Book Review – Going to School in India

If you love books, you would have encountered this situation. You don’t have any books in hand and you have no time to go to the library. You are desperate for a book. What do you do? To handle this contingency I have special collection of books which I call my “Hall of Fame” books. How many ever times you read them you would still love them each time. “Going to School in
India”, by Lisa Heydlauff is one such book. The author is a school teacher in UK. One of her primary school students asked her “How is it to go to school in India”. She came to India and visited many schools across the length and breath of India and wrote about the interesting ones she came across.

If you thought you know all about schools in India, think again. Did you know that some school children in Ladakh cross a raging river using a rope swing and climb 2KM uphill to reach their school. The night schools in Rajesthan established for working children. They can’t afford electricity, they make their own solar batteries. A village school in Karnataka which encourages children to learn by taking surveys. Have you heard of a newspaper called “Wallpaper”; all it’s editors are street children who live and work on the streets. They call it Wallpaper because they paste it on the walls of Dehli for everyone to read.These and many more amazing facts about little known schools in India. The book has beautiful pictures too. The book is a testimony to
India’s diversity, resilience and spirit. I will end this review with the beginning lines from the book.

“Getting to school in India is a wild ride. Every school day millions of children climb into school buses, sit on each other’s laps in cycle rickshaws, walk along the edge of mountains, cross scorching desserts on rickety bicycles and swing across raging blue rivers on dangling rope swings – just to get to school. Against great odds they come, because they believe, going to school can changes their lives, and if it does, it was certainly worth the ride”