India's Republic Day, January 26th, is celebrated all over the country as a bank holiday. Children may go to school just for a special flag hoisting ceremony and maybe a speech or two by a visiting dignitary. Indeed Our High School children dressed in their best white uniforms went along for their school ceremony but were soon back to join in our little event.
Here at Prem Nivas we are very fortunate in having a young lady teacher, Ramya, and her training college friends and sisters, who are pleased to make Republic day a special one for our children. They arranged a splendid event last year so I was relieved that they willingly agreed to again give the Prem Nivas children their time and energy, along with gifts,decorations and lots of love.
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| Ramya with her friends and relations |
The evening before Ramya arrived and arranged games and drawing competitions, mostly in the dark.
We told her that Sampath had bought a new bamboo pole for us and that we would decorate it in the national colours and make some arrangement for its installation - a bucket of sand with a few rocks proved to be fine. Our existing flag was very small and Ramya insisted on buying a larger one for us.
The next morning our teacher, Mr Venkat, was given the job of connecting the flag and wrapping it in the traditional bundle, so that when the string is pulled, the flag unfurls and orange flower petals float down to the ground.
Ramya and her family and friends arrived at 9.30 and set about making a special chalk and flower decorations for the foot of the flagpole. Children helped gathering leaves and petals and each had a little Indian flag pinned to their chests.
Some children had practiced a song about the flag and everybody sang the national anthrm and a famous Indian song, Vande Mataram. I was honoured with the flag operation.
Afterwards we took to the shade in the old dining area and had a concert with children volunteering their songs and dances. prizes and snacks followed.
There was a pause for lunch and rest time and then the evening was enlivened by two special guests, One gentleman used the Telugu language in a comedic way, interacting with guests and children.
The other special guest was a famous TV star who was a mimic. Some of his sketches took off politicians and the children laughed a lot.
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| books and pens for the children |
Ramya gave books and pens to the children and all agreed that hey had had a very special day.
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| Mr Venkat and me |
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| Ramya |
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| the comedian |
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songs and dances
Thank you Ramya and friends for making Jan 26th 2017 a special one for all at Prem Nivas.
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We told her that Sampath had bought a new bamboo pole for us and that we would decorate it in the national colours and make some arrangement for its installation - a bucket of sand with a few rocks proved to be fine. Our existing flag was very small and Ramya insisted on buying a larger one for us.
