The preamble machine of the Nawada village

By: Rajesh Kumar

A five and half years old rustic boy, wearing torn shorts and shirts. He wipes his free running nose on his shirt's sleeves. With a shabby, disheveled hair and dust smeared all over his body, this is Deepak Ram, the Preamble machine of the Plight village of Nawada, Samastipur district in Bihar. At his age, despite being counted as mentally unstable by the village folk, Deepak can recite the complete preamble of the Indian Constitution without even a slighter mistake.

Deepak in front of his school in Nawada

People in the village call him 'Batha' (a person who does not have mind to think and do the work properly) . But officially, in the records of at Rajkiya Utkrmit Madhya Vidyalaya in Nawada where he is enrolled as a student, he is Deepak Ram, son of Ramanand Ram and Somani Devi. 

The day starts for Deepak when he reaches school at 8.30 in the morning, too early, since the class hours starts at 9.30. “Though he is not very bright in the studies due to his mental condition, he comes to the campus early in the morning, often by 8.30”, says Vikash Gupta, a teacher at the school. “He never skips the school assembly and the mid­-day meal also”, adds Gupta. It is his love for the school assembly that inspired his love for the preamble. The preamble is being recited every morning in the school assembly and thus Deepak has learned every sentences and words of it by-heart.

Everybody knows him for being the preamble machine. Even his headmaster is very proud about this. ''That child belongs to a Mahar family. They live in Pligt village. Mahars are Scheduled Castes,” says Deepak Kumar, another teacher in that Primary School.

As we chat about him, Deepak approaches the headmaster’s office, roaming aimlessly. “May I ask something?” enquires Deepak while lavishly wiping his running nose on the curtains hanging by the office window.

“Yes. Go on”, encourages the headmaster.

“May I have 1 rupee?” asks Deepak, as if it is a very normal thing to demand anything from the head of the institution. Deepak dashes away before the headmaster can get out from behind the table, scolding all the way.

Getting out of the office, I found a scared Deepak, trying to stay away from any trouble coming from the headmaster. Wooed by the one rupee shown to him, Deepak hesitantly approaches. When encouraged to recite the preamble, he raises his hand and starts with “We the people of India....”. He goes on till the very end with proper enunciation and diction.

“That child has some learning disability. He cannot focus on his study and grasp the things mentioned in the class. But it is astonishing that he has learned the preamble correctly”, says Gupta. “He sings well too, but everybody in the village thinks him a ‘mental case’,” adds he.

As we give him the money promised, a jubilant Deepak dashes for the petty village shop outside the school compound.