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This is a true story. Anita Khushwaha is
a ‘Girl Star’. ‘Girl Stars’ is a project which tells extraordinary tales of
ordinary girls who have changed their lives by going to school.
My name is Anita Khushwaha. I live in
Bochaha village. This is in Muzzafarpur District in Bihar. I stay with my
parents and two younger brothers. I study in college. Besides studying, I teach
young children. I also keep honeybees.
All this has not been easy for me. When
I was young, I used to spend all my time with my goats as they grazed for food.
I always wanted to go to school but my parents did not like the idea of girls
going to school.
A Dream of School
One day I peeped into the school in our
village. I could not stay away. I
silently went and sat down behind the
children.
I felt so happy. I wenthome and picked
up courage to talk to my parents about going to school. But they told me
clearly that I could not do so. That day, I cried and cried.
One of the teachers in my village
explained to my parents why it is important to study. The teacher told them
that they would not have to pay anything for my education upto Class V.
The teacher said that it was the right
of every child to go to school. Somehow my parents agreed. I started going to
school. I did not get high marks, but I always asked many questions!
Staying in School
Time passed, and soon I completed Class
V. I knew that we would need to spend more in Class VI. My parents said that it
was time for me to leave school, but I wanted to study more. I found a way to
do this. I started to teach younger children. From the money that I got, I was
able to continue my own studies.
One Sweet Memory
I remember some older boys in my village
also used to teach young
children. They did not like it when I started
teaching. They started to scold and scare the children, so that they would not
come to me.
For some time, all the children except
two, stopped coming to me. But soon they all came back because I used to teach them
with love and care.
Slowly I started talking to other parents
in the village about sending their daughters to school. My parents
also started helping me in my work. My mother used to do all the house work so
that I could get more time to study.
From School to Bee-keeping There are
many litchi trees in our area. Honeybees are attracted to the litchi flowers.
Many people do bee keeping and collect honey.
I thought that I could also do this. I
joined a course run by the government to learn about this. I was
the only girl in this course. During my training I found that
honeybees lay their eggs from October to December. This was the best time to
start bee-keeping.
Becoming a Bee-keeper
I completed my bee-keeping course. But I
did not have money to keep my own bees and start work. I continued to teach and
with time could collect Rs. 5000. With this money, I bought two boxes for
keeping bees.
Each box costs Rs. 2000. With the remaining
money, I bought sugar to make the syrup for honeybees, and medicines to clean
the beehives.
That was in September.
By December, I had so many bees that I
had to buy two more boxes. I was still learning about bee-keeping.
Many times,
the bees would sting me and my hands and face would get swollen. It would pain
a lot.
How could I complain to anybody? I
myself had decided to do this work. The litchi trees come to flower in
February. I put all my four boxes near the litchi orchards. I got 12 kilograms
of honey from each box. I sold this honey in the market. This was my first earning
from my bees. Now I have 20 boxes.
Every day I cycle to my college. My
college is in the town, five kilometers away. When I go to college, my mother prepares
the syrup for the bees. My father looks after the bees and takes the honey out
of the boxes.
Now you also know a lot about Anita. Anita
is known by everyone in all the villages nearby. She goes to all the village
meetings and talks about how important it is for everyone to study.
Sometimes people make fun of her, but
Anita knows what she wants to do. She does exactly what she wants to. Anita wants
to become a wholesaler so that she can help the villagers to get the right
price for their honey.
HONEY:
Honey is a sweet syrupy substance
produced by honeybees from the nectar of flowers and used by humans as a
sweetener and a spread.
The Honey is comprised of 17-20% water,
76-80% glucose, and fructose, pollen, wax, and mineral salts. Its composition
and color is dependent upon the type of flower that supplies the nectar.
Background:
Honey, golden and sweet, has always been
held in high regard. The Bible refers to heaven as the "Land of Milk and
Honey." In ancient times, honey was considered the food of the gods and
the symbol of wealth and happiness.
It was used as a form of sustenance and
offered in sacrifice. In the Middle Ages, honey was the basis for the
production of mead, an alcoholic beverage.
Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of
animal husbandry. Early beekeepers encouraged the establishment of bee colonies
in cylinders of bark, reed, straw, and mud. However, when the honeycomb was removed
from the cylinders, the colony was destroyed.
Every beehive has one Queen Bee that
lays eggs. There are only a few males in the hive. Most of the bees in the hive
are worker-bees. These bees work all day.
Explain the role of wholesaler to
children. also look after the baby bees. They fly around flowers in search of
nectar.
They collect nectar from flowers for honey. When one bee finds flowers
with nectar, it does a special kind of dance by which the other bees can know
where the nectar is.
The workerbees are very important for
the hive. Without worker-bees there would be neither hive nor any nectar
collection.
All bees in thehive would go hungry. The male bees have
no special role as worker.Ants live and work together like
honeybees.
The Queen Ant lays the eggs, the Soldier
Ants look after and guard the ants’ nest, Worker Ants are always busy looking
for food and bringing
it to the nest. Termites and wasps also
live like this.
This is a true story from long long ago.
Almost three hundred years ago, in a village called Khejadli, lived
Amrita.
Khejadli village is near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The village got its name
because of the many Khejadi trees that grew there.
The people of this village took great
care of the plants, trees and animals. Goats, deers, hares and peacocks roamed
fearlessly there. The people of the village remembered what their elders used
to tell them. They used to say, “Agar perh hain to hum hain. Plants and animals
can survive without us, but we can not survive without them.”
Amrita would get up early every morning
and greet her friends – the trees. She would choose a special tree for the day.
