Link to all the snaps of the event..
http://www.imagestation.com/album/index.html?id=2101533486
I was waiting for the 24th September since the time Varun told about the fantastic plan of showing the movie to kids. I had seen ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ twice already but the thought of watching it again with the little angels was what made me wait for this weekend. This movie was planned because Gandhi jayanti is just around the corner and we wanted an activity which would be related to this and also be fun for the children. Arti did the main task of arranging for tickets well before time. She also arranged food coupons of popcorns for the kids. We informed the kids about this a day prior i.e. on Saturday evening. We did not anticipate that they would face any problem in getting permissions from their homes. Luckily most of the kids got permission and for those who did not, we went and talked to their families. We assured them about the safety of children. Only one or two of them had seen the movie before but they were equally excited at the very thought of watching it with us. They had started thinking that they will have to wear nice clothes and bring eatables. When we went to their houses to tell the parents about this plan they asked us as to how much will they have to pay for it? It was difficult for them to believe that their kids would enjoy at no cost at all and so they agreed eventually!
Sunday morning I got ready by 9am. Abhishek reached my place by 9.15 and we headed towards the temple, where we hold our regular classes. Some kids had already assembled and I could see that they had worn best of their clothes. Girls had put makeup and accessories. Some children had even brought chips, water-bottles and some eatables. We had to tell them to go to and keep it back as it would not be allowed in the theatres. Some children’s mothers had come to ask us to take their siblings too. It was difficult to say a no. We warned the kids to behave well in the mall and listen to us. We gave a lot of instructions as to keep quiet in the theatre and not to leave any of us and wander around on their own. Varun had brought printouts with our phone nos. which we handed to each kid and told them to call us in event of them getting lost. I was nervous and prayed to God that everything should go fine.
Inside the temple..
Everyone including the volunteers was so very happy. I was waiting to see the sight when the children would enter the mall. Varun and Sirish had brought their friends too. This helped a lot in taking the kids to the mall in one round itself. Varun arranged for auto-rickshaws and I sent the kids in batches with one volunteer each. A total of 29 kids with 8 volunteers reached the mall. The moment we got off from the auto and reached the Fame Raghuleela mall,in Kandivali, the kids gave an expression of disbelief seeing the hugeness of the mall! We clicked snaps before entering the mall as I was not sure if we would be allowed to take camera inside. But Varun managed to bring it inside and also capture lot of moments inside the mall :). Initially the security panicked seeing so many kids with us and it made me angry to know that he sounded rude to us just because the kids did not look as they were from so well-to-do families. We then told him that we had brought tickets for all the children and we were not here to have a stroll in the mall.
Outside the mall..
Once we were inside, I noticed that all kids observed so many minor things and were amazed at the entire atmosphere! Some were still wondering at the automatic opening and shutting of the doors. One exclaimed looking at the huge teddy bear peeping from the glass door of Archie’s to the right, some others just could not keep their eyes at one place and had a look of disbelief seeing so many shops inside one building. One exclaimed that this was just like in the Hindi movies while a lot of them had their eyes locked at the escalator. They related to the escalators they had seen in the movies at the airports. We decided to take them on the second floor through escalators. They waved at their other friends who were in the balcony of second floor. I was enjoying every moment of it. The mere sight of seeing these kids so happy made me feel happy too :). I wished that Varun joined us too even during the movie but he had other commitments and so he left after accompanying us till the gate of the movie hall.
While climbing the escalator..
We made the children form a queue and then everyone entered the hall outside the theatre. It was still sometime for the movie to begin and so we thought of taking the children to the restrooms once. The children were initially hesitant to use the WCs and did not know how to use the flush and use the taps and hand drier. Their expressions reminded me of the childhood story 'Alice in wonderland'.
We had almost entire two rows booked. These were 5-6 rows from front and we arranged the kids with volunteers seated in between. We settled down just in time. Surprisingly that day there was no national anthem before the movie started. I was hoping that they play that. But alas!
Before entering the theatre..
Anyway, the movie began and the children had their eyes fixed on the huge screen. Before that they enjoyed playing with the handle beside their seats and time and again turned around to see the crowd. They were aware that a lot of people were looking at them. I wonder what they thought about the staring glances! But most people wore a smile at seeing these sweet children :). In between the movie for around 40 min or so everyone was quiet and watched intently. They laughed aloud at the shortest of jokes. After sometime some of the kids started to feel hungry and their restlessness grew. Arti and Aniket then went and arranged for the popcorns. Thankfully the popcorns arrived almost when a song started and so it wasn’t much of a disturbance. We knew that soon they will be thirsty and would ask for water. Arti and I went to ask about water and the person in charge was ready to give us Pepsi at a cheaper rate than water. For once we were tempted to buy few bottles of Pepsi but then decided against it and went for water only. Handed one bottle each to the volunteers and resumed watching movie. Some children showed surprise at the very thought of water being sold. For them water is something which should be free everywhere J. I smiled at their innocence. Some were unaware of what popcorn is but they knew that they are going to get one during the movie. So in the intermission they realized that what they had during the movie was called popcorn :). Seriously, so many things which we never questioned since childhood are wonders for these children.
In intermission the kids had started feeling cold. I felt bad that we did not warn them to wear full-sleeves clothes and did not have any backup too. But then it was the first time for us too at the theatre with the kids. We volunteers exchanged places and gave company to other kids in the second half. The second half of the movie was more on the learning aspect and kids were quietly watching the movie. Some asked questions in between and they all laughed together at humor which they understood. But I also noticed that they laughed with the crowd in the hall even without understanding the jokes at times. What mattered was seeing them happy and enjoying the time there :).
We all clapped once the movie was over and remained seated to allow the people to vacate the hall. We again told them to form a queue and did a head count again. We then took the way via mall and exited the mall through escalators. By this time the children seem to have overcome the fear of stepping on it and they enjoyed their downward ride.
Downward ride on escalators..
They all were so happy and so were we. Varun had come again by the time movie got over. We again formed batches of four kids and one volunteer and headed towards the temple. Once all of us reached there we did a headcount again and asked them about their experiences. Everyone had smiles on their faces which told us all.
It is such a fulfilling experience. And thus ended the first venture to take Borivali kids on an outing! Looking forward to more such events!
Neha
DreamIndia – Borivali.
http://www.dreamindia2020.org/.
