We love Saturdays! There is so much time that the kids have to spare, all thanks to the Shani Daan practice, which enables them to earn a lot of money before Street Smart begins. For Shani Daan, the kids carry mustard oil in their begging bowls, sometimes with a metal figurine that is supposed to be the Hindu God Shiv. Shani Daan is the practice of giving metal (usually in the form of coins) on Saturdays and our kids take full advantage of this tradition!This Saturday, our superwoman Kavita came to Gandhi Park with clay for the kids to make things with. The clay was given by Luv Verma of the ceramic-beads-that-we-sold-at-Kar-Kamal-fair- fame. (If you have no idea what I am talking about click here first and then return to this page).The kids, as always unexpectedly came up with the most bizarre and the most brilliant little figurines and shapes that we later took over to the school to dry properly. Malti made a beautiful little stove with a pot on top and Gopi made beads and cherries. Adi, one of the younger kids in our group made little figures of people, then set them on a wad of clay, covered the figures with long strips of clay and declared it to be a pyre! He then kept asking for everybody to give him a matchbox so he could set the pyre aflame! We need to dig deeper into the mind of this one!This was the first time that we contemplated staying on in the park even after lunch to continue the excellent sculpting work. However, keeping in mind that the kids would not want to start working with clay again after lunch, we moved to the school that is only a few minutes away.There, we had played a traditional Indian games using five stones, and had a fine tournament with Kavita providing excellent live commentary. Until of course, two kids started a brawl and the game had to be dismissed!

To cool down the heated arguments and down-right fiery blows thrown around during the fight, we decided to finish the program with ice-creams. And just in the same special way, I will finish this post with a few pictures from the awesome Saturday.

PS- We will be painting the ceramic figures and beads today.  More photos to follow soon.