Their classes are taught in English, but during their 10-minute recess, they speak in Hindi. Manvi plays a game called coco, which is like a version of tag. Her friend told me that she plays basketball and football and after class Manvi likes to do classical dance like Kathak.
After a few minutes Manvi’s sister walked up, so we all went together to catch a vikram to Jogiwala. School is four hours long for them, and at the start of every school day, the whole school takes part in a morning prayer. At this daily assembly, students also share regional and world news and teach a word of the day. This type of assembly takes place in most schools in India. In class, the students refer to their teachers by calling them “Maam” or “Sir.” Sometimes, if they are late to class, students will ask the teacher, “Maam, may I come in?” The teachers are often strict, and a lot of the learning is focused on memorization. After school, Manvi and Himanshi take their lunch at home. After that, they go to tutoring, which is called “tuition” or “coaching.”
As I was asking them these questions, I was thinking about how important education is, and how so many kids in India still don’t have access to quality education. There are places in the U.S. where this is the case as well, and I am fortunate that I received a good public education for free. In India, many poor parents must work extremely hard to be able to send even one of their children to private school (the child that is sent to private school is often the son, which is another problem in itself).
After getting through a traffic jam, I parted ways with Himanshi and Manvi whose stop was a few minutes before mine.
