Thambi: What I Learned At Shenbaganur

Thambi
From the assault rifle wielding security personnel who examined us at every step in the
airport, to the journey through scorching plains and forested mountains to my new home in the
south of Tamil Nadu, I was struck by how different India was from my home of Maine. As I
was to learn, these differences extended much further than merely architecture, weather, and
culture; as the sharpest contrast was the condition in which so many of the Indian people lived.
Lack of proper nutrition, clean water, and accessible health care all starkly contrasted with my
usual surroundings. Violence and poverty, though certainly not absent in my own country, here
seemed much closer to the surface. From the homeless widowed women cast out of their homes,
to the lepers suffering from a disease long since cured in our country, to the street children being
forced to beg by their guardians, it seemed that no amount of effort could begin to reverse these
terrible conditions.
This feeling began to change, though, with my arrival at Kodaikanal International School,
where my parents were volunteering as teachers and I would be spending six months abroad as a
high school sophomore. Along with the challenging science, language, and music courses in the
school’s IB program, it also offered a variety of volunteer opportunities, ranging from waste
removal, to tree planting, to delivering food to the poor and elderly, to working and playing with
the children at several local orphanages. After seeing some of the problems first-hand and being
offered a chance to get involved, I realized that while the problems that India and much of the
third-world face are daunting, there is hope for improvement once people become aware of the
issues and start working together to look for solutions.
One day while delivering the school’s surplus food to various local organizations, we
stopped by the Shenbaganur Orphanage, a small orphanage on the side of the mountain below
Kodaikanal. The children made an immediate impression on me and for this reason I continued
to visit them every weekend and many days after school for the remainder of my semester-long
stay, performing a variety of duties. This orphanage was unlike others in that many of the
children there were not actual orphans but had been ‘given away’ due to their parents’ poverty, a
poverty so severe they could not support their children. For the younger children, the youngest
of whom was three years old, we would read picture books in English. With the older children,
the oldest being fourteen years old, we taught basic math skills and more extensive English.
For many of these kids, language was a major barrier. Their families were often ‘tribals’
of a very low caste in the rigid Indian social structure, whose native language was not evenTamil but one of a hundred minor dialects. In India, learning dominant languages, and
especially English, is often the key for finding any job better than the dollar-a-day laboring work
many of their parents had been forced to do,; this made teaching English the most worthwhile
work I could do for these kids. At the same time I taught them my language, the children were
teaching me theirs, describing the pictures in their books and the scenery on our afternoon walks
in basic Tamil, often laughing at my sincere (albeit futile) attempts to pronounce and memorize
words in this alien tongue. My friendship with these children grew each week and before
long the school van would arrive at the orphanage to the gleeful cries of "Thambi!", the Tamil
word for “brother.”
The culture shock I had returning to the United Stated was even stronger than what I
had experienced on my arrival in India. To go from working with intelligent and creative young
people living on the brink of starvation to working as a dishwasher in a tourist restaurant
disposing of all of the leftover food was a truly eye-opening change. Knowing what those kids
at Shenbaganur would give for what I once took for granted, from my country’s education
system to commodities as simple as clean water, has motivated me to apply myself and make the
most of my many opportunities. In school, I began taking part in various clubs such as Wind
Planners and Gay Straight Alliance to creative positive change in my own community. At work,
I worked hard and honestly and as a result was promoted three times in as many months. In my
lifestyle, I have made an effort to reduce the wastefulness of myself and my family, knowing
what those unforgettable children would give for every dollar wasted and every meal thrown
away. I’ve seen first-hand some of the problems the world faces and am all the more compelled
to help solve them by having friends now who bear the direct consequence if they are left
unaddressed. I hope to return to India one day, perhaps as a student majoring in environmental
and conservation sciences, helping to bring sustainable energy and waste reduction technology to
villages. Or perhaps I will return after studying education, an interest sparked by my time in
India, to help teach the skills necessary to overcome issues of violence and poverty on an
individual basis. Whichever path I take, that path begins with my next steps, the first and the
most important of which is college.