Geetanjali Krishna: When granny goes to school

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

When Haseena walks from her home near Bhadohi to school more than four kilometers away, many of her neighbours laugh at her.

They titter when she takes out her slate to study in the evenings, whispering that she's wasting her time. They point at her and say, "there goes old granny to school!" But this gutsy 65-year-old pays no heed to them. For ever since she was young, she wanted to study and never had the chance.

"I remember fighting with my parents and going next door to learn to read the Koran," she says, "but that was the only book I ever managed to read." So when she heard that the Project Mala school not too far away was starting adult literacy classes for the first time, she rushed to enroll, forcing them to change the age limit they'd set for students from 45 to 65.

"My daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren can all read and write "" I always felt left out," she says, talking about why she decided to enroll for the four month adult literacy programme organised jointly by Project Mala and the STEP Foundation. But not any more. One month into the course, she can recognise most of the Hindi alphabets and can also count and write up to 20 in English. "People ask me what use I could possibly have for all this at my age. But I feel there's no age for learning."

Not surprisingly, Haseena Begum is a bit of a role model for the rest of her class. She introduces me to her sister, who looks almost as old as her. "Haseena has a lot of pain in her knees," she says, adjusting her glasses over her nose, "but she still walks such a long distance everyday to come to school. Then why shouldn't I, who has no such problems?" The younger women, many of whom attend class with babies at their breasts, also treat her with a lot of respect. Perhaps that's why Haseena Begum likes coming to class so much.

"She's one of our most regular students," said Usha, their teacher, "she's managed to come for class even when it was raining so hard that most of the others were absent!" "I like the way the teachers teach here," says Haseena, "they take time to explain things to us."

She also finds it interesting to interact with so many women from other villages. "The atmosphere here is very good, very clean," she says.

"At home, my only job," she says, "is to look after the grandchildren while my daughters-in-law look after the house!" Attending this class, she says, enables her to make her grandchildren study better. "When they take out their slates in the evening, I do the same!" she grins, "so they can't run away easily!"

Since she has always valued education so much, Haseena Begum made sure she educated her 12 children "" six girls up to class 10, and sons up to inter and BSc. "It was not easy, since we have little income and only a small plot of land," she says.

Her husband is a village doctor with no formal degree. "Unfortunately, none of my six sons have jobs yet. Now that they've studied so much, they don't want to do manual labour. So they're all sitting at home looking for work that's more suitable for them," she said.

All Haseena Begum and her husband can do is wait for the day when one or all of them get some employment. In the meanwhile, she attends class everyday, giving a whole new meaning to the term 'old student'."