I’ve been in India for the last 45 years. After a personal tragedy, my friends and family thought I’d move back to England. The thought really never occurred to me honestly. My life here is so exciting that I have something or the other that keeps me engaged all the while. So I began teaching at Udayan Care with just two kids, Math and English primarily and ever since we’ve been inseparable. What’s motivated me most were the kids initial questions of “Ma’am when will you be back next?”
Udayan Care is my whole life and these children are my children. The kids, who have moved out, are married and have their own kids now, often come back and call me Nani and nothing is more reassuring than the fact that they come back for us and their Udayan Care family members.
Udayan Care is my family today and has made me more passionate, less shy and bold when talking about the organization itself. It keeps me young all the time and there is never a dull moment in life. Life is simply exciting. My journey at Udayan Care has taught me how to live one day at a time and without planning too much for the future. The excitement, vitality and happiness of the children are contagious and precisely what makes me move forward each day.
I want a day to come when parents would be proud to get their children married to our daughters at Udayan Care, since they would have so much to add to the family. I want our Udayan daughters to come back and share their success stories with our kids to motivate them, to tell them that a bright future awaits them; all they have to do is to dream big and work hard. At the same time telling them that sitting back and taking things for granted will not be helpful. Thus by taking more responsibility, initiative and greater commitment from the children’s and volunteers’ side will help everyone move forward together. Another goal is to expand the work of the Skill Development Centre, of which I am currently in-charge, under the brand name of ‘Sukriti’. I want the brand to be known all over the world, I want the work of our students to speak for the brand.
What I feel is an essential learning for all can be summarized by Edmund Burle, “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”