The Help – Manipal

Change
Let the eyes inside our heart
See into the heart of others
Realize they have the need
To be accepted just like us.
Let them see us care,
Open up our mind
Treat them with respect
Show that we’re human beings.
When we do this we will find
Others treating us the same:
Opening their eyes to look inside our heart
Returning the respect we had given them.
Hitherto, one by one the world will change
And a brighter sun shall start to rise
Reminding us that the world for all
Is rooted in the things we do.

                                                                                                  Photo Courtesy: Sravan Chenji
The day started with its usual rhythm and time was busy stringing and unstringing its chords. The bags arranged at the doorway gently invoked a thought – of burden and absence. It questioned “existence”, existence of those to whom they belonged. School-goers? We were at a children’s home.

Agony stroked! Irony escalated! Thoughts questioned about dreams. Those children, marred by hardships (exponential to what we face) carried hope and will everyday to become a student, turn a new leaf and write a new chapter in their lives. A sight of an eye with the same dreams but into the shadows, could invoke a feeling of dismal, rage and the need to make a difference.

                                                                                               Photo Courtesy:Sravan Chenji

Curious faces beamed up and down the porch where they were seated. They all sat, sat together interrogating among themselves if what was up for them today.

The next moment the place was filled with surprise and enthusiasm. A small group MITians had come to visit them. They called themselves The Help – Manipal. They carried and spread an unusual vibe of joy all around the place. The serene hands with a pure mind had come together, with the sunshine over the dew drops just perfectly right to reflect their thoughts, motives and will for the day. They all had a purpose, one purpose of spreading smiles, just a selfless need to see people laugh and giggle, to earn that very precious moment.

                         Photo Courtesy:Sravan Chenji

With full of zeal and want up their sleeves, they engaged, they involved and induced smiles all around.

 From jokes to pranks, from hugs to kisses, they gave away all they could. For they had the drive to make a difference, to be the difference, to serve from the heart and to reap all the happiness they could. They were “The Help”. Not a club but an actively functioning NGO.

The occasion of Diwali being around the corner, they exercised a small play to educate the children about the epic Ramayan, for they believed that knowledge should always be a friend of joy

.

   Photo Courtesy:Sravan Chenji

They believed that the reality of a new world has the same sky spread over it while the barren earth runs under those small feet.

Unruffled those faces witnessed the play with acceptance and understanding. Each and every one of them deeply engrossed in the play was trying to learn something new. Evidently like a field-bee, black and amber, curiosity was catching flight from their eyes.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Then there was a sudden outbreak of fun, laughter and jokes.

Photo Courtesy:Sravan Chenji

 All in a playful mood befriended the fun loving Hanuman. Giggles spread all around the place. Glee was sprayed all around in the air, its aroma distinct, vivid and reaching to everyone around. The soft glimmers of joy glistened in their smiles. Those unbound happiness, wild and untamed, true to their serenity meant even more than their many words to me.

Who doesn’t love a quirky bite of some tasty snacks? But for them it looked like a delicacy. Gifts and goodies were distributed, love and affection was shared; and all in the awe of what they were receiving stared at each other thanking their luck. For The Help that one moment paid it all back for all their tireless work they had done over several sleepless nights.

Photo Courtesy:Sravan Chenji

Fun was not at all a “Limited Stalk”. The frost of fun had settled upon everyone. All in their wildness trying to enjoy that very moment to its fullest. Songs scorched up the mood and all danced to the merry tunes. Joy fluttered out of each heart, unbound and untapped.

At the end this is what it all stood for, togetherness, belonging and to be a family. It was all important for everyone to accept each other and get accepted. It was to create a place for giving, smiles and harmony. Unmasked, every atom of their being sparkled with glee, the glisten in their iris told it all and again such an unheard song filled ambiance. “The Help- A group of few Unheard Heroes” has only one dream:

Photo Courtesy:Sravan Chenji
“Somewhere the long mellow note of the black-bird will quicken their unclasping hands, somewhere the wind-flowers shall fling their heads back and forth and some way they shall all be sweet and happy with white and blue”.
“It is a dream, a BELIEF!!”