He swears by the Gita, and teaches Afghan pupils the Queen’s Language

NEW DELHI,Febrauary21,2012: Prawal Mani Tripathi isn't used to attention. The 30-year-old from Bihar's west Champaran district sounds baffled when contacted for an interview. "You must be kidding. Why would somebody teaching English to Afghan students become newsworthy?," he asks. Setting up a coaching centre for underprivileged Afghan students and teaching some of them for free is a good reason, one argues. But the explanation cuts no ice with him. It takes much cajoling to convince him. A graduate in political science, Tripathi came to Delhi in search of a better future 10 years ago following the advice of his own English teacher. The son of a retired government servant came with a letter of recommendation from a social worker, a lot of hope and little else. He still has the train ticket that brought him here. When he started taking math tuitions for his landlady's son, Tripathi found his calling in teaching. Soon he was taking classes for spoken English at a tuition centre in south Delhi. There he came in touch with several Afghan students. "I found them to be very loving and warm," he says. It has turned out to be an ensuring association since. A large number of Afghan refugees live in Bhogal and Lajpat Nagar colonies in south Delhi. Tripathi, who reads a few passages from the Bhagwad Gita every day, set up his own tuition centre in Jangpura Extension in 2010. Keeping in mind the large number of Afghan students that he was getting, he decided to set up a separate Afghan Learning Centre in March 2011. He calls it, his "dream project". "I started a separate facility because familiarity and belonging are very important in a foreign land," says Tripathi, who currently teaches over 70 Afghan students. These students are mostly 15-20 year olds and enrolled with National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). The most popular subject choices among them are spoken English and computer operation. There's a discount for underprivileged students, many of whom have escaped difficult circumstances to come here. He has even taught 15 of them for free. The fee he charges local students ensures his survival. "Some Afghan students who come from affluent backgrounds refuse discounts. Two brothers studying here did that, saying their aunt sends them enough money from the US. But some are here on treatment and can barely afford the cost of medicines. Others come here having lost everything. You can't charge them an exorbitant fee," says Tripathi who charges about Rs 500 for a subject per month from the NIOS students. Noor Ahmed, 19, is one such student. His father ran a guesthouse in Kabul, which was bombed by a terrorist group. Fearing for his family's safety, he shifted base here three years ago. His father still keeps visiting Kabul for business, while he lives here with the rest of his family, pursuing his Class XII through NIOS. "The syllabus here is very different. We did not study English in Kabul," he says. There are others like Tamanna Sadat from lesser-known places like the Logar province of Afghanistan, who moved with her family of seven over two years ago. "There were too many bombings and other incidents of violence in Logar. We had to leave. I don't know what I am going to do, but I like it here," says Tamanna in fluent Hindi. Things seem to be looking up back home, if Said Anwari, the Dari translator at the coaching centre, is to be believed. "Before 2002 it was only the Taliban, and nothing else in Kabul. Now there are more universities for professionals and more schools for children," says Anwari, who is waiting to go back home. Before Anwari came along, Tripathi says he would struggle with gestures to get his point across. Now it is a smoother ride for him. Tripathi, who is in touch with his ex-students, talks proudly of those who have moved on to greener pastures.