Visit to an Orphanage !!!

Some of the lovable memories that one would have been through till date in their life would be spending a weekend on a resort with one’s family, sipping a cup of tea on a rainy day, waking up early for an adventurous trip, decked up for a party, shopping with the entire money in hand, meeting a good old friend on the road, watching a favorite song in television, getting a call from your lovable ones, a small appreciation for the work we have done, a sudden excitement that flourishes when things go just like how we think, cracking jokes amidst our beloved gang of friends, trying on our own to prepare a delicious dish, waking up late on a Sunday and falling asleep again, the amount of satisfaction obtained when Customer Care resolves our issue, reacting to unexpected surprises on our birthday, a presumptuous feeling when the exam commences, trying to keep the heartbeats at its own track when the results of the examination turn up, when our facebook photo is flooded with comments, when a good old teacher embarrasses us with the weird behavior of us in childhood. These are the best moments one would have been through and these memories could be cherished forever and it brings a beautiful smile on all our faces every moment we think about them. Smile is such a wonderful cure and triggering them on a kid’s face is one adorable thing one could ever attempt and I am really proud to say that I am one among the trillion billion million people who wanted to be a reason behind everyone’s smile. One of my most memorable and lovable moment in my life was during my visit to Abilashrayam, a children’s orphanage in Bangalore. The moment I decided to visit an orphanage, I did seek the help of my best friend Google which displayed so many results and I tried to get into them in detail and finally got held at the name ‘Abilashrayam’ and the photo they had posted captured my eyes and then immediately gave a call to the lady who was the head of the organization. She was a very kind lady and the moment I spoke to her saying that I am on my way to visit the orphanage the excitement from her end gave me a lot of encouragement. So I enquired her all necessary items that she required the most for the orphanage and then she gave me a vague idea of what I am supposed to buy and then I rushed to hyper city mall next to the place where I reside. That moment I understood that I was unaware of how to shop groceries. I had to look at people and admire them as they purchased the groceries in a very efficient manner and finally I had to bug a guy who was working in the mall to help me find those items and then after a lot of struggle trying to pull the so called ‘basket’ to and fro and with great hardships I managed to reach the billing counter. I was so happy to buy those items for the kids from my own salary which gave me a lot of satisfaction that I ever had. Even during shopping for myself I do think twice if I am supposed to get that particular dress, accessories or not but one good thing that I observed is that when I paid for those items I felt that I wanted to serve more and more because it really gives me a satisfaction when I think that I am also a reason for their smile. After buying all the groceries and other items I called up the lady again and told her that I have started from my place. She told me that the kids were eager to see me and that I promised her that I would bring snacks for the kids on that day. I ran outside in search of cake shops and then finally found one ordered few cakes and went in search of ATM. The weather was amazing and it was pouring outside. I do always love playing in the rain but not in Bangalore because it completely freezes me every time when I hear the word water. I waited in the long queue and as usual the person who stood before me while drawing money had aaaaaaaall the problems on the earth due to some fault in his card. He was fighting with the ATM showing some irritated signs and then after 15 minutes I totally lost my patience started to bang the entrance. At last! He opened the door and came out with a ‘glow’ meant to be a sigh of relief on his face which literally triggered me to give him a bad stare for having settled inside the ATM for such a long time. I am so sure that he didn’t wanted to get wet and that’s the reason he spent inside fighting with the ATM. I did get all the items and it was already 4.00 PM. The snacks time for the kids was scheduled at 5.30PM everyday and I was sure that I would not be able reach there on time if I use the transportation by bus in Bangalore because the place was situated tooooooooo far from my place. So enquired an auto man the amount he would charge to the orphanage and he replied 500 Rs, I was shocked!!! I was wondering that I pay that amount to reach my hometown and I was really thinking if people would afford so much, still I wanted to try my luck asked him to reduce the amount and I asked him for 250 bucks. He gave me a sarcastic look and then he said ‘NO’, I said fine and left the place searching for another auto. In my hometown when any auto man claim for a higher amount we used to say ‘NO’ and then wait at the same place for few minutes, finally he would agree for the