My tryst with society -- Part 1

It was the beginning of Winter of '08 for us, but a quite common day for the children in the red light area. That we had come from XIMB to help them and spend some time with them didn't matter to them. All that mattered to them was their school. After all, school was a place where the small children found their alter egos -- children who share the same fate as they share. The fate of being born in a world we have long broken our relations with. A world where dreams are trampled under the shoes of hard reality. The reality that they are not needed.

To set the background, we were 11 people, grouped together to do a project in Organizational Behaviour in the 2nd term of our MBA at XIMB. We had to get into the unreached corners of the society and do something for them. Fate landed us in Malisahi -- the red light area of Bhubaneswar. Sex workers and rag pickers survived in the ignored darkness of alleys long forgotten by the bright world. The only ray of hope there was a small school somewhere in the alleys where children of these people used to study. My journey began with this school. A journey of survival efforts, of realizations. And of faith.