Report and snaps of DI Vasantham Onam celebrations!

Dear Friends,

On Sunday, 14th September, as per plan our DI Chennai team visited Vasantham, a school for special children and spent the day with the kids. To say the day was memorable for all the volunteers and kids would be an understatement. We really had wonderful time and in fact madam told me that for the first time ever the kids got involved so much.

Morning:

• Hari was the first one to reach Vasantham. Parthy, Kavitha, Srini, Ramya, Viji and myself we met at T.Nagar around 8.30 A.M
• Ravin joined us at Thirumanagalam and by the time we reached Vasantham, Baskar too joined us with his mother.
• DI team was all set by 9.45 and straight away our friends started arrangement for function.
• Ramya, Kavitha and Viji with the guidance of Baskar's mom made lot of kolams.
• Hari, Parthy, Srini and myself we were involved in arranging the chairs and temp roof for the function.
• Ravin and Baskar [ he put a mehendi shape like BUS ] were busy decorating kids with Mehendi.
• By 11 we were all set for the pooja. Guruswamy did the foundation pooja of the "constructing a roof on terrace" project.
  
• After this, we started of with the programs. All of us prayed for the unfortunate victims of the delhi bomb blast and started the event with paryer song.
• DI members performed jokes from movies.
• Students from Alpha college of Arts and Science sang a few songs beautifully, danced amazingly and entertained everyone very well.
• Volunteers from YOU did a magic show and also danced to a few tunes.
• Hari sang a beautiful song for the kids.
  
• Following this, we had drawing competition for the children. The kids came up with wonderful pictures. One important thing to share here is the picture made by our Srinivasan. He just took 2 minutes to draw a college girl thinking about "Dream India". It was amazing to say the least. [ drawing is in the album from Ravin below ].

Lunch:

• By the time we were done with the drawing competition, it was 1.30 and we called it time for lunch.
• Our friends served the special lunch from DI to the kids.
• Sambar rice, Corriander rice, Biryani, Tamrind rice, Curd rice, Payasam, Carrot halwa, Jangiri and superb Avial were part of the special menu.
• After serving the kids, all DI friends had their lunch. The food was really awesome.

Post-Lunch:

• After lunch, we started off with musical chair to ensure all digest the food we ate. The kids really had fun during their rounds and later even the volunteers joined in.
• This was followed by couple of games for kids: Walk with notebook on head and Lemon Spoon. Volunteers to joined in.
• Next was an interesting part of game as it involved eatables. Bun eating it was....! Along with kids, I too participated in this. Parthy ate a few without even competing.
• In the mean time, we decided to use the concept of "Gift Voucher" idea from Vasantham and gave a surprise birthday gift to Ramya. She bought a superb painting made by kids.

Evening:

• We had a Andhakshri session and this was followed by prize distribution for kids.
• All those who won in games and drawing competition were given prizes by volunteers.
• The kids too gave special gifts for volunteers on behalf of Vasantham.
• We winded up the day with volunteers and kids joining us for dance.
  
• Around about 6.30 we left Vasantham, madam arranged for us to be dropped at Thirumangalam. It was a long but wonderful day at Vasantham and the kids made the day really special for everyone.

We thanked madam for giving us the day for us and she requested to share her sincere thanks to everyone in DI for the wonderful support.

Please do find the completed Project report for the event attached.

Snaps:

Ravin: http://picasaweb.google.com/ravinkumar.s/VasanthamOnamCele#

Nata: http://picasaweb.google.com/natadreams/Vasantham_Onam#

Anbudan,
Natarajan
www.dreamindia2020.org

"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma