think it's better to introduce as fewer words as possible and then slowly progress and increase number of new words. Sorab also did the exercise of telling time and practicing numbers while I was busy with the chess class.

Finally time to go home. Mohit and Anniket on a motorcycle. They are both cousins of Sorab, the 20-year old teacher. They do not live in shanty house community on the hills. Sorab's brother came to pick them up. I wonder if they got into DAAN school because of Sorab himself. He enjoys teaching children. They help me a lot to calm other kids down when things get out of control. And I need all the help I can get.

Understanding the village

2011-06-30T05:32:00.001-07:00

Today the highlights of the day included teaching kids chess, teaching them how to tell time and going into the village after school.

I realize that I am almost failing at teaching them chess. At times it seems impossible. I remembered advice of my own chess teacher, national master Bruce Baker "just let them play." He is right. To maintain the interest in the game the only thing that works is actually letting them play. It doesn't really matter that they don't know the rules. As long as they are interested in learning. Today I miserably failed at teaching to work the queen on the board. Children did not understand the exercise. They could not follow me. It was a battle I lost. I gave up after 30 minutes of intense trying to explain how the queen is the most powerful piece. They seem to move the queen in every possible direction. I don't think they understand me. I felt hopeless. Finally I told them to just play. It does not matter how. Just play. They suddenly got all lightened up and started playing some game I don't even know. The pawns were moving 4 squares up and the queen moved from any square to any square.

After a hard hour of trying to teach chess I decided to stop for today and study how to tell time. We have been doing time related exercises for a while now and kids are slowly getting it. Sorab was helping me. He speaks Hindi to them and yells sometimes in Hindi to calm them down. Time exercise went successful overall. We made each kid stand up and ask the other kid a time related question like "what time do you brush your teeth?". Then the other kid had to show on the paper clock the time and the first kid would repeat the full answer like "Ashish brushes his teeth at 9 o'clock".

We wrapped up the lessons with the daily prayer around 2:50 pm and headed into the village to talk to each family to find out why they stopped sending their children to DAAN school. Lately the number of students has dropped significantly. The villagers on the hills stopped sending them down to school. We wanted to know what's going on.

Manju, s 16-year-old from our school, has agreed to be our guide into the village. Sorab, the 20 year old Indian volunteer from local community, and me would go from door to door and meet the families.

It was shocking to see the poverty and conditions the villagers lived on the rocky hills. Most houses were either made of brick, mud, paper or plastic or some kind of combination of any of these. Some "houses" were very small. It was hard to imagine the family of 4 fitting in such a tight place.

The first house was a family of 5. The eldest daughter (of about 13-14 years old) stopped attending classes. When we asked why? The mother answered "she is married now, no need for her to go to school". The girl in pink on the picture below is that girl. I remember seeing her before in class.

Manju kept leading us into the rocky hills where we discovered many other families whose kids I immediately recognized. On the picture below Manju is walking ahead. Manju, by the way, is also married but still attends classes daily.

The next family was very friendly. Their lovely son Karan was always active in classes. I recognized him right away. The family of 5 lives in a tiny clay/plastic house. Karan looks so much like his dad. He is the shortest one on the picture below.

Looking down from the hill into Karan's house covered by blue plastic and stones I couldn't help but compare the newer high rises the Udapurians are building in the valleys between the hills. Such a drastic contrast. The tiny house made of plastic and clay vs the 10 floor high rise with garage.

We met few other families. Some said they don't want to send kids down to DAAN because there have been many fights between the kids of different settlements. Maybe fights between those who live in paper/plastic houses and newer settlements? Not sure.

It was hot to climb around the hills. It was an awakening experience.

UNO and Chess

2011-06-29T10:43:00.001-07:00

Today was a day full of UNO and chess. I have already introduced the game UNO yesterday but chess was totally new.
I noticed that children got extremely interested in UNO. Kids of different ages and development. One of the main advantages of playing UNO in such a diverse circle is that all the kids get to participate. Nobody has to just sit there and watch others. Another advantage is that kids learn colors and numbers in addition to few action words like "skip", "reverse", or "draw". I have modified the rules a little bit so that each player has to actually say out loud the number and the color, for example, "one blue". That way they practice pronunciation. It made me happy to see that even the shiest of all the shy kids started saying out loud number and colors. And or course the most important that they are actually very interested in the game.

And now my main passion - chess.

I have selected kids of about ages 10 through 14 who showed great interest in learning. They were very excited.
I am not sure if they were more excited about the game itself or playing with new pieces and looking at the new demonstration board. My current students are two girls Rangeena and Manju, and 4 boys Ashish, Uttham, Mohit and Rohit. Mohit and Manju seem like they are picking up very fast so is the smartest girl of the class Rangeena.

