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A Memory of Love, Luck and Laughter

7 min readJul 15, 2025

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A small town girl who had lived her life within those fixed boundaries and was provided with all the love and care. Suman, a talented, smart, and active girl, completed her schooling and topped her school, securing a ranking in JEE. Now she aims to be a big city girl and wants to do engineering from IIT. Suman is nervous as she does not know whether she will get into IIT or not. She has been a pampered child in her family as she is the only girl and has two brothers. Will her dream of doing something big be fulfilled?

In the evening, she received an email about her admission to IIT Delhi. It was dinner time, she ran and announced to the family, “I got admission in IIT Delhi.” Everyone became happy, her brothers hugged her and said, ‘ Ap Delhi jaoge?’. She was overjoyed and said Yes, Yes, and Yes. Later, she looked towards her father and asked, ‘Mein jau na, papa? ’ Her father replied Yes, who not. You have worked so hard, and you deserve it. Why will her father say no, as it was always about seeing her achieve those dreams that she always talked about in the family. Her preparation for going to Delhi started.

As she was the eldest, she had roles and responsibilities on her shoulders. She prepared herself to be strong, bold, and fearless in her life. It’s that she was just a small-town girl unaware of big-city hurdles and barriers. Suman, who saw her friends getting married after school, now dreams of doing Big, so that the whole village will be proud of her and will also be setting an example of girl power in the village.

A step towards Dream

As Suman landed at the Old Delhi Railway Station, she was shocked to see the crowd. People sleeping outside, a sense of rush, announcements, and lots of passengers. Everything felt new to her, and the increasing prices of auto rickshaws. Somehow, her father and she managed to book a rickshaw and moved towards the gate of her dreams, IIT Delhi.

IIT Delhi, a prestigious institution of academics and glory, with a beautiful campus. How the city noise suddenly turned into a calming mind with lots of greenery surrounding Suman. She was amazed to see the organization. As she is taking steps one by one, her hopes come to her mind, making her imagine all the dreams she dreamed of are going to be fulfilled one by one, whereas her father was moving with pride in helping her daughter on the key to success. As Suman moved towards the admission window, she was told to submit all the documents, fill out the application, and do all the formalities. After the completion of the procedure, she is informed that the hostel room will be allotted to her after one month, as there is some maintenance going on. Suman and her father are now tense about where she will live for one month in this city. They do not have any relatives here. Somehow, she convinced her father to let her stay for one month in the PG. It was just a matter of one month. As soon as the hostel is allotted, she will move to the hostel. It was a difficult task to search for pg, brokers were the only option. Suman at the counter asked for help regarding pg. As the institution had contacts of pg, they provided her with lists of pg in the area.

From 2 in the afternoon till 7 in the evening, Suman and her father struggled for pg. There was no single seater; it was a two or three-seater available. At last, Suman decided to be in a two-seater on the pg. Her father had late late-night train to catch, so he dropped her off and said an emotional goodbye. Late at night, she arranged her wardrobe and talked to her mother, and gave all the updates.

Not everyone is like you

A pg, where two unknown people meet and decide to spend a part of their lives. God knows whether the seed sown together will turn into a beautiful plant of friendship or wither, and you will learn a lesson out of it. Suman met with her roommate, whose name was Divya, and she was also from IIT and waiting for hostel accommodation. The difference was only that Suman wanted to pursue software engineering, and Divya wanted to do mechanical engineering. They talked for half an hour with a basic introduction and college stuff, then went to sleep as they were tired. From the next day, they started having a good conversation and started spending time together. There was a distinction that Divya was open-minded, a city girl, and confident. She used to speak whatever she felt like, wherever. Suman, being a town girl, was like a bud of the flower who have opened itself from town to Delhi. She was exploring and experimenting with all the new activities and new people.

After some days, when they started to stay together, there were minor clashes regarding opinions, thoughts, and lifestyle. They never paid attention to it and always looked to solve all the problems and live happily. They used to study together, explore Delhi, eat together, and spend time building a strong foundation of friendship. As time passed by, they were in the process of getting a hostel when one day, they had a spark on a minor topic, but soon it turned out into a big fire. They both started bringing up all the earlier problems that remained unsolved in their minds, but tried to ignore them. It was a heated argument between them, and they decided not to talk to each other. The next day, when Suman initiated the talk to clear things out, Divya had earphones in her ears and she could not listen to divya, so Suman got angry and decided not to talk to her as Divya is full of Ego and Attitude.

