Learning, from the past

The first mass movement that still inspires me, like many others, is the mass literacy campaign in the late 1980s in Kerala.Being a child of around 8 years, I was just looking around all with a curiosity.My mother, who was a teacher in a government aided, privately managed, school, was an instructor responsible to conduct the class for the identified illiterates in our area.Hanging onto my mother most part of the day, I happened to be there with her during the class timings.One day, when my mother went for a short break during the class, I was approached by the participants of the class to check right what they had written on their black slate.I was totally amazed thinking why they approached me; the attendants of this class were those who aged equal to my grandmother at least.I could derive no meaning at that age for having little idea on the real importance of the efforts behind such a popular programme, but learned it later how greater were the efforts behind such a mass mobilization, taking Kerala society further ahead into new heights of social upliftment.