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.
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.
