Naresh Lalwani

Blooming flowers of the swamp I remember it was someday in the year 2002, while I was flipping through the pages of the Outlook Magazine, a one-page article on Khurshid Dabdi caught my attention. Outlook used to publish one-page articles on those individuals who worked selflessly to make a difference in the lives of other people. The article spoke about the work she was doing for the improvement in the lives of the underprivileged children through education.

She was pained at seeing them while away their time while their parents were doing odd manual jobs and had no awareness or the resources to think of the education of their children. She was doing this in Mumbai, her city. Mumbai, as we all know, has a sizeable population of people who have come from far off towns and villages to find work and fulfill their dream of making two ends meet.

I was then posted in Ahmedabad, and Mumbai for me too was the city of my dreams. Being in all India government service, I had lived in many different places in the country and it was my earnest wish to be posted in Mumbai. I had this common urge to do something for the society.

With most of us, it remains an urge and does not get converted into even a small action of contributing in some way for the cause.

I was impressed by the fact that Khurshid and her dedicated team were doing something for the education of the children in whose lives the formal schools did not exist.

Formal schools will educate the children once they take admission in the school. With schools stretched to their limits, we can’t expect them to do anything to reach out to the children and enroll them. We are too far from this to happen in our society. Not only that, the schools do not have the means to bring back those children who suddenly stop coming to school.

Many a times, circumstances in life forced children to drop out of school midway. And here was this selfless team of Sunbeam teachers and community workers who were disappointed at so much potential being wasted and how this treasure of talent could be harnessed and productively utilized if proper guidance was available to them. It was this aspect of the story that touched my heart that Sunbeam was enabling the children to move on to the world of education from the world of gay abandon. In this article it was elaborated upon how Khurshid was intrigued to see six children playing near her office (she used to work for CRY – Child Relief and You at that time) and look into their lives to know why they were not attending school and what can make them do so. She started teaching them. That was how I remember, Sunbeam was born.

Contributing to an organization that worked directly with children appealed to me. I was motivated to continue to contribute to the cause of Sunbeam.

We do not realize that there are so many people in Mumbai for whom education of their children is something other worldly – the house maids, the drivers, the construction workers, the flower sellers, the workers in factories and malls, the sweepers. Sunbeam works for these communities and their children. I used to go to the Sunbeam office located near Charni Road station. It was a flat in an old building, which I came to know belonged to Khurshid’s parents. It was always an uplifting experience to meet Khurshid and her colleague, Aban Bharucha there, welcoming and smiling and working humbly for their cause. Khurshid would always ask me if I wanted to visit the children in the classes conducted by Sunbeam. The classes were held in the government school buildings and other buildings that were arranged at nominal charges, as Sunbeam was always stretched for funds.

I avoided going to the classes, as I was afraid as to what I would do or speak in front of the kids, whose life I did not understand. There was some incomprehensible collective guilt for having been born the privileged one. Finally, one day I decided to go beyond my irrational fears and guilt and reached the office of Sunbeam near Charni Road. Khurshid was there to take me to one of the classes being held in the classroom of some government or trust school near Marine Lines station. I was introduced as one of the donors, which made me uncomfortable internally, and I interacted with the children but not without some awkwardness. But my faith in Sunbeam’s resolve to change the world of these kids, their homes, and the world at large became stronger. So, did my contributions to Sunbeam grow.

Thereafter, I visited Sunbeam on two more occasions, and always felt glad the way it was functioning and growing. Khurshid and Aban kept the donors updated on small stories of lives of these children – the travails of their families, the statistics and the academic results and the experiences of the Sunbeam teachers.

I continue to read the stories of the Sunbeam coordinators and teachers going to the children’s homes if they stop coming or have serious issues in learning and behavior, to understand what is happening in their lives beyond the school. To convince the parents that there could be people who would selflessly do something without any motive for their children is not easy. It was much later that Sunbeam earned the credibility and trust of the community. Many incidents bring about the realization that small things we take for granted in our life could be luxuries for those kids.

The cost of one meal in a swanky restaurant for our children is good enough to fulfill many small dreams. Some stories do bring tears to my eyes, even though I hardly cry otherwise. And Sunbeam does all this silently.

Now many of the Sunbeam students have become independent and a proud part of India’s workforce, the lives of families have changed, children who knew nothing about the larger world we live in are becoming a part of it. They have come to know of a world education opens to them.

Reading and knowing about them gladdens my heart. It also gives me a very comforting feeling to imagine that the boys and girls whose lives have been transformed will be inspired to change that part of the world from which they come and thus light more flames of change.

Naresh Lalwani