There is a secret window in every heart that opens toward the future—where dreams are not merely watched but lived. In that quiet window, Akash Boro often sees himself as a Chief Minister someday, yet just as simple and wholesome as the boy who once ran across a school field, laughed with his friends, and bowed before his teachers. This is not a story of power; it is a story of belonging, gratitude, and going back home with folded hands.
A Simple Name, An Unusual Dream
My name is Akash Boro. On most days, that means homework, bus rides, and that familiar cricket bat with a crack near the handle. On some evenings, it also means a sudden, audacious whisper: “What if, someday, I became the Chief Minister of Assam or Bodoland?” Not for a convoy. Not for a chair. But for those who shaped me—the friends who shared their lunch, the teachers who wrote hope on the blackboard, and the streets that knew my footsteps by heart.
Behind the dream is a landscape: a monsoon sky, rain-drunk fields, the mild perfume of wet soil, and a school bell that rang like a promise. It is in that ringing, not in the roars of power, that leadership begins. It begins where the head bows first—before elders, before the very earth that let a child fall, get bruised, and rise again.
The First Frame: Simplicity Before Power
In imagination, there is no blue beacon. There is a bicycle leaning against a gate, a hand wiping rain off a forehead, and a path that remembers the lightness of my old school shoes. A security cordon fades into the background. The only thing that comes forward is a smile—light as the ball passed between children in a game of catch.
“No press conference today, no files. Today is only a homecoming—to the oldest friends and the first teachers.”
Leadership, if it means anything, must first mean simplicity; the courage to set aside spectacle and choose an ordinary morning that holds extraordinary tenderness. Nothing proves strength better than the strength to be ordinary among one’s own.
Returning to School: Identity Before Title
At the school gate, the air has the same damp sweetness of yesterday’s rain. The guard stiffens, then relaxes as the greeting shifts from salute to namaste. “No sir today,” I whisper, “just Akash—the latecomer, the one who ran the corridor before the bell rang for recess.”
Friends come running, carrying sacks of old stories on their shoulders. “Akash, really? You turned Chief Minister?” I shrug, “Maybe. But right now, I’m only your friend.” The light on their faces glows more sacred than any oath-taking ceremony could conjure. In their eyes, my name is not a designation; it is a nickname, a memory, a corner seat on the last bench.
Mathematics sir arrives with the same upright grace, but his eyes glisten as if the chalk dust itself has softened. “Your answers were often wrong,” he chuckles, “but your reasoning was right.” I bend, touch his feet. “Sir, reasoning made me human. Life, in time, corrected the answers.”
Fields, Mischief, and Echoes of Laughter
The field speaks under my feet. The call of kabaddi, the strain of tug-of-war, the appeal of cricket—echo like a chorus that never aged. We run, we trip, we laugh, the way we did when scraped knees were medals and dust was a kind of fragrance.
“Akash,” a friend teases, “will you write the rules now or keep quiet on no-balls?” I laugh, “There’s only one rule today—everyone plays, everyone laughs, and nobody argues with the wind.” Games are still as innocent as the first day of friendship; they remind me that competition without camaraderie is only noise.
Inside the Classroom: Pages of Memory
The wooden benches with carved initials, the chalk-slick board, the murmur of pages turning—they invite me back like an old lullaby. Someone jokes, “Remember the day you left the paper blank?” Laughter bursts like a fountain.
“That day I learnt this: grades matter, but understanding matters more; fear exists, but courage must answer.”
Books open, but the conversation walks past the printed words. “Education,” I say softly, “is not a tunnel to employment alone; it is a terrace from where you see farther, think deeper, and walk kinder.” The walls listen, as if they grew ears just for this moment.
Blessings of Teachers: Foundation and Direction
One by one, teachers share their own rough roads and small victories—the stubbornness of effort, the patience of practice, and the faith that quietly builds bridges. I stand, not as a leader, but as a student with a folded note in his pocket: “Walk slowly, but walk right.”
“A post can take me far,” I tell them, “but your blessings will take me to the right place.” Their eyes gleam, and I realize again that education is not “fear,” but “direction”; not “scolding,” but “steadiness.” If a system must be reformed, it must be reformed with the love that once corrected us without humiliation.
Seeds of Policy: Dreams into Plans
When the heart is balanced, policy is born. My dream walks on four roads—education, health, skills, and sports. This is not a manifesto; it is the diary of a child who learnt during a downpour that every raindrop has its own weight and yet they make a river only together.
- Annual School Homecoming: A bridge between alumni and teachers, a steady river of mentorship and pride.
- Youth Skills and Entrepreneurship: Training tied to local markets, crafts, digital creation, and dignified self-reliance.
- Community Health: Annual school-college health checkups, nutrition counseling, and mental well-being through coached sports and arts.
- Digital and Language Capacity: Pride in mother tongue, alongside multilingual fluency and practical, future-ready tech labs.
Youth and Entrepreneurship
Youth are bridges, connecting today to tomorrow. In every town, a “Youth Innovation Center”: where ideas meet reality, and failure is archived as a teacher, not a stigma. Let enterprise mean dignity, not mere survival.
- Branding and e-commerce for local products—so the craft of a village can find a global shelf.
- Mini-incubation programs—mentors, micro-grants, market guidance, and networks that open doors.
- Safe enterprise routes for girls—scholarships, collective production units, and reliable transport support.
Enterprise is not only about profit. It is also about pride—about signing one’s name on a label that says: “Made with care, made with memory.” Let those labels travel, so stories travel with them.
Health, Sports, and the Quiet of the Mind
A healthy body and a quiet mind—these are a society’s greatest wealth. Annual school health cards, nutrition advisories, and sport-led activation programs can level the ground for every child, especially those who start farther behind.
