Mili Eugene

What is Bhavya? To me, Bhavya is not a school, or a place, or a person. Bhavya is a state of Being. I was in the first batch of the Bhavya Children, and in the concept of space and time, I was in that building for only four and a half years. But I’ve lived the Bhavya way for twenty-three years now.

When I began writing this piece, I wrote paragraphs about mainstream schooling and the metaphorical rat race and the misconceptions of society. I realize, however, that I do not need an extreme comparison between a stereotypical school and an idyllic Bhavya to prove my point about it. I do not need to talk about all that it isn’t, to explain the beauty of what it is. Bhavya is about respecting people, empathizing with and helping one another. It is about accepting people for what they are, dwelling on their strengths and their talents, and honing those talents to help them soar to their true potential, instead of ‘clipping their wings,’ so to speak. At Bhavya, I learnt that there are no limits to my imagination, a valuable lesson in my career as an Animator. I learnt to love books and I travelled to worlds in them - something in which I still can find refuge on bad days. I found friends with whom I still meet up, twenty-three years down the line. Bhavya is a place where a four-year-old’s opinion is considered just as seriously as a forty-year-old’s, where a sixty-year-old gets tagged “denner,” and where the only hourly bell rings to remind you to drink water and stay hydrated, while you play. It is an educational space where you are not just allowed, but expected to question, to conduct research, and to experiment with things. It is days that fly by bursting with activity, but in which time freezes, while you mould each clay dinosaur and sand-castle.

Bhavya, quite simply, is a way of life.