2. clean but slightly frayed
3. dirty
4. mouldy
5. dirty and mouldy with period stainsFrom the above you extract clothes that fall under categories 1 and 2 and well, I am not sure what you do with the others yet but I do know you don’t say thank you for the added burden of discarding them. Then comes the size sort. So you pick each article of clothing and you check for size, colour, type (shirt, trousers, salwar-kameez et al) and decide which child can wear what. Here, jeans or bottoms is almost always a problem since they all have teeny-tiny waist-sizes.
If this is the first time you are handing out clothes, well it will be an experience! After all the hard work, you will feel elated, will look forward to seeing the joy on the faces of the little cherubs and to hearing the delighted cries too. So you reach the spot with an armful of clothes and let me list hereunder, what is going to happen. All of these points will actually take place and there is a good chance they will take place simultaneously:
1. Kids will start pulling the clothes from out of your hands/vehicle/box/packet
2. Kids will start pulling your hair and tugging at your clothes to get your attention
3. Kids will start arguing among themselves and pulling clothes from one-another
4. Kids will do all of this to get that jeans or shirt they were vying for, and when they get it, try it on and then throw it on the ground since it is not “cool” enough
5. Kids will stomp over the clothes.
6. Kids will start jumping on you just for fun.
At the end of the ordeal, you will emerge, battered and shriveled and the last ray of light that at least the kids got clothes and so will be happy with you will be cruelly diminished by hostile glares with dialogues such as “aap uske liye achche kapre laye na, mere liye nahi laye” and “mereko to kuch bhi nahi mila didi” and “jao mujhe aapke school nahi aana” and “haan ussi ko zyada pyaar karte ho aap”. Oh, and the dialogues will continue until the next time clothes are handed out when another bunch of kids will start the tirade!
Tomorrow is going to be our handing out clothes day at Street Smart and we already had a bit of teaser today when we took a packet for Sunita, Rajkumar and Naina. Rajkumar’s jeans did not fit and as he combed his hair to go with the denim jacket he had just put on, he ranted about how we should have more sense than getting him a pair of size 30 jeans! Naina threw a lovely orange sleeveless jacket that we took for her and later gave it to her younger brother, therefor breaking my heart because Shaila and I had picked it out for her. Naina then took the red sequence top that we had brought for Sunita and so while we had to hear Sunita crib the whole while, we also had to hear Naina’s comments on how we got the good stuff for Sunita and the trash for her! There was also a bonus in the form of Naina’s other brother, Bhola who rattled off about how he did not get any clothes while his other brother did.
My adorable little swines! 😀
