A Morning Well Spent

Hardly one would find such courageous people from different walks of life coming together on a morning made memorable by The Telegraph Education Foundation. One common thing that bound them together is love for education in a country where still more than 30% are illiterate.
The last Saturday of August every year since the past decade has seen an august gathering of students from schools across Bengal to attend the The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence. I am not going to report on the day’s events that unfolded quite dramatically but left many of us in tears. As stories have already appeared (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070826/asp/frontpage/story_8238977.asp, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070826/asp/bengal/story_8238675.asp, http://anandabazar.in/26raj1.htm), I would share an experience that is unique in its own, for me too.
If you have clicked on any one of the links above, you would find Swapan Adhikary — a name quite common in Bengali, but not a man common in Bengal.
Since the announcement of the great work Swapan babu has been doing for the past 14 years or so at the Science City auditorium, the audience moved to what extent was not known to me. Within an hour after Swapan babu was given a cheque and a shawl in recognising his contribution to the villages in and around his home 16km from Balurghat, a sleepy north Bengal town, two girls in school uniform came to me with a modest request. How to meet him and donate whatever they had in their purse? The little angels felt what many of us could not even think of. They gave away their savings made from either tiffin allowance or bus/car fare to Swapan babu after I took them over to the rickshaw-puller wearing a trouser, vest and a cotton bathroom towel on his left shoulder — a dress the 70 years old has been sporting since time immemorial.
Touched, the angels slowly came out of the auditorium that also recognised at least hundred others for such acts of courage. On way home, the girls told me: "Thank you", perhaps for facilitating the meeting of tender hearts with that of an old, but not frail, mind. I told them: "You don’t know what you’ve done, thank YOU."
The short conversation of less than 10 seconds ended with a smile but not before their wiping tears.