The day went by with the silence in the room, and slowly, they started widening their relationship, as Suman and Divya did not want to talk to each other and were just waiting for the hostel room. In the next 2 days, they got their hostel room in different buildings. They started packing and shifted to the hostel without any talk.

One door closes other door opens

After being shifted to the hostel, Suman was frightened to make new friends as Delhi had already given her a shock in the beginning. She opted for a single-seater room, but it was not available, so she had to again compromise. Suman was introduced to her new roommate, Payal. Payal was a second-year girl from civil engineering. For the two months, Suman did not want to connect as she recalls everything that happened between Divya and her. There was just normalcy between Suman and Payal, when one day Suman noticed Payal leaving for some work at 3 in the afternoon and returning by 7 in the evening. Suman did not bother to ask Payal where she was going. Suman noticed this type of routine of Payal for a week.

On Sunday, Suman finally raised a question to Payal, as Suman was concerned about Payal. Payal answered that she is going to an NGO nearby to her, named Pehchaan The Street School. She has an internship for 90 days as an on-site Ground Teacher. Payal mentioned that Pehchann The Street School is an NGO in Delhi that provides education to underprivileged children. It is near our college, so I decided to join as I wanted an experience that would create a strong impact on society. Suman was surprised to hear all this.

Suman thought that I should also join Pehchaan, as I want something different experience after the divya scene, she wants to open up and experiment with herself. Suman told Payal Tell me the procedure, I also want to apply. Payal explained her whole process, and Suman went with it. Within the next 10 days, Suman also got an internship offer. Suman went with Payal as it was her first day in the Ngo.

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Pehchaan The Street School

When Suman went with Payal, the kids were unaware that Suman was also her new teacher, and many children ran and hugged Payal, welcoming her into the School. They started talking to Payal, What will you teach today, We did yesterday’s homework, Rohit is beating Aryan and many more chit chat. Suman was shocked to see this wholesome experience. She thought that from now onwards, she would also teach them. She was excited about all this. Payal introduced Suman to all the teachers and met with the founder of the NGO, Mr. Akash Tandon. Akash welcomed Suman and began explaining all the duties, responsibilities, roles, and about the Pehchaan. Suman was introduced in classes, where every child happily welcomed her. It was just an introduction class. Suman talked to many children, and she learned many new things about their lives. Suman was very happy all day. After the completion of day one, Payal and Suman came back together. Suman thanked Payal for telling about Pehchaan. Overall, it was the best experience Suman had for the first time while coming to Delhi.

Two months passed by, and it was only 15 days left for the completion of Suman’s internship. Payal’s internship ended as she started early. With time, the bond between children and Suman began to grow strong. Every child likes Suman teacher and her teaching methods; she brought different techniques to learn for the kids. On the last day, they bid a good farewell to Suman by giving her handmade cards, small bouquets, and a cake. Suman got emotional seeing all the love received from Pehchaan.

A Beautiful ending

Payal and Suman used to go and also come back together. They started creating memories and had fun together. The chain that connected Payal and Suman together was Pehchaan The Street School. Their friendship slowly turned stronger and stronger with time. This explains about the love they both had and also received from the kids; it was their destiny that brought them together and filled laughter and happy memories.

If you are also interested in knowing about Pehchaan The Street School, you can visit our website and social media accounts mentioned below:

Website: https://pehchaanstreetschool.org/

Review here > https://g.co/kgs/X4x1GL

Facebook page link: https://www.facebook.com/PehchaanTheStreetSchoolOfficial/

Facebook Pehchaan Group Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162142001383888/?ref=share

Instagram page link — https://instagram.com/pehchaanstreetschool?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=181sger2fozl7

To donate via Instamojo — https://www.instamojo.com/@pehchaanthestreetschool

To donate via NEFT — https://pehchaanstreetschool.org/donation/

Email ID — pehchaanschool@gmail.com

YouTube channel — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXd4gnTazJh3JugKENt5yog

Twitter — https://twitter.com/Pehchaan_School?s=09

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