WHEN SHAH RUKH KHAN VISITED!

They asked, curious and eager, “Nimma hessaru aenu?” (What is your name? in Kannada)
The stranger replied, “Shah Rukh Khan.”

Some of the 50 boys present giggled. Others looked a bit confused (should they believe this stranger or not? He definitely did not look like Shah Rukh Khan!!!).

Mr. V. put them out of their misery. “I am not Shah Rukh Khan,” he said. Introducing himself, he said he had come to visit them. Several more giggles later, the stranger had turned into friendly visitor.

A flurry of queries rained on Mr. V. for a whole hour: “Are you married? How many children do you have? Where do you stay? What do you do?” And of course, the list of favourites – food, car, colour… The boys went on and on quizzing Mr.V. and getting to know him, . Mr.V. also showed them some pictures he had brought with him – of his family, the places he had visited, the games he plays. When they heard that Mr.V. had lived in Chitradurga as a child, the boys turned in unison to one usually quiet 12-year-old, who stood up with alacrity grinning from ear to ear: “I am also from Chitradurga,” he said.

Mr. V. asked them questions too. “What do you want to become when you grow up?” he asked. Hands shot up as boy after boy shared their dreams: “military”, “police”, software engineer”, “doctor”, “farmer”, “take care of my parents”, “police”, “police”, police”… As dream declarations tumbled forward, Mr. V. said, “Do you know what helped me to achieve what I wanted? Setting goals.” He entreated the boys to set goals and work towards them. “Set small goals and achieve them one by one,” he emphasized. Working methodically helps one realise dreams he said.

The first empathy point was when Mr.V. averred, “I didn’t like reading books to study.” And many boys nodded their heads in agreement, with a couple of “Me too”s. Another little anecdote that resonated with the boys was when Mr. V. narrated how he one day had been faced with a choice. “When I was a little boy,” Mr.V. said, “some boys had bullied me and I had to decide then whether I would retaliate and seek revenge, or choose to ignore the bullies and maintain a dignified silence.” Mr. V. said that if, on that day, he had chosen “revenge”, he may have been a bully himself today and that the future that unfolded for him would have been very different. Instead he had chosen to remain patient and not react, and that helped him to practise self-control, which rewarded him greatly later on, making him a more patient person. Choices are important, Mr.V. said. It is the one thing we have control over.

For us headstreams facilitators, as we watched the interaction between Mr.V. and the boys, for just that hour, the dingy dark paint-peeling room and their circumstances seemed forgotten. For a whole hour, these boys who are usually so restless and can hardly stay put, listened with complete concentration. Their minds seemed open, looking into possible futures, listening raptly to a glimpse of what else could be possible.

It reinforced for us how secluded life within a CCI can get, and how important it is that the children in these institutions have access to people and experiences outside of their four walls. Looking through the eyes of people with experiences different from theirs, can help to gain perspective and infuse hope.