Life during coronavirus: how an Indian teacher conducts his online lessons from a tree

To get the cell phone connection in order to be able to give lessons, the teacher Subrata Patti climbs a tree every day. Thanks to this original and not easy way, he doesn't abandon his students and help them to keep up with the school program.

Due to the weak development of technological infrastructure in India, the majority of users go online using their mobile devices. During the coronavirus pandemic, the load on the cellular network increased and the connection quality consequently decreased. According to the mobile operators, in India, the average 4G download speed dropped 22%.

In remote areas (small villages and towns), the signal regularly drops, turning online learning into continuous waiting for the teacher's response. That was the experience of a 35-year-old history teacher Subrata Party, who works in two schools in Calcutta.

Because of the coronavirus, Subrat had to temporarily leave the city and return to his home village of Aanda in Bankura district. The unstable mobile Internet almost made the teacher abandon online learning, but he did not give up. To make the communication work better, the teacher climbed a tree. His hopes were justified, and his classes continued now from the new "workplace".

Now the teacher conducts online lessons daily while sitting at the top of a tree. To be more comfortable, Subrata built a small platform from just burlap and straw. In an interview with an Indian publication, the historian admitted that he got the idea from the villagers, who often climb trees to watch over their fields and keep elephants out of them.