Prajesh woke up in the morning and opened his eyes to his new house in Daman. Even though it has been a while since they moved here, he still misses his old house in Surat. His initial hesitation can only be seen in the morning; he missed waking up to the tring-tring of bicycles on the roads and tea vendors shouting ‘Chai chai chai.’

He was so hesitant about coming to Daman worrying about his studies. On the first day of being enrolled in CPS Gujarati Medium School, Daman, the first thing he asked his teacher, Ms Sunita was not a hello madam but, “How is the education here?” She remembers this first day as she was taken aback by a child asking such mature questions. She adds, “That’s when I knew he was special. Being such a shy boy, he hardly complains about anything.”

But when it comes to social issues, one can see him complain a lot. Every small issue makes him talk about the political situation in India. “No matter what other children want to be; I want to be like Narendra Modi. Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer is not for me. I want to make India a better place to live in.” In his locality when there was an election for the village head, he immediately took part in the campaign. He says that it gives him practice at a very young age and makes him aware of how things work in civic bodies. 

Every problem has a solution but the solution depends on how you perceive it and how you want to tackle it.

Though Prajesh is a very shy person, he does not fear giving new ideas to improve a process. For example, the selection of the School Head is done by his teachers. However, he wants to change this scenario by bringing the voting system to school children so that they can select who should be their School Head Boy/Girl. He says, “I read this in my Political Science textbook and thought to myself that this idea makes us aware of our duties at a very young age. If we know how the system works now, when we grow up, we will have a liking towards bringing about a change.”

Adding to his statement, he says, “I still have many years to become a School Head Boy. I hope I can become one so that I get to know the difficulties one faces in top positions. See the Prime Minister for example. He is so busy, but I am sure he faces a lot of difficulties too. I am very young, so I have to learn to tackle problems right now.”

The immediate problem that he has to tackle is, adjusting to his new environment, new schools, new friends, new food taste, etc. He says, “Since I come from Bareilly, I did not like the food here earlier, but now, I love it because of Akshaya Patra. I feel it is very similar to what I used to have in Surat.” He particularly enjoys the roti and subzi served in his school.