We visited the mini Switzerland in India, Khajjiar on April 28th. Instead of driving ourselves, we took a cab and Rakesh was the cab driver. He was talkative and very pleasant to chat with. He wanted to know what we were doing and when we told him about ShikshaDaan, he promptly said “we came with nothing and will go with nothing, all that we can do is to help other people, and do things through which we are remembered. Only if we do good things will people remember us, if we do bad things, people will be happy when we die”. …. We got “Shiksha” right inside the car :).

It was fascinating to see someone who hasnt got any fancy degrees, is not super rich, lives in a relatively remote place like Dalhousie and yet has a deep understanding of what’s important in life. Rakesh was also deeply curious and very well informed about all that’s happening in the political world. He was concerned about people affected by the Nepal earthquake and wanted to know why and how earthquakes happen. He was appreciative of the people who run the Dalhousie Public School as they provide free education to atleast 10 to 15 students each year. 

The Dalhousie Public School is a boarding school and Rakesh’s comment was incisive “if parents put their children in boarding school, children will put them in an old age home. How will these children learn about culture and traditions ? Parents need to give time to their children as they are growing up otherwise we will have a lot of social issues”… Sure, there are many reasons why parents sometimes have to put their children in boarding schools but we loved his way of thinking. 

He even had ideas for the Govt. His view was vegetables and food stuff must be made cheaper and easily available so that the “Aam aadmi” could live well and the big business houses and rich folk must pay their taxes to help the poor get affordable food. 

Yes, we fell in love with Khajjiar but we also got a lot of Shiksha from Rakesh. Learned people come in all sizes and shapes and socio-economic strata and learning happens all the time :):):):).