Here is a rule (maybe Murphy’s) that will always hold true in our work: Everything pertaining to a celebration or a big occasion will be planned at the very last minute.Holi was on Sunday, March 20 and on Thursday we wonder what we are to do to celebrate the fun festival that all our kids are so excited about. We could not NOT do anything for Holi and so after a few frantic phone calls, our saviour in such and other matters- Dr. Arun Kumar tells us about a farm/wedding point up on Mussoorie Road whose owners have kindly offered us use of their premises to play Holi at, and offered tea and refreshments for our kids from both projects.The scheduled time for our party was 4 and after a few (routine) delay, we were all gathered at the sprawling, lovely lawns of the wedding point by 5 p.m. The children were very very happy and went wild as expected, though even in their running around and playing games Shaila and I were amazed to see they were extremely well-behaved.Of course, our poor hosts would probably and indignantly demand to differ. Turns out, “extremely well behaved” is a relative term and varies especially among people who do and do not work with street children and slum children! On getting the invite to the wedding point, we jumped at the opportunity when we should have met with the hosts in advance to get them acquainted with the reality of our children. Let me say this here: Our children are not delinquents but there is a certain way of dealing with them that does not necessarily sit well with our traditional adult-child relationship.

But at the end of it all, our kids had an incredible time and that is what matters to us! A few photos from the day: