Article | eVidyaloka

Hello all, This time we bring before you a life story by our Topslip( a center tucked away in the greenery of the annamalai mountain ranges in the western ghats) teacher Chandra Sivakumar on how her motivation to join eVidyaloka,how she joined and her first class experience.

It was early July 2015, I did something in a fit of emotion. Yes, quit teaching , Without informing or discussing with anyone submitted my resignation letter and applied for leave for the notice period.

Cleaned up my house,cupboards, caught up with all friends and relatives who were all surprised at my decision. Tired of same old dialogue ‘Chandra you are definitely going to regret your decision” and so on. Two months passed, I began getting bored ,missing students with whom I had spent more than 25 years.Started becoming restless. Husband and son became worried that I may start looking for a job , which would mean losing all their comforts at home. That made them come with the idea of me doing some social work. One led to the other and I finally I found myself registering with evidyaloka. Then I was contacted by Gayathri Ramesh. Things did not start with the good note. Whenever, she contacted me I had problems with my skype connections and then the call was transferred to Rini Jose. Same story repeated but finally they decided to take a chance with me.Thanks Gayathri and Rini for the trust you had reposed on me.

In the last week of September Swapna, coordinator of my centre TOPSLIP, called me. A warm friendly chat with her led to an instant rapport . However I, have to shamelesssly accept , did not know where Topslip was.first, humbling experience.

Whatever, may be the initial hiccups I started with an auspicious note. My classes began on my birthday.

The joy I had in teaching them to introduce themselves, describe their class, their family, Pongal and Republic day celebrations and their goals cannot be explained in words.I learnt all about yanai pongal. Another, humbling experience. I did not know such a festival existed until then. Interestingly, three of them wanted to become teachers and one a collector. Ramya’s interest in English, Tinu’s attentiveness, Chitra’s sincerity , Archna’s enthusiasm and Guna’s sincerity and industrious nature all made me look forward for Mondays and Wednesdays. By the end of the session I learnt all about Topslip. I began to envy them when they narrated their long treks from their village to schoolt’, their experience of spotting tigers and elephants and proudly telling me about the pleasant weather that they were experiencing at a time when it was scorching hot in Hyderabad.

However, everything was not hunky dory. Regular power cuts, internet problems, absenteeism were all disappointments. Perhaps one has to take all these things in its stride and keep moving on and my journey with evidyaloka will continue.