A lesson from the children

Once a year we, belonging to Oracle, celebrate our effort and contribution to the needy world in form of Global Volunteers’ day. As a part of the same, we participate in certain events meant to help those who deserve in a way we could. This includes programs meant for environment, special and underprivileged children, elders ones and other such important segments of the society. One is free to choose the program he/she wishes to enroll into and then a lead for the program volunteers, who is responsible for ensuring that all arrangements including schedules are made.

This year I participated in the program involving a children’s home called ‘Nele Akash Kirana’. It is a small children home run by an NGO for uplift ment of those children who have no other place to call their homes. The care includes everything that the children need starting from shelter above their heads to education to brighten their minds.

On saturday, the 19th of September, 11 of us congregated at one of our office buildings on Bannerghatta road near Shoppers Stop, changed into our GVD T-shirts (Red in colour with community printed on it, reminding us of the end objectives of our mission), we started our journey in a couple of cars and motor bike. Most of us were meeting each other for the first time as we were from different office locations and from different divisions of Oracle. But it hardly took us a couple of minutes of introduction to get to the feeling of having known each other for years.

Though there was slight set back that the timings which we had decided, could not be synchronized well with the children as some of them were out for some other activities. But nonetheless, a group of seven children were waiting for us with 27 more to join us in half an hour, once their other activities get over. Waiting for the children travelling back to join us was not a concern as we had enough time at our hands but we needed to keep the children in front of us involved in some activities so that their vigor does not gets subsided.

“Passing the ball” got the ball rolling. Children were very enthusiastic and quite confident in performing in front of the strange faces of ours. Eager to show off their talents, they kept on looking at me (i was playing the music to decide who gets the chance to perform) with yearning eyes and hesitant in letting the ball go off their hands. From ’Ganesh stuti’ to rhymes (Johnny Johnny) to dance, it was sheer pleasure for them to be   apart of the performance and to give to their best.

One of the girls (Lavanya) was sitting in a corner as she had met an accident some time back and had her leg in cast. Her inability to move around freely and enjoy as the others in the group made her feel sad and her wish to be there – where the action is – was quite evident. One of us picked her up in his arms and brought her to the active group and arrangements were made for her to participate in the enjoyment without getting hurt. Without wasting a moment, she was into action, brightening the room with spreading smile. singing and dancing was followed by ’building blocks’ and a scaled down version of bowling. Then started the game of ‘blindfold chasing’. What surprises us was when we used to play such games, we used to ensure our best not to be caught by the chaser giving him a tough time. Here the scene was totally in contrast. Everyone wanted to be the one to be blindfolded and hence making herself available to the chasers to grab. The desire reached to an extent that one of the girls got herself  blindfolded with an additional piece of cloth and jumped in between the game, resulting in two blind folded persons finally grabbing each others.

Blindfold chase

As the other kids walked in, we started painting competition. enterprize of the kids were remarkable. We expected most of them to follow the standard template (a hut, with hill, rising sun, palm tree and flying birds as background. But what was in store was creativity at its best. starting from the mundane ‘cat, rat and me’ stuff, it went to strutured houses and detailed landscapes. in absence of scales, crayon boxes were used to drwa straight lines. Absence of model was filled in by the picture on crayon boxes. The most surprising was a girl using white crayon pencil to paint her drawing on a white sheet. But oblivious of all our gazes, she went on unabated and presented a well composed picture of some animal in multi-coloured skin.

 

While the judges were having tough time in finding out the best of the lot, we embarked onto the challenge of quiz and antakshari.   Even the small kids can recognize him, seeing half his face.  memory, cognition and mathematical skills were at stake for the quiz while their vocal and singing prowess to be showcased during antakshari.  One thing is evident: Sachin Tendulkar can give a run for his money to anyone in india when it comes to popularity.

At the end, everyone, everyone was joyous, irrespective of being on the winning side of the competion or not.

When we decided to wrap up the event with photography, canines of the house were so eager to participate that we had a tough time keeping them at bay.

 

With the sips of tea, the care takers and teachers said thanks to us, which should have been other way round. All of us were really impressed by their dedication in bring up the children and making them feel at home, ensuring they get taught and trained for the real world they have to face.

One thing that these kids teach us “How to remain happy and give the best, even when in unfavorable circumstances”.  Thanks for the lesson kids!

~ by Prashant Singh on September 21, 2009.