When
All Broke
Loose at
M
o
r
n
i
n
g
S
t
a
r!
Help! We have a
RIOT
on Our Hands!
I just decided on the spur of the moment to take a ride down to "Morning Star" on Sunday, 4th March 2007, not
seeing the children for some time made me fret for them as I really miss
the motley lot of coiled energy. The morning I arrived was just another
day in the life of the children, and after the usual pleasantries, we
were discussing the future of some of the brighter kids with John
and Joy and how best we could collectively help them in their hearts desire of higher education.
You know, sometime dreams can come true if you believe in them. The children
were playing somewhere in their Park as the grounds had some of the wooden
poles stacked up for the upcoming building of the first floor extension.
Suddenly a perky little yellow 'Santro' (reminded me of Herbie!) turned round the bend into the compound
of Morning Star, and out stepped the 'Software Engineers' like from the Space Shuttle! These are the girls and guys
and some of their friends who unflinchingly
spend their time on Sunday mornings teaching the children of Morning Star
(Anshul and his wife Jana, Abhay and his wife Upma, and ..., Arun (Appu) was strangely missing from the gang).
Nothing unusual
about the group getting out of the car, but on second looks the children
spotted something different that I did not as I was inside and then there was a
commotion on our hands. As these 'engineers' descended to earth out of their
'sunflower carriage', the children screamed with joy as their monotonous
morning had ended, and the war had just begun. Today, these guys and girls had come to celebrate 'holi' with "their" children.
These guys and girls were already
decked up with 'war paint' and it donned on my aging brain that it was
'Holi' the festival of 'Colour' (nothing to do with Beneton!)
and Water (Oops! Let's forget the Cauvery Issue for a day!). They were armed (literally to the teeth, or was it from head to foot!)
with handfuls of different colours and shared them with the children before
each and every one had a splash or hue of a different kind. Even I was
not spared, and so a little smudge was gracefully applied to Joy and my
forehead, adding us to the festival fun. John being smart, stayed out of harms way!
The again the 'warnings' were evident and 'uncontrollable' and we had
a pending 'Riot' on our hands, only this was not a disturbance but a 'violence of
colour', and it was a lucky chance that I was around to enjoy the
scene, and capture the joy of the children and the engineers, giving it
to each other, it did not matter if you were 'big' or 'small',
the larger you were the much easier target you became for the 'colour'
splashes, as some one had a gun! Yea man! a water spray gun, which was
used to douse others from a safe distance till one ran out of water, then
all pounced on you when you were empty and take it out on the user.
After the initial smudging of colour on all and sundry, the 'Riot'
moved to the 'Park' where the games really began. Somebody turned the pump
on and the 'aerial sprinklers' showered everyone with a light refreshing
mist spray of water, but then, someone also got hold of the hose pipe, and
that was when the 'canon' was released. Drenching was an understatement,
and all were shrunk to the skin with dripping water. Those challenged children
who could manage to get into the fray also enjoyed themselves, but the rest
stayed far because of health issues and exertion that would have been inconvenient
to them.
After more than two hours of this enjoyment, all were tired and then
some decided to go for a game of ball in the field to dry off.
|
|
Scrubbing down the colour and changing their clothes, under the eye
of John who made sure that the games stayed outside the building, else
there would have been havoc and the walls would have been defaced. The
engineers, left after really enjoying themselves, as equally or even more
than the children. You cannot explain the fun that occurred unless you were
part of it.
Even 'Rex' who ventured for a bath, was not spared, but as it was a very
hot and sunny morning, he was most comfortable with the water sprayed on
him. I think the children spared him of a colour change! Some of the Challenged
children were also given a light treatment!
Then it was a hungry wait for the children as they had worked up a fantastic
appetite with their 'holi war-games' for lunch, and then it was back to
the City (of Bangalore) for me to transfer these pictures and prepare write
this up.
Cheers
Ronnie
Return to the Morning
Star Homepage
Return to the Morning Star Homepage 2007
Return
to Visitors Pages
Go to more Visitors 2007 pages
Even Challenged
Children can have Fun!
Return to Ronnies Bangalorewalla
pages
Even 'Rex' who ventured for a bath, was not spared, but as it was a very
hot and sunny morning, he was most comfortable with the water sprayed on
him. I think the children spared him of a colour change! Some of the Challenged
children were also given a light treatment!
