The Day I Found Love and Laughter With the Children of Kolkata
Despite the heat and humidity, ShivaMaya linked up with Jubak Brinda Club at a small clearing called Lalkella Maath today to bring another afternoon of fun and games for the underprivileged children there. The boys and girls, some as young as 3, came out in droves to enjoy a break from their routine lives and the chance to win some prizes. I have been on several field trips around West Bengal with ShivaMaya so far and on each one of them I have learned something new. These workshops are especially interesting as they lay the foundation for future collaboration and help us familiarize ourselves with the environment where our volunteers will go out and work in the future.
The neighborhood is cramped and dilapidated, the flies pervasive, and the garbage everywhere, but nestled in between the railroad tracks and the rundown houses is a mostly dirt field that provides at least some breathing space for the locals. It was the natural location for our workshop.
The kids were just as eager as the ones from the numerous other slums we visited, sometimes overly so. It’s likely that they do not see much help or attention from groups outside their neighborhood. Jubak Brinda, the local club, does the best it can with the limited resources it has, namely a single small building adorned with not much more than a table and a few plastic chairs. It does, however, serve to create a real sense of community in the neighborhood and its leaders are well respected. They assisted today in many ways, but perhaps most noticeably (for me, at least) by keeping the children under some control.
I continue to be the subject of many stares and the occasional enquiry, though I don’t find it all that strange anymore. One boy, maybe 6, used me to try out his English asking several basic questions about me. He finally asked me my name but ran away from me as soon as I said, “Joe.” I think he may have mistakenly thought I said, “jao!” (which means go in Bengali).
In the end it was another real pleasure to see so many kids having a fun afternoon and running off happy with their gifts and candy. But there are still countless others in West Bengal we’ve yet to reach, so we still have a lot of work to do!
