Every Tuesday, I spend a couple of hours at an ashram for boys between the ages of 8 and 15, playing Uno and telling stories. The Chavadi Welfare Society was founded about a decade ago to provide boys of orphaned or single-parent families with a quality, private education. Much of the funding comes from individuals who sponsor specific children by equipping them with school fees, materials, and uniforms. The 35 students live at this ashram and visit their hometowns around the state of Andhra Pradesh on holidays, partaking in a very modest lifestyle.
On our first Tuesday, I brought a deck of Barbie Uno cards that I had found in the dorm lounge to help break the ice. Soon, an amoebic circle of a dozen or so boys had formed around me, sitting cross-legged on the outdoor concrete ashram entrance beneath a weathered sapling. As I explained the rules in English, several boys teamed together to translate them into Hindi and Telugu. As the game began and the sun set, I oversaw confused and beautiful Uno game. Whenever one boy was lacking a card of the right color or number, his neighbor would shiftily pass one to him. And likewise, with cards to dictate a new color, each boy would ask the others what they would prefer, even if it was a color he himself did not possess. Rather than the cutthroat American must-win approach, these boys celebrated each others' wins and shared each others' losses. It was easily the most endearing, polite, and friendly Uno game I've ever witnessed.
In a later visit, I was asked of my "future ambition". I managed to turn the question back to them. Of the six nine to eleven-year-old boys present, four replied engineer (software, chemical, and two generic engineers), one police, and one Chief Minister of India. No astronauts, firemen, or doctors. But, for children of such underpriviledged backgrounds, such ambitions should be commended and supported. And I also wonder about the promotion of engineering as a career in the Indian school system.
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