Every day between 4 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., since 2013, a home in J.P. Nagar turns into a classroom where small batches of students learning English, mathematics, and science lessons. These classes have helped many of them join college and make careers across various fields.
For more than 12 years now, an 82-year-old man in Bengaluru has been spending his evenings teaching children who cannot afford private schooling, let alone tuitions.
Move to Bengaluru
This began after C.S. Narayanan moved to Bengaluru from Chennai. During one of his regular evening walks around Puttanahalli lake with his wife Kamala, Mr. Narayanan met Usha Rajagopalan of the Puttanahalli Lake Trust. She spoke to him about children from the slums around the lake who were dropping out of school and asked if he could help teach them. This marked the beginning of what he describes as the most rewarding journey of his life.
Mr. Narayanan had retired and returned to India after a long career in the U.S., where he worked in oncology departments. He was looking to volunteer at a cancer hospital when he agreed to help the children. Despite not knowing Kannada, he returned to the lake the next day with Kannada–English dictionaries and began teaching basic spellings, reading, and mathematics.
Initially, only a handful of children came. “Lessons were worked out word by word through the dictionary… The numbers slowly grew from six to eight, and then to more than 20, making it difficult to give each child individual attention,” he said.
Coming home
That was when he decided to move the classes to his home. “I limited each batch to around 15 students and made it clear that I would only teach children whose families could not afford paid tuition elsewhere. Over time, the number settled into smaller groups of about eight, making it possible to track each child’s progress,” he said.
Three months into the classes, he made a simple rule- English only during class hours. The idea, he said, was to remove hesitation and force familiarity. Many of the children had to begin from the very basics, such as spelling simple words, reading short sentences, and revisiting elementary math.
The children came from different schools and grades, with many following the State syllabus. As expenses mounted textbooks, uniforms and examination fees, Mr. Narayanan began reaching out to NGOs and individuals for support. In some cases, organisations stepped in to sponsor students fully. In others, parents contributed small amounts so they were not entirely dependent on him.
Among his earliest students were the children of his domestic worker. Both are now employed in software companies. Over the years, several others have gone on to study engineering, join the armed forces or got employed in the IT sector. Since he began teaching in 2013, Mr. Narayanan, who has raised over ₹30 lakh now, said there has not been a single instance of a student dropping out due to lack of funds.
Students at centre
Even visits to his own children, who live in the U.S., are planned around the school calendar here. Laughing, he said his children tease him that he spends time with them according to the convenience of his students. He said he prefers to travel only during breaks, worried that long gaps might disrupt the children’s routine. “If they lose interest, it’s hard to bring them back,” he said. Once a year, he also takes the children out, which he believes is, for many of them, their only outing outside their neighbourhood.
Pooja, one of his first students and the daughter of his domestic help, recalled struggling in school, especially with English, and she was on the verge of dropping out. She joined Mr. Narayanan’s classes scoring single-digit marks. With steady help, she said, things slowly changed. Her ‘tuition uncle’ later helped her move to a different school and encouraged her to continue studying.
She went on to complete her BCA and MCA and now works with a software company in Bengaluru.
Published – December 28, 2025 07:24 pm IST
