Pongal Holiday

ANOTHER CELEBRATION

The Children only had 2 days of school holiday for Christmas but the 14th January  is a bigger National holiday. Known as Pongal in South India including Andhra Pradesh, as Lohari in the Punjab and also Kitcheri (after one of the festival's food dishes).  All celebrating  the Hindi New Year known as Makar Sankranti. Officially the festival lasts for 2 days but the children have a week off school.
Our children with relations often go to stay with them. Special traditional foods, mainly sweets, are prepared or bought. Here in Bihar, where I came to see a colleague from my days working with leprosy patients, I will be treated to the new season's rice with a mixture of yoghurt, vegetables and lentils (the kitcheri). The special sweets are made from sesame seeds, flat rice or peanuts combined with jaggary, a form of sugar, and are offered throughout the day.

As with many major festivals it is often a time to give new clothes. Swathi told me that in her community the unmarried girls wear half saris. a separate waist length blouse and long skirt with a  shawl worn over it.

Swathi in her new Pongal half sari

My hosts are still feeding me with sweet goodies and my weight is increasing! It is time for me to return to the children - a 24 hour train journey.

Wishing our readers a Happy New Year

Apologies for not writing recently!  I have been on one of my forays to north India to visit colleagues from my days working to prevent deformity in leprosy patients.  Unfortunately I managed to choose some unseasonable weather with temperatures down to 6 degrees. My daughter informed me that Bury St Edmunds had 1degree but I reminded her that where I am staying there is no heating, no glass in some windows and hot water comes by sticking an electric coil in a bucket. Bare feet on stone floors is the rule as a form of respect  and outside doors are forever being left open as the kitchen is outside .
 The poor people suffer terribly from the cold. Yesterday morning I heard a lady walking along the street calling out like the vegetable sellers do. She was begging for a blanket and clothes for her children. The Bihar government are providing wood for bonfires around the town so that people may warm themselves.Last night I saw a TV appeal for blankets for the people in Delhi who sleep  anywhere they can find to lay their bodies all year round. Schools in the fog covered north, the whole of the Ganges valley, are closed for children up  to 8th year (14/15 yrs) and the exam year children can start at 10.30am while the cold continues - their normal winter start is between 7 and 8 am.It really make me appreciate my central heating and all mod con at home.
 Andhra Pradesh is basking in 29 degrees at the moment so don't worry about he Brighter Future children!

Some of the cards the Prem Nivas children made to thank local donors of meals, sweeets, biscuits and other things

The Children's Christmas party was a great success. 

Cutting the \Christmas cake

There were a few adjustments to the time-table and the whole event went more smoothly this year.The children were given their presents earlier in the day , distributed by various guests, including yours truly.
After the warm up of hymn singing led by Pastor Elisha the special guests took their places on the stage and the opening prayers and bible readings followed. Guests made speeches and the long awaited presentation of gifts to the children took place.

This year only the boys has new hostel uniform shirts, the girls had dresses of various designs and colours and wore them for their dances

The main meal of the day was at lunchtime and included chicken  two rice dishes, chutneys, sweets and fruit.

After a small break during which the older boys rearranged the chairs under the shamiana shade the cutting of the Christmas cake took place, followed by skits and sketches and a tub of ice cream for everybody.

The evening was devoted to dances set to Christian songs. These dances had been practiced for the last month. Children download songs to pen drives or to phones from where they are reproduced through the hired sound system at the party. The senior girls from DMC House compere the whole event and I must say they did it very well.

.Groups of children, boys as well as girls, from each of the homes vie with one another to produce the best dance arrangements.








 The stage was flood lit with disco lights and the whole party area as well as other areas of the campus were strung with fairy lights.The VTC boys who learn about plumbing and electrics were instrumental in setting all the lights under the overall supervision of their teacher, Srinu.

As the evening drew to a close with the candlelit singing of Silent Night the children had
another meal and  the stage was made available for dancing to film music. Anyone could volunteer and the first on the stage was Jhancy of Prem Nivas - the first time she had done anything as a solo!

The sound system, catering equipment and awnings had to be dismantled and rented chairs etc had to be packed up.Tthe Prem Nivas children had two taxis to take them home, the Visianagaram children and staff were ferried to their homes by a fleet of Brighter Future vehicles.

I got to Victor's town house by about 11 and he came back around midnight. The next morning, Christmas eve,  I was kindly driven to the airport by China Rao at 5.45am.

More pictures when I get back to warm and sunny Andhra Pradesh!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Having delayed as long as possible we finally started on the things children like to do preparing for Christmas. The crib figures were revamped, being the wooden peg figures from a good few years ago.

Swathi told the Primary children the Christmas story in Telugu and we talked about it in English. The older children had decided with Swathi what they would like in the way of decorations this year.


The boys were made responsible for the star to go on the roof and for the lighting of the crib area and the making of a Christmas tree with lights. Sampath, Govind and Giri are the most electrically aware in that they can connect wires to a plug. They are always most careful to turn the electricity supply on and off as necessary.

Sampath estimated the amount of wire needed for the star which was attached to the volleyball post with a piece of cook Kalyani-mamma's firewood.


He went to buy the bits and pieces and an extension lead - called a plug box here.


I had bought the hooks for the tree earlier and showed Sampath how to drill a few of the holes for the rawplugs.



We thought we had four sets of lights but once tested and carefully strung up the crib lights refused to work so tonight one of the boys will go and buy some more.

Govind

The girls are responsible for decorating their rooms. The Christmas tree lights would look better at night if there were more green ones at the top so they will be searched for too. One day Prem Nivas may have its own artificial Christmas tree  but meanwhile it is the children's own work.

The High School exams are from the 15th to the 22nd so dance practise is after homework time!I have started supervising homework time and have the opportunity to read my Kindle!

At lunchtime the little children watched Little Donkey and the 12 day of Christmas on my laptop and some of the children remembered bits of them from last year. They have made cards for Monkston school Year 1 class in Milton Keynes, to keep up the tradition started a few years ago.


 Last year the Monkston children had made origami Father Christmases for our children and this year we have strung them up on the Christmas tree.

Back row Prem, Raju. Rajesh, Madhavi
front row Prasanna, Prabhas, Lavanya

The children are all practising dances for the evening concert at the Christmas party at Shanti Nivas. The gyrating  dances are done to hymn tunes to keep the occasion Christian. 

The Youngest and Newest Primary Children

Visitors from the UK, who are The Leprosy Mission supporters, came to see Prem Nivas last week. They had a a busy schedule visiting leprosy colonies but found time to visit our home for HIV infected children at Prem Nivas.
Swathi, our housemother, and Gowri did a dance for them and the newest and youngest Primary School children enjoyed entertaining them with 'Five Little Monkeys'.

The newest monkeys, Lavanya, Jagan, Prabhas and Rajesh 

December 7th brought another birthday celebration and the children were given bananas and a packet of biscuits.

December 8th brought another special donated breakfast for all the children. It was to celebrate little Rory's birthday. he helped his uncles to distribute the food to the children as is the custom.

The children enjoyed a huge breakfast of puris, warrahs, idlis and two chutneys. this was followed by a sweet vermicilli dish.

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!