Celebrating Ma's birthday

It was Ma's birthday yesterday. She would have been 61. When I try to imagine her but obviously I see a face that is etched in my mind from 9 years ago. Young, smiling and a happy face. Probably by now she would have had a few gray strands in her long hair. A few wrinkles here and there. And when I try to imagine her like this I smile. :)

So like every year, I went to the Blind school to celebrate Ma's birthday along with my Mama as Appa is not in town. Appa organizes lunch every year this day. Every time I go there I come back even more awed looking at these kids and adults. And every time I go there some incident happens that makes me smile and laugh.

As I stepped in the school courtyard I could hear some beautiful classical music being sung and some one playing tabla wonderfully. I looked around and saw the sign of music room on a door. I was so tempted to peep in but then I thought it won't be a good idea to disturb the class.

Yesterday, as we were waiting outside the dining hall waiting for the lunch bell to ring, one kid was approaching the eating area. Just then one of the kitchen staff rang the bell. And when this bell ringer turned around, this boy was just at the entrance. He giggled and said "Aapne bell bajayee aur main aa bhi gaya! Dekha mera jadoo!" and he walked inside to take his seat while still giggling. :)

Soon all the kids started streaming in and we kept telling each one to wash their hands before taking a seat. For the first time yesterday I saw 2-3 very little boys in the school. They would have been the same age as Anirudh. And I felt a lump in my throat seeing them. They were not even able to reach upto the wash basin. So I helped them wash their hands. I had tears welling up in my eyes when I was washing their soft baby hands thinking why? Why? Why? Here is a pic of one of them -

Then me and Mamaji laid down their plates and bowls. Then we served them matar paneer, kashifal subzi with pooris and rice kheer as dessert. Its amazing to see most of them eating with such deftness without making a mess. Some kids liked kashifal and some didn't. Some ate kheer and some didn't. But all of them relished the matar paneer.

Since the last time I saw major changes in the school. They had built a big dining area so that all the kids can eat in one go instead of two shifts that used to happen earlier. It was much more neater and cleaner and airy. The kitchen was also much bigger and had ample natural light streaming in.

So to summarise, we walked out happy and satisfied after the lunch was over.

Celebrating Ma's birthday at the blind school!

Every year on this day Appa sponsors the lunch at the blind school on the Panchkuian Road, New Delhi (near connaught place) to celebrate Ma's birthday! So we go there and serve food to the children.

It is such a nice feeling to see them enjoying something as basic as 'matar paneer' and going 'wow' over it. I said basic because that's how we feel about it. But not them. For them its something really special. Seeing them relishing the matar paneer, boondi raita, bhindi and roti gave us such a satisfaction. Whenever we would serve them something, most of them would without fail would say 'Thank you" so sweetly and sometimes in a sing-song tone. And that's when I felt, its worth it! Worth everything.

Since the lunch room is not large enough to feed all the members/children in one go, there are 2 shifts. In the second shift, as I was serving a boy of about 12-14 yrs, I saw that he suddenly smiled and said "Kya hua chhotu?" I wondered who he was talking to and looked around. I saw a little boy of about 5-6 yrs of age walking in the lunch room. He followed the voice of the elder boy and reached him. I think the little boy sensed me standing close to him and in a low tone said something to the older one. The elder one grinned from ear to ear and stood up and hunched towards the little boy and told him to speak in his ear. The little boy said something and the elder one replied "Aata hoon!" and then the little one shyly went away. And then I happened to glance at Appa who was also looking at these boys talking and was smiling. Appa and me just looked at each other and smiled. And thats when I felt that these children are no different than us!

This was the first time I took Anirudh to this place. I had told him that we will go and give party to some children because of Nani's birthday. But I guess I should have told him more about these children because he was getting a bit uncomfortable seeing them behaving a bit differently. I did try and tell him that they cannot see because they got hurt in the eyes. He nodded as if he understood but I do not really know how much he did!