A rendezvous with hope

One fine Sunday evening Vikram and I headed for Abraham's Orphanage to give away some of our clothes. We met the owner's wife, a Manipuri lady called Mercy. Well, a very kind lady indeed with a befitting name!
She told us that her husband Abraham, who had gone out for some work, and herself have been supporting the kids (15 in total) for the past two years. The kids belong to different age categories and are studying in different classes ranging from 4th standard to 10th standard!
When we went inside we were greeted with 'good evening brother and good evening sister' wishes and smiles from the wonderful bunch of angels. On Mercy's request, all the kids introduced themselves one by one and sang a beautiful song with one of the kids strumming the guitar.
Later on, after interacting with the kids we got to know their hobbies, their familiarity with Bangalore and their ambition in life. We couldn't stop smiling in amusement when two of the 4th standard kids said they wanted to be Ms. World!! There were also aspiring software engineers, football players, air hostesses, astronauts et all.
We had a lovely time sipping cold drinks and eating chocolates with the kids after praying and thanking God for the goodies made available to us . And I must confess that it was the first time I ever expressed my gratitude to the almighty in a song before eating.
Abraham and Mercy are both from Manipur and not surprisingly all the kids are also from the North Eastern part of India. I have always found something very different and special about the people from the North Eastern part of India. One will find them every where in India and there is this distinct something in each one of them that makes them stand out in a crowd. That distinct somethin is not just external but somewhere deep down in them that gives them the strength to fight all odds with an attitude that most of us would want to adopt and a smile that most of us lose when faced with circumstances. The visit to this orphanage was a true manifestation of their inner strength and positive energy.
I found the same zest for life and the positive energy in this bunch of 15 kids who have stars in their eyes and are limited only by resources but definitely not by their imagination. Their current lifestyle is modest but guided by a very high level of discipline. Simple living and high living in the real sense of the word.
Abraham and mercy have managed to give hope and courage to these kids to dream for a better life. They are giving them education and making them capable of fending for themselves . And how do they manage funds? Well they are open to contributions from the Church and volunteers. Contributions could be in any form. Volunteers have come forward with clothes, food, money etc to help these kids. the kids have had volunteers coming on weekends to take them out around like Lalbagh, Bannergata National Park etc.
Abraham and Mercy's orphanage is very close to Adugodi signal near Vijaya Bank. They are open to receiving contributions from volunteers for the children. For those of you interested in offering help - there is a Face Book page dedicated to this place of hope called 'Abraham's Orphanage'. Click on the link below to access their website!
Website : http://www.abrahamsorphanage.com/

Worn Out

I have this strange attachment with clothes. I not only like to acquire new ones but also am pretty bad at discarding the old ones. Some memory, some hope or some other emotion makes me hold on to the old stuff. I would have continued to do that had it not been for the lack of space. In our three BHK house where every room is blessed with a wardrobe - Vikram (my husband) gets to use just one rack and has enough to accommodate more. While I use all the other racks plus the luggage bags and the extra wooden wardrobe and the lofts and I still have clothes outside.
So finally after a lot of reasoning inside about how attachment to materialistic things like clothes is superficial and how once should always accommodate new things and let go of the past to make space for new experiences - I finally decided to discard some of my clothes which I do not (read cannot) wear because of various reasons like change in fashion, having outgrown them both in style as well as size etc.
I spent one entire day going through each and every shirt, t-shirt, jeans, skirt etc to see if there is even a slightest of possibility in the future that I may want to wear it. I segregated the ones that were a sure shot discard case. Then I got on to segregate the pile which had items that I would want to or may need to wear. Well that was the most difficult part.
I tried and re-tried some of the outfits to finally decide whether they should be given up or kept aside for future use.
At the end of the exercise I had a huge pile of clothes to be given away. I was happy because it just meant more space for my new clothes!!
Now the question was what should be the fate of these clothes. Well that's when charity struck and I felt like giving them away to a nearby orphanage.
Vikram and I headed for Abraham's Orphanage to execute the kind thought. And boy! Was it an experience of its kind or what! More about it in my next blog :) 

Driving me crazy

I had always wanted to learn to drive. The feeling just got stronger with age. My first experience of driving was in my dad's car. I had gotten myself enrolled for a course where a person from the driving school would come in his battered car every morning for an hour and a half lesson.
After about 7 of these classes I assumed I had learnt to drive. One evening on our way back from a temple I decided to lay my hands on my dad's car. There was a driver who said he would take care if anything went wrong. My dad decided to move back , I occupied the driver's seat and the driver hopped into the passenger's seat.
I could sense the tension in the car as Mr. Father started perspiring and Mrs. mother started praying. I turned on the engine and luckily it was a smooth start- which is supposed to be the most difficult part. I made my way through the traffic while closely missing a few things on the way which only my father noticed. There was this constant 'watch out!!!'; 'be careful!!!'; 'slow down!!' and a lot of huffing and puffing in the rear seat!!
Well I managed to cover most of the distance and the destination was very close that's when a scooter fellow decided to brush past me and lose his balance. But luckily he put his foot down before biting the dust!
There were a lot of people who had gathered and were giving me advices that I didn't think I needed. And Mr. Father - well he was fuming and frothing. He jumped out of the car not to check if anyone was hurt but to see for himself if the car was scratched!!
Till date I firmly believe that God was on my side for the car was unhurt and so were the people involved. That day marks the end of my first attempt at driving!!
Determination thy name is Roy or so I would like to believe because I did manage to learn driving and have been driving safely for the past two years now. Irrespective of the proud feeling that I experience every time I turn the ignition on and drive away to work - I wouldn't call myself an expert. But yes, one thing that I know for a fact is that driving doesn't drive me [ or Mr. father , for that matter ] crazy any more!!