Express News Service
Whenever the buzz of an aeroplane soaring through the skies was heard outside, little Gnana would sprint to fix his gaze on the tiny bird-like silhouette. The sight would take him into the wild blue yonder and he would stay there enraptured till the plane disappeared into the clouds.
This little boy’s love for aeroplanes only grew over time. While everyone thought the climax of this craze would be when he got on a flight, S Gnanasekaran (61), now a panchayat president in Coimbatore, began contemplating the dreams of kids like him.
Within a period of three years, Gnanasekaran took around 400 underprivileged government school students and their parents on their first flight, an experience which all of them name as one “to be cherished forever.”
U Preena, a Class 10 student of Government High School in Kannarpalayam, marks July 8, 2023, the day of her first flight, as an overwhelming day. She experienced extreme joy, overcame fear, and even got emotional.
“When I see visuals of aeroplanes in movies, I get this uncontrollable urge to experience the journey. Being aware of my family’s financial situation, I end up feeling disappointed,” says Preena, whose family survives on the income of her father, a fuel pump operator.
Gnanasekaran, who also runs a construction material manufacturing unit, shares, “I completed my studies from a government school. I know the pain of underprivileged students like Preena and how their desires remain unfulfilled due to poverty at home.”
“After growing up, both literally and economically, I started to help such students by providing uniforms and scholarships. However, the one-day flight trip programme idea occurred to me during an air journey in 2016. Kids from an orphanage were my co-passengers on that flight. The happiness and thrill I saw in their eyes made me do this today,” he says.
It was in 2019 that Gnanasekaran first took 105 kids, their parents, and teachers on a flight from Coimbatore to Chennai.
A Nithya, mother of S Divyadharshini, a Class 10 student at the Kannarpalayam high school, reminisces, “As travel is part of their curriculum, Class 10 students were taken for the trip. We had breakfast from Coimbatore airport and then took the flight to Chennai.”
“Later, kids were taken on a metro train journey to visit Anna Centenary Library. After lunch at a three-star hotel, we were taken to BM Birla Planetarium by bus. We spent the evening hours at Marina beach and took a train the same night to reach Coimbatore by next morning. It was a package of fun and learning for the kids as well as the parents,” she says.
Gnanasekaran, however, had to pause the trips due to the pandemic. The initiative was resumed in 2022 and continues in 2023.
R Prema, a teacher from the school, in-charge of the trips, says ever since the president started sponsoring a flight journey, student strength has increased in the school. In Class 9, numbers climbed up from 69 to 109 this year.“The trip happens in three batches, with 25 students, their parents and a few teachers in each batch,” she adds.
The residents of the village speak without a break when it comes to Gnanasekaran and his work. Apart from the flight journey, he provides Rs 5,000 to single child families. A scholarship of Rs 5,000 is provided to SC/ST students of his panchayat. Besides, he has constructed classrooms, toilets, and other amenities in the surrounding schools under the ‘Namakku Naame’ scheme.
Gnanasekaran’s biggest wish is to take the kids on flight journeys till his last breath. He gushes, “Society grows through the dreams of children. This is a humble attempt to make them dream big, beyond the skies.”
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