But then I would watch my eldest sister, who had opted for commerce, make these big-big lines with a pencil and scale and work on a laptop. I liked it and decided in class eight itself that I would take commerce if I get to class 11.

Online lessons are difficult to follow and don’t happen regularly. When there are no classes, or as soon as they are over, I run to the nearby ground to play cricket with my friends. I have been playing with the bhaiyas (elder boys from the locality) here since I was a child. Initially, they only let me do fielding. Later, I started batting and bowling too. I love batting, but now I am an all-rounder.

12.00 PM: I come back home around this time. It is an old habit. When school was open, I would take the train back and be home by noon. My siblings and I help Mummy with some more housework and then we all eat lunch together.

However, things have changed for the better, as parents started seeing that we don’t mean harm. Many of them do come to our meetings now. Today’s meeting with the parents is satisfying. Many of them nod in agreement when I say that both boys and girls have a right to education. This is a big victory.

A lot of girls in my locality were not allowed to pursue an education till very recently. They would stay at home, while their brothers would be roaming around outside—playing or going to school or to work.

After that I step out to work on my Dream Accelerator microproject, which is part of a national initiative to secure child rights. The project was started in 2020 and got this name as it focused on each child’s dream and how to take it forward. I decided that I wanted to talk to people about gender-related issues—how boys and girls are treated differently.

To be continued…