All smiles (From left) Supraja, Anusha and Anantha
Twelve-year-olds Anusha, Supraja and Anantha had never travelled far from their home in Muchintala, Mahabubnagar. Today, the three girls are one of the first in their schools and families to take part in the All India Robotics Competition and make it to the final. And the teams behind this, The MentorsS and Robo Club Hyderabad, can’t be more elated.
The start: Balaji Ragavendran was on a holiday; his friend Balu Kuncham, who runs an organisation called the Dream Village, had taken him to his wife’s village in Mahabubnagar. As they were going around the place, Balaji spotted the Zilla Parishad. “The school was not in a great condition,” says Balaji, who heads The MentorsS in Hyderabad. “We managed to get a few mentors to help the Standard X kids. They guided them on how to appear for their boards,” says Balaji about how they initiated their first project in Muchintala in January 2014.
As time went by, Balaji and his team’s interest grew in the village. “In April, 2014, our team from Robo Club (Robotics CoE @ The MentorsS) Hyderabad, headed by Ramachandra Murthy, started a robotics class for over 70 students from Standards VI to VII,” says Balaji. And that’s how Anusha, Supraja and Anantha’s life changed.
The first stage of the competition that took place in Delhi Public School, Hyderabad in August, saw the kids compete against some of the best schools in and around the city. The theme of the competition for the elementary teams was “Pearl Diving” and the team had to create a bot that would be able to cross the start area and push items. “We never thought we would get this far. Our aim was to take robotics to underprivileged children... we wanted kids to learn... but we never wanted money to be a roadblock,” adds Ramachandra, a financial consultant.
While the children have been working hard, one of the people working behind the scenes is their teacher Ramana. He wakes up at 5 am every Saturday and takes a bus to Deva Kadra and then another bus to Muchintala. Despite the few hours of travel almost every weekend, Ramana is happy. “I’m just glad that the kids have learnt so much,” he says.
The champs: Anusha, Supraja and Anantha’s parents are daily-wage earners. On an average their mothers earn Rs 250 and their fathers earn Rs 300. So when they heard that their girls were taking part in the competition, they were worried, but when the team won at the regional level they “just cried”, says Balaji.
Ask the three girls how they feel, and despite their shy demeanour, they manage to say that they’re “very, very happy”. “I want to become a doctor,” says Anusha, while the other two want to become engineers. Currently, the three kids are gearing up to compete against at least 28-30 teams in the elementary category at Gurgaon. But, for the team and the villagers, whether they win the competition or not, they are already winners.