She would put her arms around the tree trunk and whisper to the tree, “Friend,
you are strong and beautiful. You care for us. Thank you tree. I love you very
much. Give your strength to me also.” Like Amrita, the other children also had
their special trees. They would play for hours in the shade of the trees.
Trees in Danger:
Time went by. Amrita was now grown up.
One day she went to greet her trees. She saw that there were some strangers in
her village. They had axes with them.
They said that the King had sent them to cut
trees for wood. The wood was needed for building the King’s palace.
Amrita was shocked. She went to the tree
that the men were about to cut. She put her arms around the tree and hugged it
tightly. The men shouted and threatened her, but Amrita did not let go of the
tree.
The King’s men had to follow his order.
They had to cut the tree. On seeing this, Amrita’s daughters and hundreds of villagers
–old and young – hugged the trees to protect them.
Many people including Amrita and her daughters
died to save the trees. When the King heard of this, he could not believe that
people gave up their lives for trees. He visited the village himself. There he
learned about villagers’ respect for trees and animals.
The Village is Protected…
The villagers’ strong feelings for trees
affected the King greatly. He ordered that from then on, no tree would be cut
and no animal harmed in that area.
Even today, almost three hundred years
later, the people of this area, called Bishnois, continue to protect plants and
animals. Even though in the middle of the desert, this area is green and
animals roam freely without fear.
The Khejadi tree is found mainly in
desert areas. It can grow without much water. Its bark is used for making medicines.
People cook and eat its fruits (beans).
Its wood is such that it will not be
affected by insects. Animals in this area eat the leaves of the Khejadi. And
children like you, play in its shade.
Nandu woke up and opened his eyes. For a
few seconds he was not sure where he was. It seemed to him that he was
surrounded by a forest of big grey tree trunks.
He blinked his eyes and looked around.
Oh! There was Amma. The grey forest that he had imagined he was in, was
actually the legs and trunks of his family members.
The sun was over head and it was getting
hot. Nani ma trumpetted – made a loud sound. Nani ma is the oldest in this herd
of elephants. She started moving towards the jungle. The other female elephants
saw her and started to follow her. Nandu also went with them.
When they reached the jungle, the
members of the herd started spreading out. Each member went to eat her
favourite leaves and twigs. After they had eaten, the herd moved towards the river.
The baby elephants enjoyed playing in the water. The mothers laid down in the
water and mud on the river bank.
The elephant is the largest and one of
the most powerful and intelligent animals. Even though blue whales are the
largest animals for they grow up to 30 metres, elephants top the list as far as
land animals are concerned. A fully-grown elephant reaches a height of 4 metres
and a weight of 6 metric tons.
The most remarkable feature of the
elephant is its tusks and trunk. The tusks, in fact, are two of its upper teeth
that have grown on the outside and become enlarged. A tame or trained elephant uses
its tusks to support heavy loads while wild elephants use them as weapons of
attack. Tusks are made of ivory which is highly! valuable.
And it is for tusks that elephants are
hunted down and killed. Even though articles made of ivory are banned in most
countries they are available in the black market, and this leads to elephant
poaching.
The trunk is another interesting feature
of the elephant. It serves as an arm and a hand for picking up twigs and leaves
and pushing them into its mouth. The trunk is actually the elephant’s lengthened
nose and upper lip. It is thick and well-protected on the outside but has a
tender inside.
There are two kinds of elephants - the
Asian elephant and the African elephant. The Asian elephant is relatively
smaller than its African counterpart.
While the Asian elephant is 2.75 metres tall
and weighs 3.5 metric tons, the African is 3.5 metres tall and weighs about 5
metric tons, and is darker than the Asian species.
Moreover, the Asian elephant can be easily
tamed or trained and it sleeps lying down while the African elephant is wild
and sleeps upright.
Fun and Games:
Nandu saw his brothers and sisters
pulling each other’s tails. He thought, “I better not go near them. What if
they fall on me? I am still small.” He quietly went and stood near his mother.
Amma gently pushed Nandu towards the
water, as if she was telling him to go and play. Nandu loved to play in the
water. His cousins were already there. Just as he reached near, a strong fountain
of water fell on his head. He got wet. Oh, this was the work of his naughty
cousins. Nandu joined them in the game.
Before sunset, the herd started back
towards the jungle. By then, Nandu was very tired. He settled himself between
his mother’s front legs and fell asleep as he drank her milk.
You have read about Nandu and the
elephant herd. An elephant herd has only females and baby elephants. The oldest
female is the leader of the herd. A herd may have 10 to 12 female elephants and
young ones. Male elephants live in the herd till they are 14 –15 years old.
Then they leave
their herd and move around alone. Nandu
will also leave his herd when he is that old.
Like elephants, some other animals also
live together in groups. These animal groups are called herds. Animals in herds
usually move around together, searching for food.
The basket is the only home I have. I
have forgotten what it is like in the open jungle and fresh air. For me it is
only the basket and the snake charmer!
You see me in circus – dancing and
jumping They make us dance and dance and dance. Even if we don’t want to or we
are in pain. That too, with anempty stomach!
You have only seen how fast I run. Have
you seen my ‘shoes’? Do you know how much pain I get when they fix the horse
shoes to my hooves?
They make us dance and dance and dance.
Even if we don’t want to or we are in pain. That too, with an empty stomach!
Meow! Meow! Meow! I can just roam around
everywhere. Children love me a lot. They pat me and also give me milk.
Gurtargoo! Gurtargoo! Do you know people
specially call out to me to feed grain.
Many times,
the bees would sting me and my hands and face would get swollen. It would pain
a lot. 
All bees in thehive would go hungry. The male bees have
no special role as worker.Ants live and work together like
honeybees.