At the beginning I was puzzled. What to start with? Kids show great interest but how to develop it and keep it in the same time? So I started with showing where the pieces would go. After they all got it I called the names of the pieces. It was funny to see the kids calling rook the elephant and the bishop camel. I guess that's what they are called in Hindi.

After naming each piece I started with pawn movement. Most kids got it fast. The bishop moves were easy too.

Now the most difficult part the knight. Couple kids got it very fast but Uttham had the most problem. He just could not understand the jumping over other pieces. In the picture above Uttham is showing where the knight can go. After a long long long time Uttham finally started to move the knight all over the board demolishing all the pieces like a mad child.

Uhmmmmm the dynamics of the group went crazy direction. While a good attentive Rangeena was being a good student the other ones started moving all their pieces without any understanding yelling at each other and sometimes even smashing the pieces of the opposite side with one hand. Uttham still was puzzled with everything. I think he is my slowest student. It will take a lot of time.

Not sure how the chess lessons would go. The village kids are different from city kids. I was happy to see the interest. They are now looking forward to the next lesson. They are also excited with new sets and the demonstration board they get to touch and play with. The time will show what's next. It was not easy today.

Visiting Havala village school

2011-06-27T03:27:00.001-07:00

Last Friday I visited DAAN center in Havala village. It was quite different from Badgaon center. The kids were different. They seem to know more English. Maybe too many volunteers taught them in the past. The center looked a lot more like school. There were maps and posters on the wall. The DAAN teacher was an older man compared to the young Sorab teaching in Badgaon.

Also it seemed like there were more girls in that center than in the other one.

Kids asked me many questions. They also played many games.

The semi-funny story of the day is that one of the kids tried to punch our car's tire. Apparently he was not happy with Sam scolding him a bit for his bad behavior in class. Fortunately we came on time. Only some air was gone from the tire. We had to stop to fix it on the way back.

Teaching in the rain

2011-06-23T04:16:00.001-07:00

Today I didn't expect that many kids to show up because of the heavy rain. I was surprised to see many kids already there before noon.

We continued the same thing we did the whole week. Worked in groups. Funny enough I noticed that group leaders are now taking their pride in being in charge. When I was trying to help one of the groups the appointed leader said something like "mam, I am a group leader here" meaning I manage things around here. It was cute.

Today I discovered that there are few married kids in the class. I also discovered that the eldest "kid" is 20 years old! That was new. So, ranging from age 3 to 20, married and unmarried, with basic education and no education at all - this group is not easy to homogenize.

Seriously.

Looking at the picture above I wonder if the little boy is actually married or it's just a ring?

Monsoon rain

2011-06-23T04:09:00.001-07:00

It's raining raining raining raining. There is no end to this rain. Power shortages are becoming more and more common especially first part of the day. The air feels good after the rain. Fresh. Breathable. Almost as if it's not india. I am starting to love monsoon mornings.

Understanding cultural differences

2011-06-22T19:44:00.001-07:00

They are all so different. They are of different ages, different backgrounds, and different development. Some go to government schools in the morning, some don't go to any schools at all. Some work in the fields, some take care of younger ones in the family, some are even married! Yes, don't be surprised, child marriage is practiced here in Rajasthan (here is a recent piece of news on legalization of child marriages in Rajasthan).

Some have better knowledge of English than others, some are more eager to learn, some will return many times and some will only appear once in a blue moon. They are all so different and very unique.

So, the question is how to deal with such a diverse crowd when teaching a simple concept of numbers? At the beginning I was sure that if working in groups the group leaders or the eldest/advanced kids will incorporate the others into learning process but today I realize there are many obstacles and pit holes even in this process.

One of the things is that each day different kids would come to DAAN school. The new kids do not have any idea of the activities we have been doing and the material learnt. To deal with this problem we decided to introduce material slowly in small chunks so that the new information is absorbed effectively by all members of the groups. For example, today we taught numbers 1 through 40, only introducing 30-40 as new numbers. The same game was played as a day before (each group has a number and the other groups ask questions trying to guess it). In addition each group is tested on the numbers and the performance prize is given to the group and special performance prize is given to the group leader.

The weirdest thing happened. Right in the middle of the class a man came in and started giving us blessings by placing a red dot on the forehead and then giving out sweets. I didn't really understand what was going on but did wonder a bit. So after we were all blessed class continued when I noticed chunks of the lower part of the wall started to fall on the floor from excessively vigorous drilling occurring from the other side. I realized then that we were all blessed because some well was being dug and the pipes were being put through the concrete. I still did not understand why the classroom wall needed to be drilled. The pipes could have put behind the wall. It's India. Hard to understand.

