Rainbow Sunshine

Festivals…! Celebration…!

Even the mere words sound so full of life. And in literal term, they do exactly that; bring LIFE to our so called ‘lives’. It’s always rejoicing to celebrate these joyous occasions with our friends & families around. The rejuvenation brought up by them fuels our enthusiasm and propel us to thrive towards our dreams. But amidst all this polish; there remains a disheartening reality. The truth of the millions around who are underprivileged; particularly, the ones who are bereaved of their parents, the ones who were abandoned by their families; the lone souls who deserve to be accompanied along.

On this auspicious day of merry making, the festival of colours HOLI! , AnantAman Social Welfare Society decided to infuse joy into the lives of these kids with a splash of colours. To add colours to their otherwise achromic world, the members & volunteers, filled with joviality, went to ‘PremRaj Seva Samiti’ - an orphanage in the vicinity of SuryaDev Nagar.

While approaching down the road; I could descry innocent kids, some standing at the façade of the building, some on the stairs, while others on the terrace. Filled with zeal & a tankful of enthusiasm, eager to play the colours.

As we entered the orphanage premises, the children lit up with the shades of glitter in their eyes & wore a million dollar smile on their bright faces. The greeting “Happy Holi” in unison enchanted the atmosphere. The scenario there left us enthralled by the warmth of welcome dipped in innocence, in spite of the irredeemable vacuity in their life.

In order to mingle well with them, we gathered on the terrace. The tents setup by us shaded from the burning Sun. We opted for an eco-friendly Holi celebration avoiding water misuse. With different hues of herbal Gulaal, we tried enriching their arid life with colours. As soon as we had the colours out, there was a sudden alacrity in children hither & thither. The little palms – seeking for a helping hand to hold them - with a handful of colours just came by to beautify us with the rainbow of ecstasy. It felt like family, not stranger anymore. An ambience of gaiety was created and everyone was enjoying the festival of colours. They had appreciable demeanour and were full of etiquettes. They chanted a few prayers before diving into the act of eating. Though less fortunate, but they understand that someone’s watching over them right from the sky. Past the festive meal, colours felt even livelier and everyone enjoyed every bit of it.

Playing Holi with them was a euphoria that left us in a lovely nostalgia; where we would like to be again & again. We discovered a new satisfaction by bringing smiles on the faces of many. Though their loss is completely immutable, but we tried our bit to efface it by pouring down colours of happiness into their lives. The very act of benevolence makes us feel sanctified deep in our heart, right from inside. It’s just one of the many inchoative steps by our NGO towards the upliftment of secluded part of the society. Spreading smiles to those who deserve it more than anyone else, nurturing ample happiness in the life of the benighted children; all these definitely appease your soul to the core.

We hope that, “we make a difference to their lives and build a better tomorrow for them”.

“Spread smile, share happiness, fill colours to life”

-Vaibhav Kashyap

Temple milkmen reach street!

As I walk past the barren yet fertile streets of my city, I see the nascent life breath in the crowd atmosphere surrounded by souls sharing a similar feeling. On the auspicious occasion of ‘Maha Shivratri’ I got this great opportunity to have a closer look towards the covert side of the society. As we all marched to the place, with beautiful rain clouds outside, we saw nature’s innocence in its purest form.

The first place was hidden in a very remote part of the city. As we all went down the road, it was getting much difficult to imagine a place of foster in midst of the bland surrounding. The roads were narrower, the streets got little quiet, the cattle occupied more space than the heavy vehicles and the most eerie part of the whole picture was the fiasco garbage exhibition.

We all went inside the two storeys house where i could see children wriggling around with celerity and extreme happiness. They could see our crowd coming loaded with milk bottles. It was our mission to offer them milk on the pious occasion of ‘Maha Shivratri’. Initially they were every energetic, thus they called us all to join in when they were playing around. Most of us choose to sit by and watch them all. Their innocence, agility, zeal was above all truly captivating. On top of that they appeared well dressed, healthy and their eyes had that sparkling fire of passion, I couldn't help myself being a paparazzi. Later when they all agreed to settle down, we all learned how most of the kids ended up living in that foster home. Everyone had a unique story, some kid’s parents were not capable of taking care of their children financially, some left them and never returned, some were the children of nomads who wanted their kids to lead a better education and facilities in short they want their children to the see the better half of the world they deserve to live in. The best part of the whole scenario is, not all of them were orphans, in fact their parents were bold and assertive enough to draw their kids out of their penurious situation in order to let them groom under much safer and developed humanitarian. The children of ‘PremRaj Seva Samiti’ get proper education, food, facilities and funds from society and various other sources, which help them fabricate a better vision of the world they seek. The kids are equally jovial and candid.

The only problem which was limpidly clear was the mismanagement of the locality. From the roof top I could see rack pickers trying to hunt down the plastic bags in search of anything they could use. There was plenty of perennial trash spread across the whole field, and to get rid of the fat queen appeared a very quandary situation. Sanitation problem is not new for Indore disaster charts, government needs to stand out and take some serious measures to make our surroundings bit hygienic or odour able for that matter.
As we started distributing the milk bottles, the small ones accepted them with great generosity. The awareness of humanitarians and orphanages have grown over time, people are more enthusiastic and eager to help the young future of our country. One last game with the kids and it was time for the coup to march for the destination.

The orphanage we visited next was in a more sanguine area. Well this orphanage had a different story. It is called ‘Armaan Child Care’ and the building was probably older than it seemed. It was about eve, so kids were bit dormant after playing around. As we hopped in with the milk bottles, they quietly sat down on the mat, waiting till each one had received it. The management there narrated a completely discreet story about the children there. The orphanage had many missing list kids whose parents were looking for them. Some parents left them behind in hurry after treatment in the government hospital nearby. Some were left by mistake at various other places of the city and many more. Their faces revealed the grief of perversity they hid inside their hearts. The kids who were successful in giving the correct details about their parents to the authorities, their parents were informed and thus the problem was solved. Out of the bunch there were kids who disagreed to reveal their parent’s identity. It’s still unknown, why they don’t want the people to know from where they came from. A part of the situation can be framed in such a way that ‘they don’t really want to go back home’. Who knows what they have faced back then which stops their steps from returning back, or maybe they fell safer at a place with strangers sharing a similar emotion. We often find home at places like these. But it sure remains a mystery are homes still not safe enough for the little ones. Our society has many secrets to be revealed and yet time waits for the ray of hope to reach the darkest places. All we can do is keep this burning endeavour of helping out the fragile section of the society as long as we can, as long as we must.

As we winded up for the day, I could see them all playing again in the night sky, but this time the eyes glittered as they counted stars. Who knows someone’s watching them from the above writing a better future of these lost innocent souls.

-Views of an volunteer who participated at our event.
-Soumya Sharma.