amount we suggested and would curse us and let us inside the auto. But Bangalore autos are something weird, I stood there for 5 minutes but he never reacted and so I had to plead him again for 400 bucks and got into the auto. I was very eager to see the kids and I had arranged the cakes, chocolates, paper plates, groceries, notebooks, color books, pencils, and notepad everything in an orderly manner and reached the place after an hour. It was 10 minutes already past 5.30 and my heart was pounding seriously because I was already 10 minutes late. From the main road I somehow managed to enquire the way to the ‘Ashram’ with the help of my ‘basic’ Hindi skills. I am sure the people who answered me would have forgotten Hindi that moment. I reached the ashram and I could see 5 to 6 kids playing on the road, they were highly excited to see me carrying me a lot of bags and I could recollect the same excitement when I felt the while seeing my mom carrying a lot of bags after her work every day. They came running towards me especially to know what were inside the bags. They tried to help me carry the bags and I could see the innocence in their hearts, every kid wished me ‘Good Evening’ as taught by their tutor. I did wonder that I did not have such a good habit of wishing everyone but these kids were too adorable. The head of the ashram welcomed me in and she was happy to get the items that I purchased for them. She told me the history of every kid, totally there were about 16 kids and many of the kids had parents who were very poor who faced hardships for a day’s food. So they did leave the kids in the ashram and took them home on weekends. As we were speaking about this we served the kids with Black forest cake, milk treat chocolate and cold drinks for snacks. I could see them that they had this taste once in a while and not always, they had the snacks with so much of interest and tears literally started pouring down my eyes and I wish I was able to give them this happiness every day. After having snacks they started playing and they were all eagerly waiting for a girl named ‘Pinky’ youngest among all who had been to her parents place on the weekend. As I kept speaking to the lady she introduced me to every kid and I started playing with all of them and all on a sudden I could see all the kids rushing towards the gate shouting ‘Pinky has come’, ’Pinky has come’. I also rushed in excitement to see the little girl and I could see from a far distance a lady carrying her daughter and I assumed that she would be Pinky and her mom. All the kids ran towards her and her mom, gave them a warm welcome. Pinky’s mom had got her and the other kids a lot of snacks. The head of the Ashram told me how poor she was but Oh my god what a great heart she had to buy these kids a lot of snacks and I am sure she sacrificed her day’s food for buying those snacks. I could not explain the love she had for her kid as well as all the other kids in the Ashram and then I could hear a loud cry from the little girl when her mom waved her a goodbye and started to rush far from the little girl’s eyesight as she couldn’t control her tears. Pinky’s mom who started to leave all on a sudden came running held Pinky in her hands, kissed her on the cheeks and started to walk without turning back. I could not control my tears when I heard Pinky screaming out for love and I tried to hold her in my arms and convince her but I couldn’t digest the tears. My heart carried so much of pain hearing to her cry and how much pain that little girl would bear at her age and what else is so horrible for a kid to face this separation. Her legs for trying to follow her mother’s steps and her hands were trying to reach her shoulders but she couldn’t, her mother had already vanished out of sight. All the kids convinced her not to cry and we gave her a chocolate, at that moment nothing other than her mom could have been a solution for her tears. She kept crying for a very long time and I could not explain this in words because the pain is struck in my throat right now. She finally got dressed up by another kid and sat in a corner of the room thinking of her mom. I am so sure her mom would have cried the whole week and she would have been waiting for the weekend to come. It was already late and I had to leave the place with a heavy heart. I waved goodbye to all the kids and also to Pinky but she never replied as she was completely struck by the sorrow. I prayed to God to fill these hearts only with happiness and not with such sorrows, even at this age we long for our parents everyday when we are away from them, when such grown-ups like us seek for parents all the time why not this little kid have such a wish to cuddle her mom every second. I was thinking why these happen to these adorable kids and all I could do was just pray for the welfare of the kids and lend them a helping hand all the time. I boarded the bus and reached home around 8.30 PM and had a satisfaction that this day I have done my best I could. Henceforth waiting for my next visit to an orphanage I hereby end this post hoping that this post would have at least triggered some of them to help and serve the society. Thank you for the patience for having read this post.