An Unknown Warrior Fighting It Alone, With A Pen, In The Land Of Ultras & Virus

The mist was settling down as the dawn slowly replacing the darkness. And the rising sun lazily appeared faintly on the eastern horizon, the countryside in the `Swabhiman ` in Malkangiri district in Odisha getting more distinct moving away from the fog.

We could find mud houses with small windows from where trails of smoke from the early hour cooking was snaking out. Among the cowhands, taking their herd to pastures, there was a figure who was nearly ready for the day`s work, walking out into the lane.

Kushmani Khillo, a frail-looking dusky young lady emerged and headed towards her place of work, a school for upper primary students. Where she used to teach, located a little closer to a huge meadow-like an uphill. It is an Upper Primary school.

Show Must Go On

Kushmani, herself a final year student at the Balimela Science College, is a different persona. Post the outbreak of Covid, Kushmani is as helpless as thousand others. Where life could never be the same, she knew! But the show must go on, she believes.

Hailing from a family of Gerasetu village, a nondescript settlement under Chittrakonda Reservoir `Swabhiman Anchal`, Kushmani has grown through every conceivable hardship. When nights remained nightmarish and days daunting and further worsened by the pandemic.

Amid this climate of terror and tribulations, she still has the realisation about the importance of education in the society. The only asset which may outlive the odds.

But, post the outbreak of Covid the state of education suffered the rude shock, leaving all in a virtual world of fear and apprehension, and education through online teaching remains the last straw so far.

But that has never been a cup of tea for all involved. Lack of smartphone & network problem in the interiors remains a major set back, depriving thousands of students of the alternate option and perhaps the only one.

When Online Fails!

" I was concerned about students who neither can attend schools nor have access to online classes. That worried me so, I thought why not I get boys and girls to be tutored in the evening hours ".

And there goes Kushmani, surging into a world of despair and rescue some students from the clutches of neglect. And Kushmani believes that, " nothing can substitute teaching person to person ".

She volunteered an idea and the response was fantastic. She convinced about 40 students of the village to take free lessons from her makeshift evening school within the Anganwadi centre there.

Love For Literacy

At the stroke of 6 pm there at the Anganwadi center, small boys and girls gather and Kushmani takes the classes all on her own, without charging a penny from the students. Had it not been her effort, the students would have been cut off from the stream of education till schools resume. Which may take a few more months, maybe.

While taking classes she ensures to adhere to the Covid guidelines and the spacious rooms at that centre offer conducive conditions for physical distancing as well.

Kushmani`s face smiles that smile of contentment when over 40 students reach the center in the evening. Screaming with all fun and frolic inducing a sense of purpose in Kushmani. And that is the inner beauty of that simple-looking young lady. She makes fun with the students, serious while teaching, as she takes literacy as the love of her life.

While coming to teach she never carries the worries of home, where, many often, the lunch or dinner plates remain empty. She never allows setback into her mental frame come what may.

Stay updated with all the Latest Bhubaneswar headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.