So our fragile little house of cards almost came tumbling down today. We think that maybe the children have been painting for 6 days now and they need something new to do. Art is no longer engaging their minds, except for a few like Rajkumar and Naina.
The kids today were incredibly high today. They had all sniffed inhalants (primarily whitener solution that is usually splashed all over their clothes) and refused to listen to any of us. Rajkumar was sitting away from the group at a little distance and we were OK with that. However, another gentleman who has been hanging around, observing us decided to take offense at Rajkumar’s refusal to acknowledge our presence today. We don’t know what exactly happened but it seems that this (not so gentle)man said something to Rajkumar that led to an argument between them and this man then slapped our boy. The rest of us did not notice this except Nimmi Sharma who told Shaila what had happened.
Shaila gave this man hell for daring to touch Rajkumar and asked him to not interfere in our business. I was not there at that time but I can bet Shaila was nowhere close to so much politeness so let us assume the previous statement is a gross understatement of everything Shaila would have said to this man!
But coming back to our serious issue, Rajkumar saw our late entry into the scene as apathy on our part. He said that we had been sitting as mute spectators as the man dared to beat him and accused us of acting only when we absolutely had to. Which came as a shocker, I will tell you! What was worse, he walked off and that too, with the rest of our little group of kids in his wake. Well, bloody hell!
Thankfully, Dr. Dhirendra Sharma was there and with his soothing ways, was able to bring back Rajkumar to us, again followed by the other brats in his wake! But as the weary lot of us wrapped up the day, it seemed like the kids were just going wild and all over us today. They refused to listen to any of us. A few more episodes like this and we will be asked to take our Street Smart out of Astley Hall, by the shopkeepers.
Today’s fiasco brought forth realizations and more ideas for how to proceed forth. I personally look back at the week we have spent with Street Smart and cannot help but feel that we have been just splashing and paddling around up till now. Which is OK. But having had the hang of things and the tiniest semblance of what we are up against, we are now in a position to sit down and decide our work plan.
While unstructured classes are crucial to the success of Street Smart, we also now need to start building the perimeter-framework that will set the unstructured work into something meaningful. Also, we have to introduce new activities to engage those among our bunch who are not very keen about painting.
Creativity has to be at the foundation of everything that we do and here on, we start with a firmer resolve and clearer vision to rebuild our house of cards that will withstand the fiercest of storms.
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