What can I say about pure affection, happiness and a feeling of pride in themselves, in the face of the most devasting and abject poverty? I experienced both today when I visited Hada Mohalla with Sister Aleyamma.
The affection of the children was so spontaneous, it brought tears to my eyes. Some of them brought me roses from the plants growing in their yards - I love flowers, so immediately put them in my hair, much to the delight of the little ones. Pathetically poor as they are, they made the effort to wash their faces, tie up their knotted hair, and wear what they thought was fitting to attend their school - a small balwadi. There were worn mats on the floor, but they happily took their slates from a shelf, a tiny piece of chalk and sat down on the mat. They have two teachers who assist the Sister-in-charge. School started with a song and a prayer. 2 blackboard-of-sorts rested upright on two benches and children who had a problem were told to come to the board where the teacher helped set their doubts at rest. Some wrote numbers, some wrote the letters of the alphabet. A couple of the older ones did their Arithmetic on the boards.
Then they sang, and were given biscuits. The minute the biscuits were being distributed, a few more children trickled in, as a result the biscuits ran short. Once again I couldn't believe what I was seeing - the older ones went without so that the younger ones could have the biscuits - and I'm not even talking cookies - just plain small ordinary biscuits (thanks to our economy, the size of the biscuits has become smaller for the same cost). As the children studied, I looked about outside.
Open drains line the road-of-sorts and pigs roam about.....yes, pigs roam about....
In total contrast there was this man opposite the balwadi who was focused on doing his puja to the picture of gods put up on his door frame.
Can you imagine this roof when it rains?
Happily studying and doing action songs!
After the children left, the women came in -
Sister wanted me to talk with them - I did my best - telling them not to discrimminate between their girl children and boy children, to make sure the precious girls get some form of education so that they can stand on their feet.....I also told them to form a small group and see what they can do to earn a little money working out of their homes...I gave them the example of this lady I'd seen on a street in Sihora - Mamata - she had set up a small roadside shop - she said she gets a selection of beads from Jabalpur, and strings them whichever way you tell her to....thus making a little pin money. They were listening and I hope and pray they too can come up with something. What hurt was the despair and hopelessness in the eyes of some of them....
We then went to Naya Mohalla, to another balwadi. This Sister runs 3 balwadis. This was a better building and the lady who holds the fort was a very dignified lady. Right now the government is running its anganwadi program from the Ashram building - so Sister's children come early morning for their lessons. Sister said that no matter how difficult it was to get children to come to school regularly, during Christmas time, there would be full attendance and what was the attraction - the Christmas program!!! There would be the Nativity play and other small performances by the children. This was the highpoint of their little lives!
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Above left is a lake. Seen in the setting sun, it looks gorgeous.
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