Aspire & Express

I’ve had so much fun talking about myself, my hobbies, creative work, and what shapes me. But I’d like to shift the focus to a very special community that I am part of and share some memories. 

During school breaks, I visit my dad’s ancestral village in rural Haryana, India. It’s the kind of place where cows wander through courtyards, power cuts are a daily routine, and Wi-Fi is a luxury, but the natural beauty is unmatched, and the people are even better. 

In the early years, I was mostly just a visitor. But in the summer before junior year, I returned with a small goal: to help the children at the local school feel more confident speaking English. 

Growing up, my dad often told me about how little English support there was when he was in school. His essays sounded nothing like mine. One example still lives in my head rent-free: a cow has four legs, two eyes, one nose… you get the idea. With all of this in mind, I went to the girls’ school and kicked things off with a mini talk on language and opportunity (very TED Talk of me), and the next day, my name showed up in the local newspaper. 

I waited eagerly for the students to connect with me and tell me when they wanted to start learning. Minutes turned into hours…and nothing happened. My speech hadn’t built trust. Why would it? I was just another student. Someone their age, from somewhere else. 

The next day, I returned to the classroom not as a teacher, but as a student. I sat down, ditched the formal tone, and tried something new: “For every English sentence I say, teach me something new in Hindi.” Silence stretched across the room, and shy faces avoided my gaze. 

Until finally, one girl looked at me and blurted out that she liked my hair and asked what shampoo I used. And just like that, the silence cracked. Everyone started laughing. Questions followed. Real ones. Silly ones. Hesitation had been the real barrier all along, not vocabulary or grammar. That day planted the seed for Aspire & Express, a weekly spoken-English club I now run over Google Meet from home. 

We meet 1-3 times a week (depending on their exam schedule). It’s a small group, 5 to 10 students, but it’s become the highlight of my week. I create lessons with short stories, essay vocabulary, tense practice, sentence-building games, and guided conversations. In the beginning, everyone kept their mics muted. Now, they take turns leading questions, sharing stories, and even correcting me. 

I won’t pretend like I’ve had ground-breaking success stories; after all, I’m learning alongside them. We deal with glitchy internet, shared phones, and the time zone chaos. But we always show up. We speak. And we laugh (a lot). 

One of my favorite memories is of Kajal, a student who started out whispering her answers. Now, she leads the group with grammar practice and encourages others to speak with the same gentle confidence she found for herself. 

Honestly, I’ve learned just as much as they have. I used to think leadership meant giving a good speech or changing someone's opinion. Now I know it’s more about creating a space where other people feel safe to speak at their own pace, in their own voice.