A Trip worth Remembering!

It was a cool Sunday morning on November 4^th 2012. I had to wake up early to reach Wilson Garden in time. Volunteers were supposed to reach by 7:30 am. Not that waking up early on Sundays is a problem for me. But from past few weeks, as Sankalp meetings have moved to Saturday evenings, I became less habitual to that. Anyhow, we (me and Saurabh) reached the center by 7:35 am. The kids were already ready in their school uniforms, 2 of them with even a tie! They were all excited and happy to see us. All the volunteers arrived before 8 and we made a final strategy, discussed do’s and don’ts one more time and made groups before boarding the bus. By 8:35, we were all set and then began our journey and one of our most memorable days!

Our destination, Innovative Film City is about 45 kms from Bangalore on Mysore road. We reached there by 10:00 am. By 10 in the morning, sun was gleaming. So, there would be no worries of rain, no fear in taking them to pool, no anxiety of them falling sick. In other words, a perfect day for the trip! We began with welcome drink which turned out to be a glass of sprite, instead of juice. Anyways, kids liked that. Our first attraction was mirror maze followed by Dino Park and fossil museum. Though some of them were scared, children really liked the life-sized dinosaur replicas. They kept asking me dinosaur’s names and also whether they are real! Next we moved to Cartoon City where kids took a ride to roller-coaster, carousel and star-wars. By the time last group finished star-wars, it was time for lunch.

Post lunch we went on to see an alien-invasion sci-fi 3-D movie. It would have been better if they had the 4^th dimension of feel as well. Kids would definitely have loved that. 3-D show was followed by some really impressive works of wax in Wax-museum, some astonishing facts and replicas in Believe it or Not and some spooky horror in Haunted Mansion. I can’t really appreciate haunted mansion though, as there were so many crying kids to take care of that I couldn't see anything inside mansion! Yes, some of the kids were really frightened. But all was well once we came out. And when they heard about our next attraction, all of their smiles came back. It was time for Water Park…finally!

The one thing that all the kids were eagerly waiting for since morning, was going to pool for swimming. They were so excited for pool that they hardly took any time to change. One moment they went in the changing room, and the next they were out. Next 40-45 minutes was pure fun for kids and volunteers alike. It was a great spectacle seeing them play in water. We also knew that pool would be most risky for kids. So, we took care no kid goes beyond a certain level in water, which volunteers were religiously maintaining. In pool, a child can spend hours together without feeling tired or willing to get out. But we had a time bound, so sadly we had to take them out! As water rides were not allowed for children younger than 14, we were left with evening snacks and Wannado City post swimming.

Wannado City is a small model of a city. It has a veterinary hospital, a court room, a police station, a general hospital and an aeroplane. Children enjoyed being there and playing with different models. They liked the experience of sitting inside a plane and being locked up in a jail! J Then it was time to go back. But just as we assembled on the way out, 2 artists came. One was impersonating a horse rider with a puppet horse and the other had drum. They performed in front of kids and to kids’ pleasant surprise; volunteers started dancing on the tone! Though I am not very comfortable in dancing in general (forget about dancing in full public view!), I couldn’t resist joining my friends. I enjoyed that moment and so did the kids. We came out and boarded the bus for our journey home. We gave kids biscuits and chocolates. As they were tired, most of them slept. Volunteers however, had some other plans and they started to sing. I couldn’t join them as Pavan was sleeping with his head on my shoulder and I didn't want to wake him up (This guy Pavan and one more kid Manoj didn't leave my hand for a minute throughout the day!).  We reached Wilson Garden by 7:30. It was time to say goodbye to kids. All the volunteers went for dinner to celebrate the day.

Most of the people say that such events make a big difference to kids’ lives. It makes them smile. When I look it from my perspective, I feel it’s not just about making them smile. Consider the concept of trickle-down effect in economics. The trickle-down effect says that economic benefits provided by the government to businesses, would eventually benefit poorer members of society. If you apply same theory to society, you’ll realize that the amount of time and effort that we spend with a particular child has the potential to trickle down to future generations as well.

In our group there is Dilip who wants to become an engineer, Veena and Hemanth who want to become IAS, Parvathi who dreams to be a doctor and Praveen who wants to be a business-man. These are the aspirations of just 5 kids. And I am sure they will be able to achieve their dreams. But they need our support for that; the support of privileged middle/upper class youth of India. And once they achieve their dreams, they’ll take care of other Dilips and Parvathis and Hemanths. They will have the responsibility of returning to society and I am sure they will do that. I am sure because one thing that I have learned about children, especially under-privileged, is their ability to share. It is very easy for us to share something due to our hefty pay checks. But it takes real heart to share half of your chocolate with someone else as a kid! I believe that once they grow up, they will share with those who are under-privileged, in whatever capacity they can.

So, when you look from my perspective, it’s not just about bringing smiles; it’s about building the nation!

There is, however, another side to it. This is the socialist side. This is the point of view that resulted in a conflict in my mind about whether we are right to spend so much for a day’s fun with a group of kids? Don’t get me wrong here. But when you go out to any roadside eatery, when you go in any small scale industry that requires manual labour, when you go to any temple, mosque or church, when you are waiting on any traffic signal, everywhere you’ll find out of school/home children working and begging. From hazardous chemical factories to bangle making, from farm labour to eateries, from smuggling to prostitution and from begging to drug-abuse, you’ll find them everywhere. I know that the children we took for trip require all the love, care and affection that we can give them. But when I compare them with those out on streets, my heart pains more for the latter, because they also deserve love, care, affection; and most importantly education.

The money that we spent on this one day fun activity could've been spent to send some of those kids to school. I know what we did is also important. But some part in me would never be convinced with the real impact of the money and time we spent. I would love to get an opinion on this. Please comment if you have anything to say.

Thanks to Bhumi, Anatha Shishu Sevashram, and my fellow volunteer friends for making my and kids’ day. This trip wouldn't have been possible without the support from all. This was just a milestone in our journeys. I hope we all would keep putting up efforts to make our country a better place. I hope we all would Keep Walking!