Saved by the Government #GoodLuck

I shifted from a Hindi medium government school to an English Medium community school (Delhi Tamil Education Association) in the middle of 8th class. For a Hindi speaking boy of a Hindi speaking family, from an Hindi-only medium school, living in a Hindi-medium (mostly Haryanvi-Panju) neighbourhood in West Delhi, English was a nightmare. With that shift of medium, an above average boy became an under-average outcast. Teachers would mostly speak in English or Tamil and at times in broken Hindi so that I should at least get a glimpse of what was going on. But I seldom did. 

The most common advice for this crisis was, “Converse as much in English as you can and you will slowly get it.” I tried but how could I – I didn’t know any of it and nobody spoke English in my family (may be some). I would literally cry after almost everyday at school in those initial months. Some of the teachers there were probably the best teachers I’ve ever seen in my life and they contributed a lot to my growth but I would realise that only after leaving the school. 

Home work was a big issue as we couldn’t even afford dedicated tuitions for me and both my elder siblings were also from Hindi medium. Luckily for me, there came a respite from an unexpected corner. The NCERT books in those times were an exact replica of each other for Hindi and English mediums. I could read the Hindi medium version to make sense of what was written in the English medium book. This immensely helped me to get new words but not that much to write proper answers. Nevertheless, if had it not been about NCERT books, I would have miserably failed in my exams and might have dropped out of the English medium school altogether. Though this method required me to study almost twice as much as other kids in my class, it worked for me. Those books held my hand and slowly showed me the way. 

And yes it changed my life in a big way. 

Twitter @unilogue

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UPDATE:

Received my goodluck prize!

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You can also WIN Ashwin Sanghi’s book ’13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck’
by posting your #goodluck story on trhs!

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