Modi is Coming!

One day, several weeks ago, Hansa-ben told me, “Milly, there is no Spoken English tomorrow!” Hansa-ben, an English teacher in the secondary school, is a mentor and like a mother to me; she has been very supportive of me and the other NEF teachers, and often invites us to her house right down the street. “We will come to school at 7:30 A.M.!” I was very confused, as school normally starts at 10:30 and my morning Spoken English classes are held at 9:15. It was only after some confused questioning that I finally understood—Narendra Modi was coming to town!

If you ask a Gujarati child to name some of the most important people in India, s/he would probably say Mahatma Gandhi, Shah Rukh Kahn, and Narendra Modi. (And maybe cricket player Sachin Tendulkar too). Narendra Modi is the chief minister of Gujarat—a very powerful man. So for him to come to the villages was, naturally, a big event. All afternoon, the students asked me, “Teacher, tomorrow you go to Valod?” Or they would say, “Teacher, Modi come to Valod!” I soon found out that Valod is another village, slightly bigger than Bajipura, about 5km away, and the students were coming to school early to go join the procession to welcome Modi.

So the next day, I went to school earlier than usual to see what this was all about. Having missed breakfast, I was buying a samosa from the snack stand next to school—when I heard students screaming from behind. I whipped my head around, and to my utter surprise, I see a truck full of 9th standard students leaving the school! It was one of the most memorable sights ever: 80 students were standing on the back of a cargo truck, swaying back and forth and falling over each other, as the truck maneuvered through the warzone that is the Indian highway. “Hi Teacher!” they all yelled as the truck zoomed by. I don’t know if I was expecting them to be on a school bus, but I was quite shocked and amused to see a truckload of laughing kids. I could not believe I had forgotten my camera!

When I arrived in Valod with the other teachers, the students were already standing in three straight lines along the village’s main street, holding green, orange and white flags. But they could not contain their excitement! When the teachers told them to stay in line, they resorted to jumping up and down in one spot. There were delegations from other local schools as well, but I must say, the Bajipura students were looking especially crisp in their uniforms.

Twenty minutes passed, and there was still no parade, no Modi. “They’re running on Indian time,” one of the local teachers whispered to me. So I took out the samosa I had bought earlier and was enjoying my late breakfast when Bharat-bhai, a math teacher and the academic dean, found me and exclaimed, “Milly! You like samosa?” My mouth full, I managed to say, “Mhmm!” as he motioned the other teachers and me to follow him to the fried food stand nearby. “You try this,” he said as he and the other teachers urged me to try one fried food after another. It is unbelievable how addictive Indian street food is; I had been careful not to eat anything off the streets until then, but it was like discovering a whole new world of vegetarian heavenliness! As we stuffed ourselves full, everybody agreed that Meghan and I have “very strong stomachs.”

An hour later, there was finally some movement down the street. There was a procession of some important looking people, and there was a dance performed by local students to welcome them. But still, there was no Narendra Modi. I found out later that the patriotic parades took place all over the Surat district by Modi’s mandate, and he was not able to (or maybe was never supposed to?) come to Valod. Nonetheless, the students were excited to be part of the event—they had huge grins on their faces as they marched down the street, proudly carrying their flags.

Modi may not have come to the village, but there is no doubt that the students have tremendous pride for their country. “I love my India” is probably the most common English phrase around here. Bajipura’s English Medium students begin their morning pledge by saying, “India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters.” India is growing rapidly; although “development” has not quite reached all corners of the country yet, it is the new generation that will continue India’s growth. When we talked about future careers in Spoken English, I found out that my students have big dreams—many aspire to become doctors, engineers, and lawyers. It is not easy being from a tribal or lower caste family in rural India, but I hope and I pray that the students will truly be the future leaders of the India that they love.

Namaste and thank you for reading,

Milly