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Between a Forest and a Laptop


This is Ruchika holding up her class 6 project on 'water conservation' which got the highest marks in
her class.

Encouraged by this victory, she has since made projects on topics such as dances of India, health benefits of sports and types of food.

She walks into the living room, where I also have my work desk, and announces the topic of her latest project, saying "Mujhey information nikaal ke do (Please pull out the information for me)".

She starts the conversation with a half apologetic smile and an already-victorious glint in eye. And within minutes, as the google search throws up stuff, her face turns intent, her eyes flit across the screen with an urgency and speed as though if she were not fast enough all this information may just go away out of her reach, never to return.

Then she selects what she finds useful. Takes a print of a funny illustration and laughs out loud. Then she puts her finger on the screen on a word she can neither pronounce nor understands the menaing of, saying "yeh kya hai?". And she takes copius notes in her neat cursive hand. Whe she knows she's got the spelling of a word wrong, she hides it from me. She argues about why the spelling of the word nutrition musn't end with 'sion' as in the word tension.


My neighbor, Suresh, a sales manager in a high end jewellery chain, teaches her maths once a week. He almost complains about how bright she is and therefore, how distracted.

Ruchika has recently, after her many interactions with me, been asking her mother for a laptop. Because then she says she can find all the information for her projects from the laptop, and she wont have to go bother Mona aunty for help.

She has explained to her mother that a laptop is a computer, but its better. Beacuse it has a box where a question can be typed and answers come out. Her mother, Kalyani, asked me yesterday, if this was indeed true, I explained.

Kalyani is my lifeline at home. She cooks and cleans and cares and scolds me, as appropriate.

Her village is deep inside the forests of Jharkhand and she brings with her the tribal pride and honesty that makes her stand tall despite everything, like the always lush and tall Saal tree. Her thick glasses and her gentle gait make her look like a school teacher, my friends say. She would have made a fine school teacher, I say.

Kalyani and her husband have told Ruchika, their only child, that a laptop isn't possible.

I have tried to explain the 'internet' to them. I haven't quite succeeded yet.

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