"Shoot for the moon"

Sometimes, you have the best experiences when you least expect them. Let me share one such experience with you. 

Yesterday, we had the orientation meet of the Interact Club of Delhi Public School, Udaipur. I was hosting it along with my classmate. Members from the Rotary club were a part of the event. They told us about the concept of Interact club and about Rotary. I was chosen President of our Interact club. The meet was executed nicely and we had been pretty good hosts. Just then, the members of Rotary said that they would like to take a few members, out of the 25 children in our club, to a government school in a village, where they had recently inaugurated toilet facilities for the kids. I was one of the five children who left for the village.

Dhikli, the village where we went, is a small village in the outskirts of Udaipur. A car ride takes 15-20 minutes to reach there. The journey was quite with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan playing on the radio. The road  was completely empty. Small hills towered over us from both sides of the road. Soon enough we reached our destination. As we entered the small campus of the school, we could hear the students praise Mother India by saying slogans like, "Jai Hind" and "Bharat ma ki jai". We were greeted by small girls wearing beautiful indian outfits for the occassion. They applied tilak on our foreheads and we were also given garlands.

We were shown the newly built washrooms for girls and boys. One has to appreciate the efforts of the Rotary Club. We were told that many girls didn't come to school because of the absence of proper toilets. In countries like India, where the rates of illiteracy are pretty high, it is important that we do everything possible to ensure that more and more people go to schools. We went and sat down among the students. I started talking to a girl who sat next to me. She told me that she would walk to school everyday. She was also happy that now her school had toilet facilities. 

The programme started. A few girls paid homage to Goddess Saraswati by singing a hymn. After that girls from 11th performed in front of us. I had wished them all the best before the performance and when I was leaving, they very sweetly approached me and said that I should visit them again. After their performance, the members of the Rotary Club spoke to them. Suddenly, I was asked to speak a few words to them. For the first time ever, I spoke directly from my heart. I asked them to dream and dream big because if they can think it, they can achieve it. I also told them a quote, which is one of my favourites, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". Afterr everything was over, we distributed chocolates and biscuit packets to the kids and they were all feeling extremely shy and telling me, "Thank you didi". 

I hope I was able to motivate a few of them. It was an amazing experience. 

We crib, we want more all the time. These girls and boys, who lack so many material things, are still happy and content. 

Help the underprivileged, by your words, by small things that you give them. You will feel happy.