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25th December was not just a Christmas day that the world was
celebrating, it was also a special day for our children at SBP. It was the day,
children were invited at Wagoli to celebrate a cultural event at the birth
anniversary of Sant Godhriwala Baba.
Eleven children had practised a group dance for two weeks that they
would perform at the event. They gathered at the school compound on the
Christmas day at 8am, with their bags packed for four days. They would spend
one night at Wagoli and then proceed to Malwan for school camp with thirty more
children. At 9am, they bid farewell to their family members, who had come to
see them off and their journey started, accompanied by ten staff members in a
mini 19seater bus.
The bus trip was vibrant and enjoyable, with children dancing and
singing Bollywood songs. After two hours journey, they had a stop over at
Khapoli food mall for tea, snacks and relief at bathrooms. The journey
continued for another two hours and they reached the ashram in time for lunch
at 2pm.
At the venue, they were greeted warmly by members of Mirpuri
family.There were many people at the ashram. There were visitors from Pune,
Pimpri, Kalyan, Ahmednagar, Poona, and other neighbouring cities. Sant Godriwala
Baba Ashram is an old age home that has one large temple at the higher ground
level. Kitchen and dinning area is at lower ground level and there is large
open area that was converted into amphitheatre. There are more than 40 large rooms
but all the rooms were occupied by visiting guests that day. There were rows
and rows of mattress spread in all room and even in the passages to accommodate
all the guests.
Two large rooms were allotted to our children, one for boys and other for
girls. The children had a short nap after lunch and rested for 3 hours. In the
evening, tea and biscuits were served in their rooms and children got dressed
in white with saffron belt across the waist. They were ready to perform and
came down to the amphitheatre and waited.
The program started with the bhajans by well-known singers and musician,
but our children, well behaved like always, waited patiently for their turn.
There were thousands of people gathered that included Mirpuri family members
who were not only from Poona but also many had come down from HongKong,
Bangkok, Dubai and other places specially for this event.
The minute our children approached the stage, all the audience became
attentive and left all other distraction to come and witness the performance.
Each and everybody in the audience were impressed with their performance and
they could never believe that these children could perform like professionals
with pointed focus. There was one dance performed by Karina, this was followed
by bhajan by Apeksha and Ghandar. Next was the group dance by all 11 children
on the bhajan ‘tumree bin hamara koi hi nahi’. Mirpuri family was so impressed
by their dance that the children of the family were called to gift and honour
them with a shawl around their shoulders. Sneha decided to dance solo and
compliments poured in at her performance too, people said that it seemed like
they were watching a Bollywood film.
Late at night after dinner, the children were summoned and feedback was
taken. The children were excited to share their experience of the day.
Next morning, the children got ready, packed their suitcases and went
for typical Sindhi breakfast of Dhal Pakwan. After breakfast they left for
Malwan to continue their 4 day camp with their friends.
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