inspiring lives

MAJ PrADeeP KhAre

“What makes a child gifted and talented

may not always be good grades in school,

but a different way of looking at the

world and learning.”

— CHUCK GRASSLEY

N

amed by the BBC at the age

of sixteen as the “youngest

headmaster in the world”,

now 26-year-old Babar Ali is

the headmaster of Ananda Shiksha

Niketan (Home of Joyful Learning)

in Murshidabad, West Bengal.

The eldest of four siblings, Babar

was born in 1993 in Gangpur. He

completed his primary education

at Bhabta Rasidiya Primary School.

When he was nine, his father, a

small-time jute trader, sent him to

Beldanga CRGS High School, about

10 kilometres away. Babar had to

walk two kilometres to the bus stand,

from where he would catch the bus

to go to school. It was this walk

that changed the course of his life.

While returning from school, he saw

children playing in the fields. When

he asked them, “Would you like to

study if I teach you?” they happily

said “yes.” Encouraged by their

response, Babar started his evening

classes in October 2002. Initially, he

taught eight children, including his

younger sister, basic reading and

writing under a guava tree in front of

their one-room house. Classes had to

end before darkness set in and were

dependent on the weather; if it rained

class was cancelled.

Amazingly, a nine-year-old was

teaching children aged five to nine!

Babar improvised a blackboard

from terracotta tiles. He conducted

class tests and exams and organized

activities like sports, dance and

music to make school more fun for

his students. When Babar asked

his teacher in the school where he

studied, to give him broken pieces

of chalk for his school at home, she

refused at first thinking he would

scribble on the class walls.

But when she came to know

about his noble venture, she

started giving him a box full

of chalks every week.

Sanath Kar, the Principal

of Beldanga SRF College,

inaugurated Babar’s school

in 2003 and named it

Ananda Shiksha Niketan.

“I hired a mike for Rs 30,

and we had a ribbon-cutting

ceremony followed by song

and dance. I borrowed my

mother’s sari to decorate

the place. I also invited the

local Panchayat members

and village elders,” recalls

Babar.

“Parents were very

sceptical about educating

their children. They were

not educated themselves so

they did not realize se the

value of education. We went

door-to-door asking them to

send their kids to school.”

Babar would pick up partly-used

notebooks from the raddhiwala for

his students. He gave them sweets

bought with his pocket money to

encourage them to attend classes

regularly.

When he was in Class VIII, Nobel

laureate Amartya Sen invited him to

Shantiniketan where Babar gave a

one-hour talk in front of the former

finance ministers of West Bengal,

and eminent professors.

In 2008, Babar passed his Class X

board exams securing first division.

Even days before the exam, he was

busy opening bank accounts for his

students. “I gave them ten days off

during my exams,” he adds.

He motivated his first batch of

students to join Beldanga High

School where he himself studied

and six out of eight students

followed his advice. They

completed their undergraduate

courses and joined Ananda Shiksha

Niketan as teachers.