This note is a brief account of persons we encountered, we got to know, in the course of the journey we all went along during the implementation of Doosra Dasak. Interaction with adolescents has been full of excitement. Each day in the field was filled with a different kind of experience. Getting into dialogue with these persons, listening to their 'voices' and their 'silence', perceiving their 'realities' through their eyes, have generated learning not easy to express in words.

Now, when we look back there are interesting examples of emergence of 'persons' out of a huge neglected lot. Seeing 17-year-old Kailasi of Gajron, Banjara by caste, slinging a purse on her shoulder, confidently entering into a new role for herself, 'apprentice' in Doosra Dashak; witnessing Jamaluddin, a shy, inarticulate, 18-year-old Muslim boy of Ajari, facing camera, responding to sharp questions of his counterparts in a sophisticated conceptual language; listening to Santosh, a poised, quiet saharia girl of Acharpura articulating her dream about locating her isolated community in the centre of the village, are some of the examples of the simmer Doosra Dashak has caused in its short period of existence. These are 'stories' of reassuring success, unexpected failures and yet unshakable hope during this short span of time. Challenges are vast, so is the potential. Kailasi, Jamal, Hari Om, Santosh, China, Ashraf, Dada they all were there in the same place, leading the same life, bearing the same treatment of neglect and isolation.

Care and education and new skills, seem to have changed their lives. Perhaps it will take time and continuous reinforcement to turn the existing reality as we dare to enter the repressed lives of adolescents.

However, they have started looking towards their future with hope and optimism. This much is certain.

Read the Doosra Dashak stories