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It was already past Dashain and we had planned on doing this event like we did last year for quite a while now. Unfortunately, I had missed it last year but I was determined to be there this time. We were going to fly kites with the kids at The Disabled Newlife Center. It was Saturday around 12:45 pm and I was on the way to Bhatbhateni Store, Boudha where Shikha and I had planned to meet. I was looking for shops to buy more kites but I couldn’t see kites anywhere. This culture of flying kites during Dashain has been fading away slowly and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that this was an attempt to keep that culture alive and pass it down to the next generation. Shikha and I met at the store, bought ice cream for the kids and headed towards DNC. Shreyaans and his brothers were on their way too who were about to join us for the event. When we reached DNC, Kumar saw us at the gate and was greeting us at the top of his voice and he came down along with a few more kids all excited to see us to the gate. Shreyaans along with his brothers Sashank, Shivam, Pratham, Rishi and Aryan arrived as well. Aryan was the youngest amongst them and he was as young as some kids there at DNC. It was lunch time for the kids at DNC. They went for their lunch and we headed for the roof along with the kids who had finished their lunch and started preparing the kites to fly. Pratham was the only one who knew how to fix a kite and fly so we were just trying our hands on the kites he fixed trying to get it up in the air. The wind wasn’t favouring us that day. We almost flew one but the wind just seemed to play hide and seek with us that day. We kept trying for a while letting the kids hold the “lattai” (The wheel and axle thing used to wind the thread used to fly the kite, the thread is very sharp and designed to cut off threads of other kites in the sky) . Aryan and Kumar were the kids who were very eager to fly the kites, taking turn holding lattais but we had no luck so they’ll have to wait for the next year and hope that the kite flies the next time. While we were busy trying to fly the kite, Muna had created beautiful drawings of the events we had done there on a kite. That sweet gesture made our day and everything we do worthwhile. Then, Shreyaans came up with the idea to play dumb Charades. We divided the kids into 2 teams and the teams started the game by giving names of different movies to one of the opposite team’s member who had to act and out those names and the team had to guess the name. The names of some of the movies that the kids gave were really funny and I had never heard of those movies before. And, the kids and the guys trying to act out those names and trying to guess them was really funny. After a few rounds of Charades, we decided to the end the game as tie and took a few group photos with the kids and took the kids downstairs where ice-cream was waiting for them. We gave around scoops of ice cream in the cones to the kids who were really enjoying the time we had there. After the ice cream, we had come to the end of the event. We took a few more group photos. The day went very well even though we couldn’t get the kites to fly, we had lot of fun with the kids. On the way back home, Shikha told me about Harka from Disabled Rehabilitation Centre who had lost both of his hands, that he was brought to DNC but due to lack of the caretaker who could take care of his special needs, he was taken back to DRC and a few good people from Korea had found out about Harka and approached them and told them that they might be able to help Harka. I hope Harka finds ways to cope with his condition right now and rise up to take the challenges this life offers to him. Along the way back home, the whole day was playing back in my mind, thinking about all the events we had done so far, the kids, and I noticed that Pemba was missing that day and few other kids whose name I couldn’t remember. I hope everything’s fine with them too. May be, we’ll see them next time we’re there. |
Event