Majeed is 17 – and one of the old participants of Doosra Dashak. He hails from Bari Dhani Village of Bap block in Jodhpur district in Rajasthan, India. Second in a family of four siblings, Majeed is a student of the residential Open Middle School (OMS) in his village. He joined Doosra Dashak in its second residential three-month camp organized in Khichan, a village near Phalodi town of Bap block. When asked about his educational status at the time of enrolment, he had smartly lied that he had never been to any kind of school before. His abilities to read and write and identify numbers were quite bad. In the benchmark conducted at the beginning of the camp, he could hardly do simple addition and barely read a small paragraph with easy words from a children's book. Later, it was revealed that he had attended a government school in his village for quite some time but had learnt nothing.

He passed grade III studying in the residential camp in three-and-a-half months. A government teacher had tested him along with other children and certified him as qualified for enrolment in grade V, however, his age was a barrier. It was absolutely impossible for a 16-year-old to be among children – girls and boys – much younger in age.

Then, when Doosra Dashak decided to initiate the OMS with the funding assistance from the Indo-German social Service Society (IGSS), Majeed was the first one to enrol.

The son of a truck driver, Majeed has his own logic for this decision. Says he: "I believe there is no 'meaning' to life without knowing about the 'world'. Education has turned me from a Muslim to a human being. In the OMS, our schedule is very tight. We keep busy from early morning till late evening but find it really energizing. What gives me satisfaction is that I have 'learnt' and 'grown'. I am preparing for grade V and I will appear for an exam in July. I am sure I would succeed as my mind has started 'working'."

He proposes to complete the grade VIII in one year thereafter.

A fair number of boys, approximately in the same age group as Majeed, are studying in the OMS in the hope that they would ultimately catch the bus, which they had 'missed'. Majeed, apart from being a student of the OMS, is a peer educator, a communication person and a community mobilizer. When he eats with his Meghwal, Bhil and Dholi (all scheduled castes) friends in his house, his eyes twinkle. And he proudly says, "I have changed a lot, let me complete my middle school, I will open a 'school' for the persons of my age not just to learn language, mathematics or science, but to learn about life."