At the start of Street Smart, we had decided that we would set school five days a week initially since we had only five people as part of the project. But since tomorrow (Sunday, Jan 09) is the official inauguration, we did not want a break before tomorrow so we went to Astley Hall for a brief period of time today. I got so engrossed drawing with awesome new pencil colours that Shaila & Neelu brought in that I forgot to click any pictures today!
We had a whole bunch of kids with us today so the table was crowded and not enough for all of us! I will take a moment to mention that our table is kept at a shop adjoining Mc Donald’s, called Standard Confectionery and to tell the very nice man there that we think he is great even though he does not let our kids step inside his shop, do drop in and say a hello and thank you!
The kids’ mothers also came today in large numbers. These women again are from Parade Ground though I am not too sure about this piece of information. They swarmed around us as we had bought 20 samosas instead of lunch since we were not going to stay for a very long time. But soon, we had a huge crowd of mommies and kids gathered there, most of who wanted only the samosas.
So Shaila & Neelu held an impromptu meeting with them after shouting “Ye Langar nahi hai” for about fifteen minutes, while I happily sketched the President hotel’s building under the sun with the awesome new colour pencils on the side, blissfully unaware of the chaos Shaila was dealing with! My bubble was burst by a thoroughly frustrated Shaila who bellowed “oyi” and I rushed to her side to help with the translations so that my friend and the group of ladies gathered there could understand each-other better. It was explained to the women and children that the program intended to teach them and that we had no problems feeding them as long as they took interest in learning!
All through the day, there was painting and a little discussion about tomorrow’s program. We will meet the kids at 9:30 tomorrow morning, from where we will all walk down to the shelter to give them all a nice, hot bath before the program that is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
Big day tomorrow! 🙂
