Valentine's Day special - 1

Keshav:

This Valentine's I lost my heart....I lost it to a small girl named Banku.

We reached today by 10:10 in the morning. This time, we had an additional resource. After yesterday's experience, we had decided that we would take notebooks and pens for the kids, so that we could teach them and engage them in a better way. It was 10:30 by the time we collected the kids and started. The kids came and greeted us with Namaste – Ankit had taught that yesterday. But yesterday wasn't a very productive day. Today, we had a plan in mind.

Yesterday hadn't been a very productive day in terms of achieving goals. However, we discovered something amazing yesterday. After spending something like an hour not knowing what to do, Anshu came up with an idea- Why not play with mud?!? She engaged the small ones. And by 12 noon, we had in front of us a whole lot of amazing toys! The kids had made a bed, some utensils, a chulha and a boy had gone so far as to make a helicopter!!! It was amazing. A girl named Parvesh is really talented. And she is organized and obedient. She must be some four years of age. Her brother had made that helicopter- the talent was in their genes. Yesterday, as we were leaving, the kids flocked us, asking for giving them the books that we had brought to read to them. They showed lack of obedience. This somehow disturbed me...I had expected too much on the first go....

I have also uploaded the pics of their fascinating and imaginative work. you can see the model of helicopter, and you must be appreciating the creativity of these little angels. Below

you can find utensils enough to run your household.

Came 14^th February and we were back there again. We first collected the children. I and Nilmani brought a bucket of clean water, Abhilasha bought a bar of soap, the rest were entertaining the kids. Before starting, we made every kid wash their hands with soap and water. Some of them were so small! They must have been a year or two old. I'm sure they didn't realize what was being done. They didn't know how to wash their hands- Anshu washed their hands- it was a cute sight. We once again divided them into groups. The small ones went to Anshu. The not so small ones were asked to count till ten. And they were asked alphabets. Only a few knew- they went with Abhilasha. Ankit and Nilmani started teaching the rest. We had brought slates, chalks, notebooks and pens for them. We found an illegal construction in the campus, called Chilla Public School. Its kind of sad that the school will be demolished as the construction work advances. This adds another task to our list- to relocate the school, and we'll have to do it soon.

So we used the building for our purpose. Ankit hung three slates outside the school. Something like fifteen children were there. He started teaching them numbers. Nilmani and Mehreen were also there. Abhilasha took the band of bigger kids with her inside the school. Abhilasha and I taught those kids the names of the months. Two of the girls- Geeta, who we call Sonu, and Rekha were pretty good. And Rekha has a beautiful handwriting. Hemraj was another boy who had continued till class IV in Patiala, where hiis parents had been on another construction project. Manoj was the small one- he was eight years old and in the second class. We started teaching them the spellings of the months. Manoj was a bit slower than the rest. Thats when Sonu told us that he had just started learning alphabets at school. In that case, he was fast!

Along with Geeta were her two siblings, one was some two months old, and the other, Banku, must be nearly an year old. It so happened that the infant started crying and Geeta told that he would have to be left home. We allowed her. She went and Banku followed her. But Geeta was faster and Banku fell short. She started whimpering. I went after her and called her name. She looked back. I opened my arms wide and called again Banku. She turned, her cranky face lightened up at once. She opened her arms wide and walked a few steps towards me. I took her into my arms and picked her up. She was smiling once again. I roamed around a bit showing her anything I would find interesting. All she did was smile- not a moment of dissatisfaction ensued...

Another kid called Sanjay is also a part of the group. He has showed up everyday. And he is extremely naughty, and a bit disobedient too. But somehow, at some level, these kids are more mature than any of us. Another two month old that Anshu had been carrying started crying. The kids were playing at that time. Anshu was trying her best but the infant won't be comforted. Suddenly, one of the kids- Arvind, who happened to be the child's elder brother turned up and told Anshu- “Didi, Aap khelo” (Didi, you play). He took the baby and said- “Bas Bas...Koi baat nahi” and wiped her tears. the infant stopped crying. it was something amazing. On another spot was Mehreen with a couple of kids. When everyone was playing, they were insistent that they wanted to study. So we ended up giving some of the kids some assignments and notebooks.