Introducing Ritu

I often talk here about the many delightful children who take part in WLC’s programming, so thought I’d write something longer about one of them who I’ve gotten to know quite well over the last few months. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I introduce the fabulous Ritu!

I’ll never forget the first time I met Ritu. I had been in India for less than two weeks at that point, still finding my bearings and getting to know the kids in our children’s program. It had been stiflingly hot since our arrival, and I was longing for a breath of cool air. That was the day the weather changed. Just as I was about to leave Tulsi Kunj (where our children’s daily tutoring is held) to return home, a huge wind blew up, cooling the air in an instant and filling it with grainy dust. It was almost frightening in its intensity, and I hung back inside the building for a minute, then decided to venture out anyway. As I came around the side of the building, I met a little girl with pig tails and a big grin who I’d never seen before. She greeted me with the usual “Didi Namaste” and then pointed at the sky, reached her arms out like wings, flapped them up and down exuberantly, and said “wind!” and “fly!”. I stretched out my arms and imitated her, and in a few moments we were both running in circles and leaping and “flying” and shrieking and laughing in the cool gusts of gritty wind.
In the months since, I’ve come to know Ritu as a smart, fun, quirky and free spirited little girl. She is nine, and certainly shares her big sister Nitu’s intelligence (Nitu, who is 11 and also in our scholarship program, is consistently at the top of her class) but with a serious wild streak! Ritu has been involved with WLC for a couple of years. She was enrolled at one of the neighbourhood’s less good (and more affordable) primary schools, and came to WLC’s tutoring after school for help with her homework, but this year she joined our scholarship program, and was switched to a school called Gopi Radha, where she will get a much better education. This school would have been out of her parents’ price range, but now that she’s in our scholarship program her fees will be covered by WLC’s generous donors. Ritu is in the equivalent of grade 2 and likes her new school quite a bit, although (like many 9 year olds I know) she isn’t necessarily always in a big hurry to do her homework! Every day after school she goes to Tulsi Kunj to do her homework with the other kids from our program, and get some tutoring from WLC’s teachers when she needs it. They also keep an eye on her school results to be sure she’s keeping up!

Ritu’s favourite things in the world are dancing (she likes the structured Indian classical dance class she takes at school, and enjoys any chance to perform, but is also always leaping about wildly in the lanes near her house) and her goat, Mani. Ritu’s family keeps a goat for economic reasons (the milk is quite valuable) but to Ritu, Mani is her pet. Mani always comes when Ritu calls, and I’ve watched the two of them play tag together! Ritu says her favourite animal is a goat, one of her best friends is her goat, and her favourite stories are “stories about goats” (she even wrote one herself last year called “goat and me”).

Ritu’s home is on the same lane that leads to WLC’s office at the Ganga Mahal (also where I live), and so besides being a student in our program, she is also (like many of the kids) my neighbour. Ritu has played a big role in making me feel at home in this neighbourhood. Whenever she sees me turn in to the lane on my way home, she calls out “Emily Didi Namaste!” and often when I am on my way out to run an errand she’ll ask me where I’m going and if she can come too, then join me for the walk, skipping along beside me and chatting or singing. A few nights ago, Ritu and I sat together on the Ghat (stone steps by the river), the neighbourhood’s social hub in the evenings, and drank chai and talked. She only knows the little English she has learned in school, and my Hindi is very elementary, but she is surprisingly sensitive to this for such a young person, and her ability to make me understand her amazes me! When she speaks to me in Hindi she speaks veeery slowly, gesturing and throwing in English words where she can. She told me about school, pointed out people passing by and explained their relationships to kids in our program, described a dance she is rehearsing with friends, and talked about her excitement at getting a new puppy soon.

When I leave India, Ritu is certainly among the children I will miss the most, for her kindness, sense of fun, easy grace and warmth towards me – and her ability to make me laugh! Getting to kids like Ritu has probably been the best part of my time here. Being part of something that offers personal and financial support to such a group of fantastic kids is certainly rewarding.

(photos of Ritu and me dancing, and of Ritu with Abhishek and Monu, are by Andria)