when the student becomes teacher...

“Quiz me,” Praveen instructed me. I looked at him dubiously. It was barely 15 minutes into the class period. “Are you ready?” He grinned. “Of course.”

Praveen is one of the two Biology students in 11^th grade; most of the Shanti Bhavan students choose the Business track after 10^th grade, rather than science. Maheshwari, the other student, was absent from class this particular day; I told Praveen to read through the beginning of the chapter, and that I would quiz him afterward. The 11^th grade Biology class is currently learning from the 12^th grade syllabus, and the chapter of discussion was animal tissues. Not only is the content much more complex than anything I learned in Advanced Placement Biology, but it resembles material taught in university-level anatomy classes.

In less than fifteen minutes, Praveen had read through 25 pages of the chapter. Moreover, he had thoroughly comprehended all of it. He recited details that I had a hard time even finding when I read through it, and he would inform me their locations – page, paragraph – right down to the sentence. Incredible. It brought new meaning to the term “photographic memory.”

It’s difficult to imagine bright, talented students like Praveen working in fields, quarries, or in factories, doing menial labor. What Shanti Bhavan has done for these children goes beyond providing them an education – it has offered them a home, a family, and a future. Many of these students return to broken homes without parents, or with unhealthy familial relationships. Nearly all return to small village shacks, huts, or city slums. Understanding the backgrounds of the students has led me to realize the true impact that the institution has made for hundreds of students and their families. Just a stroke of luck led them to be chosen by Dr. George for a better life: one in which they can make their own paths with a promising future. While exploring the internet for international volunteer opportunities one auspicious afternoon, I stumbled across a website with the smiling face of a young Indian girl. The title read, “Shanti Bhavan’s Children’s Project.” Just a stroke ­of luck.