India, diversity, the whole unusualness of everything. I thought I have gone through all this before in 2006-2007 when I spent a long time in this country. Apparently I forgot what it felt like. The new awakening started.

Continuation of teaching numbers and working in groups

2011-06-21T21:50:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we continued teaching kids numbers and working in groups. Some kids from previous groups did not show up and new kids showed up. As always it took a while to get them situated into the groups before starting with the activities. We taught them 1-30 following the same pattern as before. We had one winning group who got candies.

Between teaching them 1-30 and how to ask questions we did song activities where each group had to sing 6 songs. I have heard these songs for such a long time that I found myself singing them while I am doing other things. Funny like that.

I am still thinking it would be better to have groups for advanced vs complete beginners but since the mixed groups seem to be working alright maybe it should stay this way at least for now.

Sam took some pictures of me teaching. I am not liking the way I look on them. I am so new at teaching maybe that's why I look a bit confused.

First day of teaching at Badgaon village - changing established techniques

2011-06-20T10:01:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of actual teaching at Badgaon center. Me and Sam arrived a bit earlier to talk to the guy who has been teaching these kids for a while now. He is pretty understanding and excellent with children. As I found out his mom was also a teacher. Maybe it runs in a family. At 12 only 6 kids arrived. The rest of the crew of about 13 kids arrived late. Sam has decided to start giving out prizes to the kids who come on time as well as announcing their names. Perhaps it will encourage others as well.

I did not see many faces from last week but saw few unfamiliar faces. Not sure if it's a case of Mondays.

We have decided to wait with my introduction until more kids arrived. First of all I wrote my name and made them guess how to read and pronounce it. After many tries the best guess was something like "iron". I finally revealed the mystery and kids happily repeated many names many times. Then I told them that I come from America -> California -> San Diego. Kids were all confused with all the geography until Sam came up with good analogy. Same as India -> Rajasthan -> Udaipur.

Then I told them about my hobbies (chess, music, languages) as well as mentioned that this is my second time in Udaipur and I am planning to teach there for a while. Then I quickly asked them questions about myself and was very surprised that they actually remembered some details like that the California is a western state (I told them this also). They also remembered my hobbies. They could not get the name of the city though - San Diego.

Finally I decided to start with implementing the new system into the classroom. The system deviating from simple repetition and individual work. I have decided to spend as much time as I can making them work in groups and helping each other learn.

I have started with teaching numbers in English. The kids' ages ranged from about 1st graders to 7th. Some had no idea about one, two, three and some were fairly comfortable with numbers. What a thinker. My original idea was to separate smaller kids and teach them basics. Sam proposed a better solution. Divide the class into equal groups with all ages in them. That way the more knowledgeable kids would help those who don't know.

And it worked like magic. After a long time of separating the class into groups and rearranging the sitting three groups were formed. The kids were not used to be facing each other, they normally sit in lines/rows and face the teacher. We gave them plenty of time to help each other count 1 through 20, also in reverse order and picking random numbers. Each group had a group leader, mainly the eldest of the group or the most advanced one (suggested and chosen by the guy who has been teaching them before me).

I really enjoyed to see productive group dynamics. The more advanced kids patiently explained less fortunate ones what they know about numbers as well as tested them. In addition to helping the group the group leaders were given responsibility to maintain group discipline.

It was really great to watch them help each other learn. I thought it was more efficient than repeating after the teacher.

After some time we have given them a test to see which team did the best. We picked 5 random numbers and 5 random people from each group to answer. After each correct answer we all would applaud. There was only one group who got all the answers right. I distributed candies for each member and special chocolate for a group leader. What really amazed me is that the smallest kid from that group had no idea what 1, 2, 3 were and he answered number 5 correctly. I guess the group leader had some special explanation magic. It was a very special moment indeed.

I tried to do the activity where children have to ask questions to guess the number like "is it a double-digit number", "is it bigger than ..." but encountered difficulties. It was not easy to get them into that mode. Maybe I am rushing too much into things here. I will try to take it slow and continue number learning as the days go by. I am also thinking to get into learning about telling time sometimes later this week.

Kids were slow to go home. They kept on smiling and saying "Namaste" - "Bye" to me.

Understanding group and teaching dynamics

2011-06-17T06:06:00.001-07:00

Today I returned to Badgaon center for more observation and learning. In addition to seeing many same faces I saw some new ones. Most kids arrived on time, they were dressed in clean clothes, some carried water with them. I have overheard that yesterday there was a big fight between the kids. Apparently some kids who live in newer developing settlements got in a fight with those from older existing settlement. Therefore some did not show up, perhaps prohibited by their families or on their own merit.

