THE SEASON OF GIVING

This is the season of giving. There is a sense of happiness and probably because it is close to being the start of a new year, there is a certain sense of generosity. Forgive and carry on, so to speak. It is also very colourful, with bedecked Christmas trees, shining and reflecting a lot of sparkly light. I can only speak for Hyderabad, but everyone is participating.

And lending light and joy and a moment of happiness is exactly what Cherish Orphanage for Boys and Girls along with Sujai A Persa Adla Trust did on Friday afternoon. The room near the peadiatric ward was teeming with people. the volunteers from Cherish were putting up balloons and setting up their equipment for they were to sing later. There were a lot of wires. And many volunteers, both girls and boys walked around, helping where ever they could, including fetching chairs for the visitors, who were children from the paediatric ward at the MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre.  

These are children below the age of 15 and Dr Nirmala, RMO of the hospital says they have had patients as young as one year old. The attendant of the patient brought them in. A few of them had to be carried. Some of them were morose and even a dance on the stage could not get a smile from them. The effect of medication and pain, probably. Some young children simply walked on their own, cheerful, active and much recovered, though they all had a canna stuck on their hands for further medications. Many of them had lost their hair to chemotherapy but carried their head high.

But as Dr Nirmala mentioned in her thank you speech that these 20 minutes brought a lot of pleasure in the lives of the patients and their attendants. Facing a tough situation on a daily basis, this event though chaotic brought in lots of smiles and laughter. Some of the young ones were simply happy to be with their parent, watching and enjoying.

There was one game of passing the ball and oh, it transformed the hall. Soon, the anticipation started for the music to stop and the curiosity of how the child would perform. But David, who was the emcee for the evening, decided to make the audience participate and in that small room, it meant all the attendants. While laughing at the jokes and being with the people did not bother them, they were startled when asked to perform. Some refused point blank, while others wanted God to bless all those suffering along with her child. 

There were happy items like when Vigneshwar decided to tell a story. Loud, clear till he started the story, but he got the audience from the word go. And then Gopal wanted to sing a song which he had written for his friend Ritish. Very touching.

Music has the ability to get everyone together, but yesterday it was brought together by David Subramaniam, Praveen and Vasundhara. There was love and generosity and happiness all around. A tad heart rending but the blue ball and laughter took over.

Thank you all.

And to get you all off the morose mood, let us be grateful with what God is doing. Surely, he knows best. For this is  also the season when the hand carts are full of hari boot, those on the shrub and those removed from the shrub and packed for one to eat (these are green channas, which can be roasted, boiled or simply eaten raw). As a growing girl, this was my favourite pastime. I would sit in the sun, with a newspaper to catch the peels and a book in my hand. I do not remember how many worms I must have eaten because I was more interested in reading than watching the content of the pod. Don't judge me, eating hari boot is like that. 

The hand carts also full of singhadas, those black-as-the-soul thingummies. Then the vendor cracks them for you and you eat the cooked kernel inside. Delicious and probably a tad more expensive than gold. But you can eat quite a few at one sitting, not minding the black stain. The raw ones are also available once in a while, with the green cover, slightly slimy and the inside when cracked open, smelling of water and crisp to the bite. Great for salads that is if you can leave them alone.  

I am grateful.