'I had a latent desire to set up school for the poor'

In this age of extreme body-consciousness, Jayant Desai, 74, easily shrugs off the limitations of old age, which are further aggravated by a chronic heart problem and Parkinson's. He stretches himself to the maximum.
The retired school teacher has followed an inflexible routine for three years. Every Tuesday morning, the slight but indomitable man boards the Bandra-Surat Intercity Express at Borivli.He alights at Valsa, takes an ST bus to an `ashram shala' on the periphery of scenic Dharampur. The residential high school in south Gujarat called Kedi (The Path), is home to 70 tribal girls from Dharampur taluka of Valsad district. Between 13 and 18 years of age, they attend school from Std VIII onwards, and 20 of them reached Std X this year. Desai is their English tutor till Thursday.
The students belong to the Warli tribe and speak Kunkani, a dialect that blends Marathi and Gujarati. Apart from their studies, the girls are also taught to operate computers, nursing, agriculture, sewing and zardozi work. "We want them to stand on their own, lead people in their villages and elsewhere,'' says the soft-spoken Desai with quiet resolve.
Friday morning, and he's on the move again, travelling 20 km to a place called Pindval, to another ashram shala. Here, he tutors boys and girls in the sixth grade. As dusk begins to envelop the lush hinterlands of Valsad, Desai boards a train for Mumbai. He doesn't charge for his service, but accepts train fare.
What prompted this septuagenarian to spend the better part of his week travelling to remote corners of Gujarat to teach? "I had a latent desire ever since my college days to set up an old-age home and school for the poor. But I had forgotten all about it,'' he says. A visit to the interiors of Dharampur made Desai rediscover that youthful yearning. "It became a mission for me.'' His family-wife, son and daughter-in-law -has never stopped him. "We keep in touch on a mobile,'' says his wife with a bright smile.
This is how it all began. Ten years ago, Desai met a couple at a Jain temple on the shores of Valsad's beautiful Tithal beach. The middle-aged finance executive, Pankaj Kadikar, and his architect wife, Aparna, had returned from the US. The trio bonded and discussed working for tribal welfare. They quickly put the idea into motion.
Over the first two years, they made trips to tribal hamlets and with the help of cartoons, taught villagers personal and environmental hygiene; how spitting was unhealthy and how water could be utilised without wastage. During these trips, they discovered there were only a few high schools in a 1,650 sq-km radius and that teenage girls had little access to them as parents were reluctant to allow them to travel the distance.
By 2006, the couple set up a functional structure for these girls by investing their own money and collecting donations. Desai chipped in.
Desai's sustained drive comes from seeing his "suppressed and repressed'' students gain in confidence as their knowledge of the world grows. "They come from poor families and have not had much exposure. For example, I once spoke of `jam' and equated it with mango murabba, which is so common in Gujarat. They looked at me blankly. However, their grasping power and retention is very good.'' The students take time to understand concepts, "but once they learn, they don't forget,'' says the proud teacher.