Small Town Ideas - Wholesome Education in Hubli

This is an ode to an uncle of mine who retired recently (for the second time). Captain Krishna Mokhasi retired from the army about 1986. After retiring from the army, he returned to his native-place, Hubli in North Karnataka. He spent the next 20 years ferrying kids to school and gave several batches of kids an education!! while they were making their journeys to and from school!!
Twenty years ago, in a small town where everybody knows everyone else, he decided to do what no educated people from upper classes ever do. He bought himself an auto-rickshaw, got a license to drive one and started ferrying passengers in Hubli. He decided to apply his army background (where he had seen most of India from Goa to the Ladakh and Arunachal Himalayas), his understanding of needs of professionals, his love for kids and his passion for wholesome education and his army training on punctuality into a "service" that became the talk of Hubli over the years.
He wouldn't pick up passengers off the streets, but setup "contracts" with professionals, school kids and college students to drop them to their offices, schools and colleges. He even had a contract with an elderly Sikh couple to help them visit the local Gurudwara everyday.
Soon his professionalism, friendliness, timeliness and his passion to take care of kids helped him not only build a healthy business but changed the way many school kids grew up in Hubli.
In the process, he educated kids, parents, schools and teachers alike into making their kids into more complete human beings.
Here's a glimpse of some of the innovation he introduced, which made getting "admission" into his rickshaw as important as getting into the best convent or private schools in Hubli:

• Started beginnning of the year detailed briefing for parents - giving them the details of what it means for children to travel to and from school.
• Taught kids, parents, teachers about the best ways of travelling to school - helped devise the right sizes of bags, water bottles and other things that kids carried to school.
• Parents, kids and teachers were taught the importance of time. He would never be late and left the kids and parents to fend for themselves if they were. He says, "Schools and Cinema Halls are the only institutions in India that maintain time, lets keep it going"
• Insisted on having kids learn and talk languages other than their mother tongues and in English. Kids were encouraged to speak to other kids in a language other than their mother tongue.
• Started birthday gifts and celebrations for all kids who travelled in his rickshaw. The birthday gifts were focused on building values, using sustainable materials and healthy food. He left the parents to indulge their kids with chocolates & junk food!!
• Helped build leadership skills and values of responsibility and accountability in kids by rotating their roles of taking care of a number of activities related to their travel to school.
• Annual picnics for all kids travelling to school with him with a focus on many activities that schools never even think of!
• Donations to schools based on the needs of students as he heard and saw daily.
• Feedback to teachers, parents and kids based on his observations of the kids. Many a "difficult" kid was reformed by him.

With all this and more, he redefined the simple chore of ferrying kids to school. He was soon called upon to talk at PTA meetings, Rotary Clubs and even had a few "management quota" school admission seats that were given away by schools based on his recommendations.

Krishna Mokhasi, retired last month after seeing more than 3000 students pass out of his "school". Many of the students who travelled to school in their kinder garten years are now doctors, engineers and parents themselves. Their kids then travelled in "Kittu Uncle's" autorickshaw much the same way in which they themselves did long ago.

He was given a tearful farewell by many of the schools, students, parents and alumni a few weeks ago, many of them wanting him to continue "giving their kids an education"