It was a perfect day for lazing around and people were gearing up for the much awaited Euro cup final doing nothing which is speaking about me literally :-).
Suddenly I got a message from my YFS chief, saying today is the last day of the SKD would you be joining ??
At first, I was tempted to say no firstly cause I was really tired doing nothing and secondly cause my parents were busy planning an outing. But a divine voice in my head told me to say yes,else I would regret later.. Said the divine voice.
You'll understand why I use the phrase divine voice,when you have read entirely. Believe me I am not calling myself divine.
Well to continue, I reached the Seva Bharathi office at about 4. And we reached the Vyasarpadi temple-school area at around 5. To elaborate on the area, it was very similar to what I had seen only in the movies congested,dirty and mainly scary for me as I had heard that North Chennai was very famous for what I believe they believe is bravery ?or a Tamil euphemism 'gethu'??
Okay , so we reached the school-temple and we saw the kids sitting patiently listening to an old man talk with few in the back giggling and passing comments. I recalled my older school days,when we used to sit in line patiently bearing all the cramps for ages for some sort of an illuminating speech. I was as excited as they were and waved them a big-hi which they all reciprocated to all of us. The community head was a really good source of encouragement for all of them as he told them all the importance of studying and getting ahead in life. YFS volunteers Omprakash,Senthilgave a briefing on YFS and it's activities and also restressed the role of education in life and achieving success. Omprakash gave a very important and apt example of the master-blaster Sachin who is an immense source of inspiration and determination personified.I sincerely believe that the kids absorbed a lot of what was spoken and was over whelmed to heights when kids hardly 11-12 years old came and told me that they too would work for an IT firm in the future. They reiterated a saying in my head -"dream dream dream, dreams are the reins for shaping your future". This holds true for each one of us. The kids were all given a bag,5 notebooks and other geometry items. They were all pretty excited about the bag I must say. The ones who dint get a bag (due to shortage and a huge number of students who turned up) wore long faces masking huge disappointment. But they soon forgot their loss when they saw that there were pictures being taken. Another lesson to learn - 'small things in life make up for the bigger losses.' I was more than happy to obligingly take pics ,pose for pics myself. :-) and the kids had a terrific time posing. One small kid cldnt stop himself from hugging me when I told him he looked as gethu as actor surya in one particular pic.
To sum up, it was a beautiful journey with loads of lessons to learn for everyone. The kids happiness us the true spirit of giving and the abundant joy that tags along. The kids have learnt the importance of education,how it shapes their future. I sincerely hope that we put our lessons to good use.
Thanks to Shiva who played a major role in identifying this place and hats of to all the YFS volunteers who made it that day. And my special thanks to my YFS chief s message and the divine voice who made me break my monotonous routine and helped me in achieving bountiful of happiness. And a sincere thanks to YFS for bringing a bunch of beautiful people with similar thoughts and aims together.
Shreya
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