Survival Skills!! Who is Responsible to Teach them?

A Real Life Hero!

His name is Abhishek, a short lanky but energetic boy, we met at the banks of river Giri at Naddi (a place at the foothills of Shivalik in Himachal Pradeh, India).

It was 18^th of March, 2018, a fun-filled, free Sunday amidst so much hectic schedule of Board Exams, internal exams, result preparation, new admissions, new session preparation and so much happening together  at once (March is typically the busiest of the months in school calendar for a Principal). It was the beginning of Navratra also. We, my husband and I,  first visited La Devi temple at Rajban (a small township on the way to Naddi) and then decided to spend some time at Giri river at Naddi.

We were just sitting and enjoying the cool breeze at the banks of Giri, one leg dangling into cold water and mouths being stuffed with chopped fruits that my husband prefers to carry anywhere on our trips.

Sitting and enjoying in water, my husband decided to take a dip into water to feel and experience the nature to its best. In a jiffy, he took off his clothes, handed over to me and got down into water. A specky as he is, he took his spectacles off and put them on one of the boulders. After enjoying in water for almost 15 minutes, he came out and sat on the boulder to dry himself and then suddenly somehow his spectacles slipped into the water. He tried to look for them around the boulder, as the water was not very deep and the flow was not very strong. Having looked on all sides but to no avail, he decided to leave.

While this all was going on, I was observing few boys aged may be 11-12 years at some distance from us along the bank of river enjoying in water, splashing, floating, diving, swimming, washing their clothes, cleaning their cycles and making the most of a beautiful spring afternoon.

Before we started to leave, just out of curiosity, I told my husband to call those boys and seek help to find out his spectacles. He showed his reluctance. May be he was not sure whether to put them at risk for such a small thing. However I decided to seek help as looking at them for almost half an hour I was somehow confident that they are at ease with water. So, I kept looking at them and when my eyes met with those of one little boy in the group, I gestured him to come to us. And there came the little, cheerful boy, jumping from one boulder to another like our very own Mowgli, in a second. I just narrated the incident to him, how and where the spectacles have slipped under water and asked whether he could help to locate them.

And there he went in a second to the boulder I was pointing at, so deft, so precise and looked around the boulder but could not find the spectacles. Meanwhile he just whistled and called all boys to him. While all other boys were coming, I told him to look under the boulder where the water stream was taking turn. He closed his nose, took a dip under water and searched for spectacles and to our utter surprise within 10 seconds he took his head out from water with spectacles in his hand.

Wow!!

But suddenly, it was a moment of great joy and frustration, both at the same time, for me. Joy, though momentary, as the spectacles were found and frustration, lasting longer and still haunting at times, at the sudden realization of the fact as an educationist and an educator as to what are we teaching to our children in the schools through our education system.

In such a pure natural environment, the children are growing up and learning life skills in such natural way, all survival skills; jumping, whistling to call fellow beings, swimming, balancing etc. so very important for physical survival. In our classrooms, we are giving no exposure of such sort to our young children. They are just forced to cram and write the things which perhaps most of them don’t understand and even if they understand most of the things are not relevant to their lives. Lately, the education system has started talking of Life Skills in terms of Social Skills, Thinking Skills and Inter-personal skills, yet there is nothing in terms of survival skills. This little boy Abhishek may or may not be knowing many things written in the books, but surely he is a champion in the book of life. He showed such courage, initiative and leadership, helped a total stranger, smiled, laughed and off he went jumping over the boulders.

Yes, Abhishek is a Real Life Hero not because he retrieved our little valuables, but because what he displayed was something..Real Life Skills we don’t get to see very often these days.

Long  live Abhishek and may your kind grow!

We need more real life heroes.