Donations and Gifts from Local Indian Residents

 Special Functions and Celebrations at Prem Nivas this week.

This is the Hindu month of Kartik and it is especially devoted to the god Shiva. Religious people make a special effort to do good works in Kartik to honour this important god. Last Sunday we had a special lunch cooked here by members of a group who revere Sai Baba. Sai Baba who died in 1918 is regarded as a saint by his devotees and as an incarnation of Shiva.

The group who visited our home for HIV+ children at Prem Nivas are local people and the group comprised men and women. The  men told me they are a group of Sai Baba people who believe in doing good works.

On this occasion the whole group  set to work to prepare a meal, the men  joining in the work too. I met the three men who were peeling the skin off hot cooked potatoes while the ladies cut raw potato into cubes, tomatoes  and other vegetables into slices using a traditional curved blade that is held in place with one's foot while sitting down.

I noticed that there were about 30 green chillies ready to go into the preparation. The ladies added ghee to the cooking pot over our wood fire used to infuse the spices  and stew the vegetables . I wondered why have cooked potato as well as the raw potato and asked one of the men if it was intended as a thickening agent. He said yes and it seemed logical.

I am sure the children enjoyed the sumptuous meal and thanked the Sai Baba team. Being allergic to chilli I had an alternative lunch.





This last week has also seen birthday celebrants coming to
give treats to our children.

A mother and father brought their daughter aged 7 and her little 3 year old brother, who was the birthday boy, to give our children one of their favourite things - a glass of milk and a sweet bun.

 Another of this week's donors gave a different breakfast to the children, making it and serving it themselves, as is the custom.

One lady brought Indian sweets like sticky balls of rice crispies, her servant had made them, but it is the thought that counts and they went down well with the children.

Another lovely custom is to mark  the death anniversary of a father  by giving a special meal. Our children are often selected for this honouring of a close relative.

Because Prem Nivas is on the edge of a large village, or what seems to have grown into a small town over the last 10 years that we have been here, our children are often the recipients of dinners, lunches, snacks and other lovely things.

Thank you to all our donors at home and abroad.

Children's Day

On November 14th children in India celebrate "Children's Day" .In Delhi  politicians and dignitaries gather at the funeral site of Mr Nehru to mark Children's Day.

The custom of having a special day for children was started in 1959  by the United Nations on November 20th as Universal Children's Day.  This was  in the time of the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Mr Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nehru understood that the future of India lay in their hands and wanted all children to have 'rights'. Among them the right to education, the right to be free from child labour, the right to be safe and to receive health care.
After Nehru's death it was decided that Children's Day or Bal Diwas would  be celebrated in India on the birth anniversary of Mr Nehru, November 14th.  Children refer to him respectfully as 'Uncle Nehru' or 'Chacha Nehru' as indeed they do to all male adults. Victor was known as 'Pedda Uncle'  or 'Big Uncle' when we first started Prem Nivas. Yesterday I heard Yerrinaidu, one of our children, address the telephone engineer as 'uncle'.

Teachers usually arrange special functions at school for the children and children  show extra respect to their teachers, giving flowers or putting on little plays and reciting poems for the teachers and the whole school. At the High School in Gajapathinagaram our children had sweets, heard stories and made speeches.
Here at Prem Nivas, housemother Swathi went round to each Primary school child with a phone greeting from her sister Priyanka.

Ramya ans Sai bought this lovely cake for the children.

In the evening a regular visitor to our home,Ramya, and her friend Sai Kumar came laden with gifts for the children including a large cake, samosas, savoury snacks, pencils and rubbers

I cut the first piece to go in Prasanna's mouth! She returned the action.

Gowri teacher helps with the savoury things.

Ramya passes to Sravani 

.

 Sai waits while Swathi divides up the cake

Thank you for our Children's Day Gifts Ramya!

I am in India with the children again!

 I left home on November 5th and for a change entered through Mumbai for the first time since 1998. This because I had been invited to stay as a guest of the gentleman who pays the salary of the doctor who visits the HIV+ children and hospice patients once a month or on call when needed in an emergency. The airport had become much larger and more efficient and I had the luxury of being met and transported to my friend's family residence.
With three suit cases I decided to make the journey to Visianagaram by train despite it being one of 33 hours. I had several interesting fellow travelers so the time went quickly and they offloaded my luggage where Mahesh and the BF driver China Rao were waiting for me. Luckily the train was only half an hour late as it was nearly midnight.

 I had to wait until Monday to be taken to Prem Nivas  but en route I met Victor at DMC House and attended a prayer meeting conducted by the children in the new upstairs room.

The large upper room is used for morning assemblies and for video presentations

Here I renewed acquaintance with some of the degree students including Sandeep and Vasavi who are in their final years.

 Several of the girls  present there were embarking on nursing courses, both general nursing GNM and B.Sc Nursing degree courses.

 A tour of the new offices and kitchen followed -  all very pristine with new paint and tiles.

Prem Nivas was next on the agenda. I was                                                                                               greeted enthusiastically by  high school students                                                                                     (in their lunch break)

and the primary aged children from Brighter Future's own school.



The art work was Sampat's.









The little ones  were waiting to greet me with a mala of marigolds.

How the had grown!   I had a bit of trouble remembering some of their names - at my age I forget many words. However, with a first letter provided, I managed to get everyone's name at the second try.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
There were two new little faces since last  March, Lavanya and Jagan!

Little Prabhas was found the next day enthuiastically copying a story in what to him was a comfortable position!

The children come to my room when they have breaks and after school to play games on my tablets! games being maths , tables and reading! They have to be rationed!