Smiling looks, and a warm, loud Hello! greeted me as I entered Ashraya. Me and Girish had some Santas printed out and we got enough water colors for them to paint.
Before I could finish instructing them what to do, there was a small little girl who had started coloring. She wanted to be the first person to complete, and there were bells to color too. One girl found that there are a lesser number of color-boxes and was ready to share with some of them, while another kid was insistent that she needs a color-box only for herself.
It was not the first time that I was going there. And I have been to worse places than these, in the sense, that all kids here are normal. In Mumbai, I dealt with mentally challenged kids, and on few occasions, with AIDS/Cancer infected kids. There is a superb calmness under the huge energy levels, which a kid alone can see. They are not totally unaware of their situation. But bursting a baloon with a fellow kid takes away any tension that life can think of giving them. The fact that they never did anything that should put them in that condition is something that intrigues new comers. But anyways, who said Life is fair!?
The bells were ready in no time, and it was a big discussion about how to make Santa's beard as white, as the paper itself was white. Mala colored it yellow, whereas Stephen thought no color is required on the beard.
Krishna insisted that I color for him and not others. I re-lived my childhood when my teacher patiently asked me to color between the lines, and not let the color overflow.
After the painting was done, we let it dry for sometime.
We cut the masks, and tied them with ribbons.
These kids remember every single day that we spend with them, every single dialogue we had in the past. Stephen runs to us and says we promised we'll get Popeye and not Santa!
I have some prior experience on the topic of child psychology, but nothing compares to the practical experiences we have here. All these kids were less than twelve years of age.
And to imagine that we are so much crunched for time, it was so difficult for me to find ten minutes to write this article in a hurried manner.
May their smiles be forever there!
