BTS 5: The Boys Towns

By the end of this second week I had visited three Boys Towns - Nilakottai, Pannaikadu and Athoor - each of which is home to around 60 boys aged between 12 and 17. In each place I met with the Directors who showed me around the facilities and told me about the boys’ lives. 

I was really wowed by these Boys Towns. For a start they are all in stunningly beautiful, rural locations and mostly on the very edge of a small village. Nilakottai and Athoor were on the plains, with the stunning backdrop of the Western Ghats mountain range behind them. Pannaikadu was actually up in the mountains, in an area of dense woodland. (Up there it was quite a bit cooler at 25 degrees, which seemed very pleasant to me but Gobi insisted it was "cold"!)

Nilakottai Boys Town

A Boys Town consists of a series of small honey-coloured stone buildings including sleeping bungalows, library, craft room, computer room, a large auditorium, cook's kitchen and Director's office. There's no running water so the boys bathe with buckets of water from a tank, or in a nearby stream or river! 

Bedroom at Pannaikadu: one tin trunk for each boy's worldly possessions

This is farming country and even though agricultural training is no longer the main focus of the Boys Towns, each one still sits on some acres of farmland where the boys grow produce or rear animals for sale, and the profits are reinvested back into the Boys Town. Up in the mountains it was coffee and mangoes, down on the plains it was coconuts, bananas, rice and flowers (those which the women wear in their hair each day). The Boys do an hour of farming work each day before school. They're also responsible for washing their own clothes, cleaning their rooms and communal areas and watering the plants before school. 

Boy on plant-watering duty at Athoor

Joe Homan’s original vision was that the Boys Towns should be run by the boys, and the directors are really just there to keep an eye on them and offer guidance where needed! Therefore each Boys Town has a mini parliament with an elected chief minister, speaker and ministers for food, finance, health, education etc where issues can be raised, discussed and resolved. I really love this idea – it gives the boys ownership of something and instills a sense of responsibility and pride for the things around them.

To counter-act the serious stuff there's also a regular program of extra-curricular activities for the evening and weekends including sports, indoor and outdoor clubs (bird-watching, gardening, community service, chess, drawing, stamp-collecting etc) and monthly picnics to places of historical interest. I heard about a recent outing to the seaside, where it was the first time any of the boys had seen the sea, and another trip which involved many people's first ever train journey (including the Assistant Director's!). 

I had a bit of a “moment” over lunch at Pannaikadu. There we were in the most beautiful remote location up in the mountains with no sound but the birds singing and a gentle breeze rustling the leaves. I found myself sitting on a straw mat on the ground, with four Indian men, eating Indian food off of a banana leaf, with my hand. You can’t get much more authentic/ less touristy than that!

Pannaikadu Boys Town, up in the mountains

To help me get a better picture of the boys’ lives, I also visited six of their secondary schools. There I met with the head-teachers and was shown around the school to see the facilities. I felt like a bit of a fraud being treated like such an honoured guest, when really I know nothing about schools or child education! But I soon realised that half of them were as intrigued by me as I was by them! People seemed openly concerned by my lack of husband, shocked that my parents have “allowed me” to go away on my own and nonplussed by the concept of travelling around the world (Why would you do that? Why don’t you save your money?). I was also regularly asked which religion I follow and, strangely, the meaning of the name Kate!

One of the nice things was that in every school, the teachers commented that the Boys Towns boys were much more obedient and well-behaved than the other boys, more involved in school clubs and activities and generally brighter too. I am sure this is a result of the structure, discipline and encouragement they receive at home in the Boys Town.

The school year ends in April here, so in a few weeks the boys will have their 10^th Standard exams (similar to GCSEs) and when I visited, many of the students were sitting mock exams. As if it wasn't bad enough that we walked in to the hall in the middle of their practice paper, the teacher then asked me if I’d like to say a few words of blessing! I’ve never been good at thinking on the spot and stammered: “Er…. Yes… well, Good luck! Work hard! Make sure you do lots of study!” Of course they didn't understand English so then Gobi had to translate and then they all chorused "Thank you Ma'am" while I stood there cringing!  It was definitely one of those occasions where 20 minutes later you think of countless more inspirational things you could have said! To make things worse, the teacher apparently thought this might be auspicious, and asked if I would go and offer a blessing to every other class! So the whole awkward situation was repeated another 5 times! I was definitely relieved to get out of there!

In another school the head-teacher asked for volunteers to show me their English speaking. All of the children were jumping at the chance to stand up and count to ten, or recite the days of week or months of year or read aloud from a book. These children were about 10 years old. I actually had a lump in my throat at how eager and full of hope they are, and I wonder how their lives will actually turn out.

Unfortunately when I visited Nilakottai and Pannaikadu the boys were at school so I didn’t get to meet them. But my visit to Athoor was in late afternoon and mid-way through my meeting with the Director the boys started returning. Each one stopped at the Director’s office to greet us with a "Good Evening" and a little salute (I never know if I’m supposed to salute back, but usually I just opt for a smile and wave!). Afterwards as the Director was showing me around the facilities we were followed by a trail of boys, each keen to show me their favourite parts of the Boys Town including the crafts room, library, nursery garden, worm compost and cows! I was also treated to a special demonstration of some typical Indian sports including "kabbadi" and "seven stars", which was great fun! 

Kabbadi! (A bit like British Bulldog... if you have any idea what that is!)

Again they loved having attention and all wanted their photo taken. Just before we left we had a group photo and I threw my rucksack on the ground. The boys all hurried to pick it back up and all wanted the honour of carrying it for me! Then before I got back on the bike they all helped me put my things away in my bag. It was just so sweet. 

With some of the boys from Athoor: one proudly carrying my rucksack over his shoulder!

I had another "moment" on the 30-minute ride back from Athoor Boys Town, on Gobi’s motorbike. I'd just had a lot of fun with the boys so was already feeling on a bit of a high. The Western Ghats were a silhouette dominating the horizon, and behind them the sky was turning pink and orange. It was that “Golden hour”. A warm breeze was blowing in my face as we sped along the road, through remote villages where people would stop what they were doing to turn and wave to me as we passed. I thought “THIS is it. This is what life is all about." And I felt really, really happy and just so lucky that I'm able to have this experience. I wish I could bottle that feeling!