A 'Sour' Party

With the weekdays busy, we decided to meet this Sunday to cook lunch together and then practice some songs and bhajans.

Paneer Butter Masala and Rotlis was the menu, for 24 people. 18 of us and other close friends including Sandeep Sood, my previous business partner and close friend from California, who decided to make a quick 20 hour pit stop in Ahmedabad to visit the kids.

All of us got busy. Cutting onions, peeling and chopping garlic, cutting tomatoes and paneer, chili and ginger, making dough and rotlis.

20 of us working hard for over an hour straight to make a great lunch dish. When all the tomato puree was ready and the onion-garlic-ginger-chilli paste was ready on the stove, I added some spices and finally some salt. After some cooking, I went in for a quick taste test…Tasted good, now just add a little sugar for a sweet tinge. Cook again for a little while and taste…This time just a tad bit sour. So added a little bit cream and a little more sugar. Cook again for a while and taste…Hmm…a little more sour this time. Okay, a little more cream and a little more sugar. Cook again for a while and taste….Oh my gosh! Super sour!!! What the heck just happened! A great lunch for all of us, has turned into a super sour tomato dish. I shared the dish with others and everyone had this crazy, super sour reaction on their faces. Worst was, nobody understood how it got so sour. We had all types of hypotheses: Maybe we added too much tomato from the beginning; The cream was old and spoiled, etc…Finally Roshni comes by saying to me…”This isn’t sugar! This is Limbu nu phool (lemon crystals). These lemon crystals look very similar to the sugar crystals and I had mistakenly placed lemon crystals, on and on, in the place of sugar.

Now with everyone’s hard work and hunger on the line we all tried to think of ways to save the spoiled lunch. We finally tried to add as much ‘real’ sugar as possible to offset the taste as well as cream. It didn’t really help much at this point. Sandeep went to go get paneer butter masala from a local restaurant to mix in to ours. We drained as much of the sauce as possible and were left with paneer coated with the sour sauce that I created.

A disaster ending in beauty:

I told the kids, that it was my mistake and they could give me any punishment they’d like to. It was a mistake I could have avoided if I had tasted everything before throwing it into the dish. But the kids responded with just love and understanding. “Nimesh sir, its perfect the way it is. We’ll eat and enjoy whatever we have. Don’t worry!”.

Truly amazing to see their spirit. As a group, we continue to have our ups and downs. But these type of experiences shine strong in my heart as reason and inspiration for our collective journey.

The Power of Love.

The Power of Kids.

A Journalist, English Class and Late Night Theatre...Fun, Fun, Fun!

Today was a wonderful day.

First we had a chance to sit down and have a discussion with Minkashi ben, a journalist from the Ahmedabad Mirror (who also wrote this story on our close brother Uday Bhai). She was able to share insight with the kids on what it means to be a journalist and what the importance of news is.

She wanted to write a story on EKATVA, our show and the kids. However, I felt its too early in the process still. Maybe as we get closer to an actual production being in place, then it will feel more worthy to publicize, but until then, keep working, keep developing, keep growing.

After time with Minakshi we had English class with Kathleen Didi and Roshni Didi. They really put together great, fun, interactive classes (hats off!). After that we had wonderful kichdi and kudhi that Kamaraben made for us. Then all 20 of us piled in our Manav Sadhna Qualis and Bica Bhai took us to Darpana for the show. Three words: It was awesome!!!

Here are a few clips from the show itself.

After the show, Roshni, Kathleen and I dropped the Tekra kids back to their homes. Bharat, Kiran and Bica Bhai dropped off the rest of the kids to Shankarbhuvan, Jamaalpur and Ashramshalla. Because it got late, around 1030pmish, we had to go to each individual kids homes in each of the different slum areas and drop them literally to each over their doorsteps - as their mom's and dad's are eagerly waiting. An intricate late night process, but with everyone's help it is possible. And it is absolutely worth it, for the kids would never get this type of exposure in their lives otherwise.

Keep walking with love.

English Class, Tabla Games and a Sad Girl

Today was an exciting day for the kids!

For one, we started English class. Two Manav Sadhna Volunteers, Kathleen and Roshni, have been kind enough to dedicate a half hour twice or thrice a week to start the process of improving what little English our kids already know. After a few writing and reading tests today, we realized there’s a lot to work on. But no problem, we’ll learn as much as we can, with whatever time we have available and through time, I’m sure the kids will catch up beautifully. The goal is to teach them enough English speaking so they can communicate with others the basics about who they are, ask questions, talk about the show and its roots, etc. The kids seem excited to learn this language and others. They are already saying “Arregato” and “Como Estas”!

After some time writing the alphabet and some quick reading excercises to gauge all the kids’ levels, Robin bhai, our very close and talented friend from Project Ahimsa (http://www.projectahimsa.org/), took the kids outside for Tabla and Music interactions and games.

Robin and Project Ahimsa, have been very closely connected with Manav Sadhna through the past years, supporting music and instrument programs for many of the underpriveleged children here in Ahmedabad. Robin, who recently finished his MFA in World Music from Cal Arts, one of the top Art Schools in the world, is now on a Fulbright Scholarship in India seeking to combine music and education to connect, teach and transform underpriveleged children.

Today, he played an amazing game with the kids, where they were empowered with the opportunity to direct a live ‘human’ orchestra. Each group of kids played a specific sound, that depicted one of the notes in the Tabla Matra. Then after Robin bhai’s examples, one kid at a time, started playing the director role, having the different groups play their sounds on rhythm at different times, in different intensities, to create their own unique musical pieces. What a fantastic interaction!

He then brought it to the practical and real, by gathering them around the actual tabla and demonstrating live how to create some basic sounds with their hands. He arranged tablas for the kids to touch, feel and play while he was showing them how to play it.

At closing prayer and sharing, Nikita shared that she was sad, because she didn’t have a chance to play the music director role or the tabla today. What a beautiful thing, that she can feel open enough to share a sad feeling, instead of holding it inside. It was nice to hear her share this. We then talked about how...[drum rolls please]...this is life. We don’t always get to do everything we want. We don’t always get every opportunity that everyone else gets. But then we also discussed how, taking a step back, we should realize how beautiful it is that God has even given us this huge opportunity to be sitting here together on this EKATVA mission - and much much more. We are all truly blessed.