- Sports fellowships—local coaches, starter kits, and district leagues that scout and nurture talent.
- Mental health support—counseling, theatre-based therapy, musical circles for expression and release.
- School-to-club pathways—mapping potential early and guiding it toward professional training without financial anxiety.
The mind, like a field, must be watered with attention, sunlight, and rest. Let sport and art be recognized as policies of health, not afterthoughts of leisure.
Digital and Language Skills
Language is identity, and technology is a tool. Together they widen the horizon. In each block, a Learning Lab: coding, content creation, design, and multilingual communication—mapped to real projects and portfolios.
- Mother-tongue-first instruction, with Hindi/English bridges, so fluency is layered, not forced.
- Digital safety, freelancing basics, and portfolio-building workshops that end with something to show.
- Local history-language archives—so children can digitize their roots and carry them into the future.
When a child records a grandmother’s song and uploads it with pride, that is technology serving culture. Policy must enable such moments.
Inclusion and Sensitivity
Development is truthful only when the person at the very back of the line smiles. Accessible classrooms, sign-language sessions, and inclusive sports days are not optics; they are the soul of a humane state.
- Transport with ramps and assistive devices, not as favors but as fundamentals.
- Mandatory inclusive education training for teachers, integrated into appraisal and incentives.
- Continuity of girls’ education—sanitary health support, safe spaces, and mentorship circles.
Inclusion is not a chapter—it is the language of the entire book. If a policy cannot be read by everyone, it must be rewritten.
Village, River, and Forest: Guarding the Roots
The spirit of Assam-Bodoland flows through rivers, forests, and fields. Let nature and livelihood walk together. Community embankment upkeep, early flood warnings, and forest-based livelihoods linked to markets are not luxuries; they are lifelines.
- School-forest program—one sapling per child, one green promise per year.
- Fisherfolk support—safer gear, cold storage, and fair market channels.
- Local handicraft clusters—design upgrades, brand storytelling, and traceable trade routes.
Conservation is not only a policy—it's a relationship. If we want the river to love us back, we must learn to listen when it rises.
First Day as CM: Rituals or Relationships?
In imagination, my first day is not in an office but on a field. No declaration. Just a shared breakfast—the aroma of old tiffins and the music of returning laughter. Rituals can wait; relationships have waited long enough.
“Today, I am not a leader. I am only Akash—the classmate who sometimes forgot to say ‘Present, Sir!’”
The oath I take is different: I swear to remain small enough to sit on the last bench and big enough to make room for everyone who needs a seat.
Dialogues: Heart to Heart
Friend: “Speech first or batting first?”
Me: “Batting before speech—and tea before batting.”
Teacher: “Still the same mischief?”
Me: “Not mischief, sir—memories returning as laughter.”
If leadership lacks humility, it becomes not a system but a weight on the system. When a leader lowers the voice, a society raises its confidence.
Detailed Action Plan
1) School–Community Bridge
- Annual alumni homecoming, career mentorship, and a transparent scholarship fund with community oversight.
- Local history, folklore, and language preservation modules that count toward credits.
- Parent–Teacher Panchayat—quarterly dialogues with shared decisions recorded and published.
2) Skills and Employment
- District skill hubs—digital creation, agri-tech, tourism services, and craft management mapped to real employers.
- Apprenticeship network—industry–village partnerships with stipends and safety nets.
- Micro-credit plus market linkages for women and youth self-help groups; repayment linked to sales cycles.
3) Health and Sports
- School health cards, annual screenings, fortified mid-day meals where needed.
- Village sports fairs, district leagues, and performance-based sports scholarships.
- Mental health helplines and trained school counselors; teacher well-being sessions.
4) Digital and Language
- Mother-tongue-first content, with bilingual and trilingual pathways customized grade-wise.
- Lab-to-community model—open classes, creator bootcamps, and cyber safety certifications.
- Local content archive—stories, songs, folk tales, and photo histories curated by students.
5) Nature and Livelihood
- Flood-resilient infrastructure and rapid relief protocols rehearsed pre-monsoon.
- Co-managed forests with community guards and eco-tourism training tied to conservation outcomes.
- Crop diversification with value-add processing and collective bargaining for better prices.
6) Governance with Grace (New)
- Public dashboard of commitments vs. completion, accessible on mobile, updated monthly.
- Citizen assemblies by rotation—students, farmers, artisans—to co-create budgets for micro-projects.
- Complaint-to-resolution timers with escalation and feedback loops; dignity-first service charters.
7) Culture and Creative Economies (New)
- Festivals of the classroom—annual showcases of local dance, theatre, film clubs, and storytelling.
- Creator grants for multilingual content that documents living traditions and contemporary youth voices.
- Community studios with simple gear for podcasting, photography, and archival documentation.
Legacy, Memory, and a Quiet Resolve
Evening falls; the sky drinks gold. We sit by the edge of the field and promise a future to each other. “If I ever receive a post,” I murmur, “I will first bow to this soil. It is my courage and my compass.” Leadership, at its best, is a circle—beginning at the center of community and returning to it again and again.
“Yesterday will not return, but it lends us its strength. Today I am not a Chief Minister—I am Akash, among friends and teachers.”
When power remembers its first classroom, policy walks with a human step—slower perhaps, but steadier, kinder, and farther.
Epilogue: A Door Left Open
The door of this story is left ajar—so that with every dawn, a student, a friend, or a teacher can add their light. Change does not start with declarations; it starts with relationships. Where laughter is honest and tears are humble, that is where a state learns to be a family.
✍️ Story: Akash Boro
Summary Message
Leadership is not an order; it is an ideal. Not distance, but friendship. When dreams tied to roots become policy, every child finds a road to the horizon—and the horizon takes one more step closer to the child.