Today was the most memorable day for Manish and me. In one of our previous blogs, I had mentioned about the mid day meal project for children from Municipal and government aided schools funded by ISKCON. Red FM had in the past 3 weeks or so been promoting it on air and had collected INR 1.5 million with an expectation of INR 2 million. Today they were hosting the midday meal (Khichdi party) at their office at Lower Parel and Malishka from Red FM had invited us to join her as one of the donors.
We reached there at 11.30 am and there was an air of festivity in the office. The children (around 20) were all sitting in the cafeteria waiting for the chief guest, Vivek Oberoi. As usual the celebrities never turn up on time. This gave us an opportunity to mingle with the children and few adults who had also donated for this worthy cause. To our surprise the children were smart and well dressed and more importantly they were able to converse in English without being embarrassed.
The staff of ISKCON including the Director was also present and the children were discussing posers for the celebrity.
Meanwhile we got talking to the staff from ISKCON and wanted to know whether these kids really deserved all this. She introduced us to the Principal of the school who told us that before they started this mid day meal the children used to come to school at 7 am and go at 1 pm without any food. Sometimes the children would not come or would not be able to concentrate because of the hunger. She would then buy vada pav and give the children. Fortunately for her she came to know about ISKCON through one of her contacts and was able to get her school enrolled for the programme. This has been going on for the past 1 year and there has been a marked improvement in the attendance and the ability of the child to grasp the knowledge imparted. This was also evident from the level of English they spoke. We also learnt about the challenges the Principal of the school faced in terms of infrastructure needs. They had few rooms for the 400+students and so the moment the next batch came, the class had to be vacated to accommodate the new batch. Then the usual challenge of books, uniforms etc.
As soon as the celebrity interview got over, the children came over to display the autograph they got. Some children had it autographed on their arms as well. The most touching moment was when they asked us to give our autographs. This feeling cannot be expressed in words.
All in all it was an experience that taught us more than what we could teach the children. They had simple pleasures in life and were making their best attempts to learn and show their skills too. Led us to believe that given an opportunity, these little minds can be channelized for the betterment of India. Contributed by Kiran Rao
