Vyshnoo

A Day At The Orphanage

​It was a sunny morning when all my classmates were ready to visit the orphanage. Since it was the ‘joy of giving week’ the school planned for this trip. We packed cartons of food, toys and books for the kids. The bus drove off in 3 trips to accommodate all the students. We reached the orphanage which was a governmental organization in Secunderabad. It was an all boys orphanage.

The children ran up to the bus when we had arrived. We could see the joy in their faces, all lit up. We got out and they organized themselves in 7 rows and wished us by singing a welcome song. They sang it very well and the song had been more enhanced when the children sang it than it was when the poet wrote it. It got its glimpse of light by the smiles of the children, happiness plunging out of their heart, hands waving in the air and off course their beautiful soothing voices. The head of that place introduced us to them. He was an old handicapped man who had been looking after children since 17 years. He was an amazing man, even though he was handicapped he gave his best to take care of the children. There was another helper who told us how these children had got to the orphanage. They were completely homeless and shelter less, some of them found on the road, some left by their parents, some who could not afford to feed their children and some who didn’t have their parents.

After that, we took all the boxes and distributed them among the children. They were, toys which weren’t used by us anymore, they were old clothes which were new for them, food articles, and various other things. When the children received the presents, there was an immense joy in their face as off the world was going to end tonight and happiness was all that was left. They thanked us heartily when we gave them all the presents. Who knew that our old toys that once gave us happiness could light up someone else’s world!

We interacted with all the children and made them play various games like singing, dancing, telling jokes and running around. They ran around saying “vroom” with the toy cars, they jumped around to catch the ball during a cricket game and various other lovely gestures we tend not to see every day.

The joy in giving them those articles moistened my eyes with happy tears. Each child called us, ‘Akka/Anna’ and smiled and replied to every question cutely. We took interviews of a few children and they answered to all the questions shyly, happily and honestly. The later part was us seeing the premises, play area, school and their bedding area. The place was well organized and neatly arranged. Something we learnt from the children which we’d never understand if we hadn’t visited otherwise. The way they were taking up their own responsibility at just the age of 6 to 12 years was beautiful. The way, they were happy even when they didn’t have their parents nor knew about them, touched my heart deeply. If only we just took out few minutes of our busy lives just to understand why we should be happy, life would be perfect and worth living. There might be million reasons for your sadness, but just look deep inside that heart which is like a little child and find that one reason to be happy!

A visit to the orphanages or old age homes once a while must be a routine; you never know who’s day you can make!