What did Mr Bhatia expect of the village children at first?

Mr Bhatia arrived at the government school in Chandpur with three suitcases and a lot of plans. He had taught for five years in a private school in Delhi, and he was sure the village children would be behind.

On his first day he asked the Class 7 students to name the parts of a plant. They gave the answers in the book, slowly and shyly. He sighed. Then he asked them to name the plants they could see from the window.

The room changed. Hands went up everywhere. A girl named Rekha named eleven plants in two minutes, and told him which ones cured a stomach ache and which ones made goats sick. A boy explained how to tell from the colour of a neem leaf whether the rains would be early. Another described how his father grafted mango trees, and drew it on the board, more clearly than the diagram in the textbook.

Mr Bhatia had planned to teach them about plants. Instead he spent the period taking notes.

That evening he wrote to a friend in Delhi. "I came here thinking I would bring knowledge to the village," he wrote. "I have been here one day, and I already know less than a twelve-year-old girl about the things growing outside my window."

He did not throw away his plans. But he added a new one. Every Friday, the class would teach him.