Sam has started to integrate me in the teaching routine. At this point kids are super curious about who I am. One even requested a formal introduction. It was cute. Next week I will officially start teaching at DAAN. It will be quite interesting but a lot of work. I can only imagine. Currently from what I have observed in the past 2 days most teaching is based on repetition. Kids would repeat a word by word after the teacher. The group would shout out things. Sometimes the teacher would point at a specific student who then would get up and answer. Most kids appear very shy almost afraid to say anything out loud. I heard the teacher repeat many times "zor se bol" which means "speak up louder".

I also noticed that kids are required to sit for many hours and get up for water or bathroom break only with official teacher permission. So different from american practices. Student is required to wait until he is allowed to go. But I think in reality in addition to actually wanting a break kids just want to move around. It's even hard for any adult to sit and attentively listen for such a long time.

Only at the very end of school session the teacher initiated some activities in the form of games where the kids actually got to move around. How easy would it be for me to change these practices? I would want to have them move around and be more interactive rather than to sit, repeat and wait for permission to go out.

One of the games was "Teacher says". The teacher would point at part of the body (shoulders, eyes, arms) and say "the teacher says". Kids have to point at the same part of the body and say it out loud. If the teacher does not say "the teacher says" but simply calls a part of the body and the student still points to it then this kid is eliminated from the game. This game accomplishes few things: gets kids to interact and move around as well as study vocabulary and test attention skills. Afterwards they played Shake game. The teacher shook the bottle with the sand in it, kids started to move around, jump and dance then at the signal they had to freeze in one position without moving. The kid who moved is eliminated. At the end of the games the winners got candies as prizes.

After schooling the kids spend few minutes praying.

Kids lined up to say bye to the teacher - "Namaste" in a very respectful manner, smaller kids first.

Visiting Badgaon center for the first time

2011-06-16T04:36:00.000-07:00

Today I visited Badgaon center for the first time. All children are very friendly. It's certain that they are used to volunteers from different countries. They smile and say Namaste. They are naturally very curious about newcomers. Even though me and Sam sat few steps away from the classroom the kids could not help but occasionally look with eyes full of curiosity about me. I think they wanted to hear my voice.

Looking at them it was hard to imagine that some of them have to perform almost the same tasks as adults: work in the fields, do household stuff. These kids are serious. They have eyes of adults almost.

The teacher was one of DAAN guys. He seemed to be loving and caring about children. The kids repeated English words out loud. They also repeated songs. They seemed to be excited about singing. Perhaps they were sitting too long trying to concentrate. Singing definitely recharged them. Occasionally they would take restroom and water breaks but only when then teacher announced it. I was amazed on how particular they were about taking their shoes off when stepping on the sitting rag. Older helped younger ones. I think they are wondering what I am all about. I should probably spend time today preparing for my first lesson. It should be fun.

Flying and airports

2011-06-16T04:35:00.001-07:00

Flying over London

Sushi place in Heathrow airport, London

Flying over slums of Mumbai. A totally different world. World of "slum dog millionaire" next to sky raises.

Domestic flights terminal,Mumbai, India

Yes, I can write and read!

2011-05-07T18:16:00.001-07:00

Wow. It took me full 4 days of continuous study to finally be able to write and read. Next -> vocabulary study!

Learning Hindi

2011-05-04T13:19:00.001-07:00

I have decided to learn Hindi. Found a lot of great study materials and loaded them onto my iPad. I even found a Hindi course in Russian language! Cool stuff.

Received a very very generous donation from wholesalechess.com!!

2011-04-13T19:15:00.001-07:00

I have received a very generous donation today from wholesalechess.com.

It's simply overwhelming!

15 chess sets/boards and a wonderfully large demonstration board.

Wow!!!

Plane

2011-04-04T15:39:00.001-07:00

Decided that I will be taking a short plane ride from Mumbai to Udaipur!

Train or Plane?

2011-03-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

Still deciding whether I will take an overnight train Mumbai-Udaipur or plane.
Plane is $70 more but arrives the same day. Train is a bit of local adventure but arrives the following morning at 8:25AM.

I guess I had my fair portion of indian transportation back in 2006-2007. I even tried Second Class Unreserved once for 10 hours. Funny enough it was also to Udaipur. I remember me and Glenn were resting for a few days after this famous ride. I also remember it made me write the story. A famous story about my Second Class Unreserved experience.

This time, it will be more or less civilized experience in the first class. Second class story still gives me shivers. I do not want want to go through this ever again. Glenn would probably say the same thing.

