I tried to commemorate the happenings upside down to the
best of my memory.
In a
slight confusion, either to curse the design of the omnipresent omnipotent
looking at the miniature kids who were left with His love alone or to praise
Him to be present in few lovely humanitarians to save this minuscule angels
from all the readymade traps available in the society, I stood alone, after
everybody left Bethel home, waiting for Jaishree to finish her class and drop
me in bus stop contemplating everything that has happened since the idea of
getting new dresses for kids had its inception.
Few kids came running to me as if they know me for years and dragged me
to join their game.
We formed two teams and I loved
when all the little ones wanted to be in my team. Somehow I managed to form two teams and
searched for one among them that at least reached to my waist in height to
nominate her as captain. And my captain
explained me the game, I nodded in agreement even though I understood the game
my least. The game started.
My captain walked to team
mates, one by one sitting, clutched their hair pulled their head down to her
side and said something in their ears.
In my urge to know what she is whispering in their ears, I waited
impatiently and my turn came. I thought she would not clutch my hair since I am
the elder most and tallest among them, meanwhile I am thinking, a hand held my
hair tight, pulled and whispered “Mango” in my ear. Oh God! I know this game, I understood the
game. Each team as to select an entity
say fruits, flowers etc., and every team mate will be named correspondingly,
that is why she whispered “Mango” in my ear, and the captain will reach the
other team, choose one of them and close their eyes to call out a name, say a
fruit name, so that her team mate who holds that name will go reach them and
pinch the nose of the opponent and will go back to their place (My captain
strictly said not to pinch but only touch for those miniatures will cry when
pinched, even slightly). The game goes
on this way as the person has to find who has touched their nose from the
opponent team.
When my turn came I reached out
my opponent and pinched her nose very slightly and returned to my place. Immediately after my captain took her hands
from my opponent’s eyes, without even thinking for a second, she pointed her
finger at me. When asked how she
identified that it is me, she said ‘you pinched my nose and nobody else here
will do that” and laughed. ‘Brilliant
little ones’ I thought.
I have played this game very
long back when I was a miniature and those kids brought it to my memory as if
my brain had had prenatal memory.
We played yet another game
before this; the catcher will catch as many as she can and arrest them inside a
circle and the others has to come touch them to release them from the
circle. Oh, I ran as fast as possible,
thought the catcher could not catch me, I could not withstand before their
stamina and enthusiasm and was caught finally, but I loved it when the other
little honey bunches tried very, very hard to escape me out of the circle. At the end of the game everybody surrounded
me to give me a hug. O! Lovely feel it
was.
And this little angel, Radha, I knew not the reason but
she felt very comfortable with me and hugged me whenever I went near her. She was sad and literally cried when I bid
her goodbye.
Somebody told me; to love or
care any girl you need to look at her with the eyes of her father, and I felt euphoric
when she hugged me and hanged out on me.
May be, it could be intense between a father and daughter.
Mixed with love and blessings
of all those who contributed, we presented them the dresses. The happiness that
we saw in their faces is like as if their parents turned to them and presented
them the dresses. Their smiles gave
meaning to the call ‘Adopt a child for a day’; we did justice for the kindness
of all those who responded for the call.
Within minutes a few little honey
bunch went inside and came back colorfully in their new dress. The first comment I heard from someone
standing behind me is ‘perfect size’ (credit goes to Nisha, Revathi and kutty
Revathi). Eyes those missed that colors
on those kids, which they presented with a blend of smile and joy, have missed
the joy of looking into the most wonderful kaleidoscope of the world. God could have been little more concerned
about those wonders to make them stay with their families instead of making
them an unclaimed kaleidoscope.
Before we presented the dresses
and sweets they sang songs for us from bible and it is marvelous to experience
such coordination.
I felt Siragugal has become
more like a family and the visits we do are like family gathering where we
cherish the togetherness. I felt happy
to see Venkat and Raja with their family being along with them feels like meeting
close relatives after a long time ( since we met in Gnanadarshan home for
visually challenged girls last month)
Aha! And there came the ladies,
Nisha, Revathi and kutty Revathi (who reached the home before time), they were
the three who took care really to pick up right dresses in right size for those
little angels. During the selection I
and Sriraman (the originator of the idea of new dresses for kids) could not
convince them with any choices of us (most of the time we were wrong in size)
and with the time (no matter how late they sustained searching for right
size). Kutty Revathi has to reach home
early but it was 10.30pm when we finished our purchase and to my wonder she
didn’t show a slight change in her face and Nisha, she said that it’s her
wedding anniversary while returning from our purchase at 11.00pm. ‘Theresa of Cashedge’ Sriraman mentioned
sometimes back in one of the Siragugal’s meeting about Nisha that moment
flashed in my mind when she said that. And Revathi; I could not measure her
enthusiasm, even late at night, in picking up the colorful Salwars. Without
them, I know, this could have been a toughest job to be accomplished.
When I entered Bethel home I saw Mohanraj and his fiancée
interacting with those kids. I was on
cloud nine when they recognized me and said ‘Hi’. The minutes went more interestingly when they
performed individually as we were waiting for others to join us.
I could commemorate what have
happened on that day but could not really contemplate any of those kinds of
homes being present under the sun for they have people who stay look like macro
piece of diamonds left out during a cut, though precious sadly they are thrown
away. I have suffered from home sickness
when I stayed far away from my family and literally cursed God when I ran out
of money but here I saw kids praying for the life (as an orphan!) He gave, for
the food they get and for the love they miss.
Typical design! Though, makes me
believe God exist (in the form of love).
And
again a very special thanks to the contributors who responded magically super
fast when asked to “adopt a child for a day”.