I now have only three weeks left of my visit to Brighter Future India.

The children are anxiously waiting for Director Uncle to announce the date of the picnics. The Rainbow Children always go first and Karuna Nivas, Prem Nivas and Shanti Nivas follow about a week later. We have to hire a big coach to take the children to the sea side. The price negotiations and booking must be done first.
I was invited to a birthday party - Durga's, so I am at Prem Nivas again for a few days.Brighter Future children's birthdays are celebrated with a cake and some children get presents from their sponsors. Indian birthdays, festivals and auspicious days are usually celebrated with

giving, rather than receiving. People buy  friends and colleagues sweets when they have good news,etc.


  I take the opportunity to check what needs repairing on the bikes and generally around the campus, as well as catch up with the children's news and progress.

The current  favourite sport seems to be volleyball so  Hari and Janaki  have  re-painted the badminton lines and added   'junior' size volleyball court markings.They are asking for a net and a volleyball too.Last week we bought them badminton cocks.

In the afternoons the fifth year of our primary school are revising their mouse control using the Paint programme and the second year children are seeing a few story CD's of fables and fairy tales on my laptop.The youngest children watch and learn nursery rhymes while I am at Prem Nivas.


To welcome me back the inverter for the dining hall, sick room and  my room had ceased to function and had to be sent for servicing. Luckily the guest room  had power and I moved in there for a few hours to have a nap with the air conditioning unit. It is 29C (84F) in the daytime and 13C (55F) at night here in Prem Nivas. My room has an asbestos sheet roof so it gets quite uncomfortable in the afternoons.

Balama Aunty and Satya

The other week Kalyani mamma, Ballama aunty and  Gowri, our teacher, joined in the gardening and proved to be splendid agriculturalists, rapidly clearing away weeds, digging and spreading compost..

Kalyani mamma  weeding and sunita carrying thee weeds away on her head. Prasanna looks on 

Tomorrow,Sunday, the children are off school so  we are going to try and make a couple of new beds for more vegetable growing.  The grass and weeds have to be cleared from the ground that has not been cultivated for years. After removing the grass the  ground has to be watered and digging can begin.

Watering the far beds is a concerted effort to avoid the existing plants.

Fire buckets have other uses!

Nagamani, Giri and Govind, carrying well rotted buffalo compost to the garden.

The picnic dates have been announced. Rainabow children on 16th Feb and PN, Kn and Sn on 9th!