Train might be actually even a better option. I will be exhausted at this point after 2 days of flights from LAX to London, whole day in London, and then London to Mumbai. I might as well pass out immediately in the 1st class AC sleeper. I think nothing will bother me at that point. I will be dead.

Anyways, not sure...will decide later...

I am going to receive a large donation from wholesalechess.com!!

2011-03-25T21:04:00.001-07:00

Wow, it came so unexpected. It looks like I will be receiving a pretty nice donation from http://www.wholesalechess.com. A friend had a contact there and decided to help.
I am getting the whole 15 basic plastic tournament sets and a demonstration board for kids.

I was thinking of how to even start with teaching chess to children. I had an idea of perhaps starting very small with few sets and then depending on their interest expand into bigger something. I never opened a chess school before. It's new.

Why did I decide to do such crazy thing? Maybe some kind of sign from the universe. Would chess be taken just as another extra curriculum thing or would it be as helpful as Kasparov's foundation describes? How would children who need very basic things like water and ability to read take this? How would it go?

Many questions in my head. One thing for sure I want to do this.

Does Rajasthan know chess? Of course, big time! Rajputana Chess Association, lists 101 rated players as part of the organization. Then, a simple question - huge antique state of Rajasthan with only 100 players?????? I picture Rajasthan, the country of Maharajas, moguls coming from Persia. Could Rajasthan be a motherland of chess?

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San Diego, CA

Money, money, money

2011-03-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today is the day to spend some major cash.

I finally bought a ticket to Mumbay from LAX. This is probably the most expensive ticket I have ever purchased in my life, wow. But I had to do it. Waiting for the cheaper deal might not have worked. Plus, now I can totally plan all the other things without having to worry about flights. I still need to book one local flight from Mumbai to Udaipur, but I can do this later. I might or might not stay a day in Mumbai before heading up to Rajastan.

The idea of traveling in 38 degrees Celcius heat throws me off a bit. But then again, back in February 2007 I had a heat stroke in Hampi, state of Karnataka and I survived that. Can it be any worse? Also, can it be worse than heat of New Delhi in May-June? I managed to survive that too, with difficulties. Rajastan during summer ...hmmmm... oh well. The time will show.

Today my head is spinning. I remember since I was little I remembered places by smells rather than by colors :). I remember how my aunt's house smelled like, how the village smelled like, how the city smelled like. Today I vividly recall how Mumbai/India smells like. Strong strong smell, yet something I totally miss. I cannot describe it really. Heat smells, food smells, spices smells, urine smells, smoke smells, incense smells..all together..all merged in one. Hard to describe. Hard to forget either.

Alright, ticket is bought, it's time to reserve the room in the guesthouse for volunteers.

Irina

What to start with?

2011-03-17T15:31:00.001-07:00

Ok, first thing first..I need to figure out the situation with visa/passport, ticket, my apartment. Also one of the first things is to do is complete application for DAAN by reserving a place to live while volunteering. It all seems a bit hectic to me right now, but perhaps one thing at time will resolve the mess in my head.

Funny that just a few days ago I had no idea that I would do this. I guess there is time for everything and this is my time to go. Reminds me of the first time I ended up in India back in 2006. I was staying in Budapest, Hungary when I stopped by local Indian consulate and one thing led to another and just a week later I was all set with visa. And all this given that I had a ticket back from Turkey to States. Of course the return ticket from Istanbul back to San Diego was never used as I found myself in the heat of Mumbai not understanding what just happened. Then, months later I was still there, still in India, changing city after city, town after town, village after village. I was unstoppable back then. I remember I had a tiny little backpack the entire time there. Not a professional one other backpackers would carry. Just a regular tiny backpack, month after month. Periodically I would clean it and fill it with new stuff as I went from place to place. Eventually I found myself with additional Indian rice bag with blankets and books. I called it my train bag, as I would use the blankets in the train along with reading the books. Ufhh, when I left India in February of 2007, I thought I would never come back. I thought it was not in the stars. But shockingly just a few months later I found myself back in Indian Himalayas then back in New Delhi. Leaving India second time I thought that's it, probably the destiny has fulfilled, I meant to come here twice. No. This week I realized that there will be a third time.

Alright, enough of nostalgic sentimental stuff. Will write later.

I.

My favorite Osho's saying

2011-03-16T16:24:00.003-07:00

"While meditating, the only problem is how to be silent, how not to be caught in thoughts" (Osho)

New idea - new blog

2011-03-16T11:33:00.001-07:00

I am starting this blog today, a long before I actually start volunteering with D.A.A.N. I will keep this blog to record my experiences, my thoughts, my ideas.