I was very nervous about my first day at Hamari Muskaan but as I entered the room I heard a loud ‘Gooood Morningg Diidii’.

These children come every Saturday to St Joseph’s school accompanied by their mothers to listen to Divya and Shelly, two volunteers in the Share Stories Open Minds program, tell stories. Today however, they had a different plan. It was time for the children to become storytellers, and us, the audience.They told us the story of a movie that they had recently watched. It was a story of a girl and her grandmother who fought for their rights against their cruel relatives. They showed a lot of enthusiasm while narrating the story.

Then we thought of discussing with them some real life examples of people who had fought for their rights against all odds. And what better examples than freedom fighters. The discussion included Gandhiji, Netaji, Pandit Nehru and many more. We realised that the children had little knowledge about their country and its people. At this point we decided that we would tell them more stories about famous and independent people in the next session.

I was a little apprehensive about whether or not they will be able to retain what we had talked about. I was thrilled to be proved wrong the next week. They remembered quiet a bit of what we had taught them. This gave me a feeling of satisfaction that at least I was able to make some difference in their lives.

– Vedika Tikmani