Ermm, not exactly :) I have actually decided to do some volunteering - for organizations that radiate hope, enthusiasm and selflessness. I wrote an email to Janaagraha, wanting to offer my services, but never heard back from them. Just when I wanted to call them and follow up, I received an email bulletin at my workplace calling for volunteers for an organization called Chrysallis. It sounded very exciting - they were planning to celebrate their 7th anniversary with an integration program for mentally and physically challenged children with normal children.
The goal was to have 160 children with and without challenges in a 45-minute dance drama - and we would have just a 4 hour workshop to prepare these children. So I signed up, and attended an introductory session on Feb 11th, where Diana Tholoor (the founder of Chrysallis) and her core team briefed us on what it's all about. I got assigned to the Music group of volunteers - our job was to teach the children to make various sounds - which would eventually form the background music for the dance drama.
The Music group then met with Marolla Meneaud, who enthusiastically led us through the script and had us identify the various sounds, like bird sounds, the sound of footsteps on the snow, and so on. After one more session on 18th for us volunteers, we were ready to rock - more or less! There was this great sense of anticipation, and excitement as we waited for the 25th. Finally, it was D-Day. We met bright and early in the morning, at around 7am, at the Guru Nanak Bhavan, where the event was planned. The other volunteer teams for the Photography, Art and Interaction groups were all there, decorating the place. The kids started streaming in at around 9am, and we guided them to their seats. The Music group leader for the day was the talented Prashant Pillai, who quickly guided us into smaller groups, each group consisting of a volunteer, a challenged child, and a normal child. We had around 20 kids to teach the various sounds to be made - all this in a few hours. I was assigned Arokia Mary, a visually challenged girl and Vinay Kashyap, a 9th Standard student from a local school. My job was to teach them whistling - bird sounds and happy tunes, and heart thumping sounds. Similarly, the other volunteers had other sounds to teach: squacks, squeaks, sounds of the wind etc. Thanks to the students' eagerness to learn (and our hidden anxiousness to teach!) we managed pretty well, I think. The show, with a packed audience, started off at 6pm. There were several dances and skits from various schools for the challenged. And then, our dance drama. It was an amazing success - the children did a wonderful job. After that there were a couple dances lead by Diana herself, and had the whole audience clapping and cheering along, and asking for encores. It was the grand finale to a beautiful night, and after leading the kids back to their waiting transport arrangements, we volunteers were given a small souvenir from Diana, thanking us for our participation.
It was a tiring day, but at the end, there was a strange sense of fulfillment. My heart got tugged a few times for sure... when I felt the grasp of Dinesh, a spastic kid's hands when he held my hand and called me 'uncle' with a wide smile, when I lead Arokia down the stairs, realizing the challenges some people face with actions we don't give a second thought about. It was also heartening to see how well the normal kids accepted the challenged kids - Vinay and Arokia were chatting away like old friends. Another sight to cherish was that of the volunteers: to have so many people wholeheartedly participate in an event like this, doing their bit to bring light and joy into a child's life was truly incredible.
Here are a few pictures that I've taken at the event. All of these were taken with my Canon A80, and improved a bit with Picasa. As you can see, this camera is no low-light champion, and as I was adviced on not using my flash, there's quite some blur in some of the pictures. Anyway, here they are. You can click on the pictures for a higher resolution image.
The Guru Nanak Bhavan, and the arrangements in the garden:
And the decorations inside:
Diana, seen here energetic as ever. She's moving so fast, my camera couldn't catch up :)
Our inspiring Music team leader, Prashant.
Our Music team kids - with their big smiles, and their special sunflower claps:
Preparing for the big event - script in hand:
It's lunch time!
Ms. Butterfly and her team getting ready:
The Asatoma Sadgamaya team getting ready:
The various performances:
And finally, the Music Volunteer team. From L to R: Preeti, Sheefa, Susheela, Anita, Thiru, Myself, Sowmya, Sunaina, Amogh, Akeena, and Jean.
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