The Ganesh Festival

The Ganesh festival, which fell on September 1 this year, is a popular festival in India. On this day at KM, our boys expressed their creative flair. For their Ganesh puja (a religious ritual performed by Hindus as an offering to the Hindu god Gaesh), the boys built themselves a little Ganesh altar in their room to celebrate the day.

They used whatever materials they could find around the grounds, including flowers and custard apples for decorations and they made a clay Ganesh figure from mud and water. Quite creative kids!

Lokesh and Sharath

Manikanta and Vinod drew the Ganesh figure.

Lighting the deepam.

Three big kids to Bannur...

This year, we transferred three of our oldest kids to a residential school in Bannur, a town about a 45-minute drive from Mysore. These three kids will be able to accelerate their educational progress there, as well as have the opportunity to make friends with more kids their own age.

The three who have gone to Bannur are Lokesh, Nanjunda, and Asha, below, saying goodbye to her cousin Gowtham.

Lokesh and Nanjunda (both in red shirts, sitting) waiting in the van.

We first stopped on the street so that Nanjunda could say a quick goodbye to his grandma (his closest relative, who lives and works on the street).

Grannie is quite happy that Nanjunda wanted to continue his education, and does not want to return to the street life.

So far, the three kids are doing well at Bannur, where they wake every morning at 4:30 for prayer and yoga practice, followed by a bath, studying and breakfast, and then school all day.

This year's school dance program

This school year at Deepa Primary School, some of our kids participated in their school dance program. The kids rehearsed every day for over a month, and everyone had a great time at the event!

Little Sowmya in her costume.

Our five oldest boys did a special number of their own.

Nanjunda, Lokesh, Kaleem, Venkatesh, and Sreenivasa.

Some of the moms attended, including Kavita (holding Vishnu), Sushila, and Kumari.

Big Pooja showed off her "bling" and danced a lovely number with a few other girls.

Prema also participated in a girls' dance about their day at school.

... on the way to orange belts ...

On the way to getting their orange belts -- the kids had a Sunday session with other karate students of the school, practicing what they've learned. In a couple of weeks, they'll be going for their orange belt tests, an all-day event with hundreds of other kids taking karate lessons.

Sharath and Harish

Asha and another student

Lokesh and Sreenevasa

Summer cooking lessons

This summer (April/May), the kids had a few activities while on their school break. One was cooking lessons twice a week from Anu. They learned to make lots of Indian favorites, like upma, tomato bhat, idlis, vegetable palyas, and lemon rice. Their first lesson of course, was on hygiene in the kitchen and the need to clean a kitchen til it is spotless.

Sreenevasa, Asha, Kaleem, Nanjunda, Amita, Venkatesh, Lokesh, Vinod

Anu moved the stove to the floor so all could see and participate

Asha holding the end product, with Kaleem and Amita looking
on, and Nanjunda offering you some chutney!

Timing was perfect for the cooking lessons, as we lost our cook (again). We've got a new cook now (more on her later), and in the interim the older kids used what they learned and helped Saroja make a few meals.

School sweaters

Check out these handsome kids in their school sweaters.

Sharath

little Pooja and Lokesh

Shanti

Sinchana

Tutors!

Operation Shanti believes that education is key to a child being able to improve his or her life. We focus a good portion of our efforts and funds on providing our kids with the opportunity to get an education through good schooling during the day and through quality tutoring after school and on weekends.

Vaibraj with Latta, Divya, Shanti, and Sumitra

Recently, we arranged for after-school tutors for ALL of our kids (except for the tiny tots). The tutors, each assigned five children, arrive at 5pm to help their kids with their homework and lessons for two hours a day, five days a week.

Mamata with Parveen, Surya, Arvind, Jeevan, and Anand

Making available this tutoring to the kids is, we believe, similar to what other kids receive at home from their parents.

Our kids sure like their new tutors, all with several years of experience as tutors and teachers and each with the interest and desire to help the underprivileged.

Shoaib with Lokesh, Nanjunda, and Venkatesh

Seeing these kids coming home from school, then being diligent and disciplined with their homework... it's hard to imagine that just two years ago, most of them aimlessly roamed the streets.

One of our tutors, Shoaib (above), manages a fabric shop located on one of the busiest streets in the city. During his first visit to Karunya Mane, the boys recognized Shoaib, as they used to sell their wares (pens, Qtips, other trinkets) in front of his shop when they lived on the streets. Upon seeing Shoaib, they asked him curiously, "Why did you shoo us away from your shop?" Shoaib finds it quite amusing that he now tutors and provides guidance to these same boys, who really enjoy his company.

Venkatesh three years ago, working with his mom after school

Running away...

Yesterday our worst nightmare came true, as four of our boys ran away from school. After having their lunch -- and then very conscientiously washing their lunch boxes and putting them back in their book bags -- they each walked out of the school grounds, heading for the city.

That Venkatesh, Lokesh, and Nanjunda ran away was actually a real surprise, as these three were in boarding school last year and they never ran away from there. Venkatesh and Lokesh have sisters staying at KM with them, and the three boys are good students and good kids.

It turns out that the other boy, little Manikanta -- really our riskiest kid in terms of the running away factor (just because he's had absolutely no guidance and support during his nine short years and because he's lived freely on the street during that time, going wherever he wants, doing whatever he wants) -- was the instigator, encouraging the other boys to "come with me, let's go see a movie!"

Manikanta is having the hardest time adjusting to KM and to school, as he's never gone to school before, even though he is nine. His mother would beat him and put chili powder in his eyes whenever he went home without enough money for her from his begging. He'd then run away to the street to hang with his friends for a while, until he gathered some money to take home. This continued for years for Manikanta.

This year, while we were moving our kids -- many of them his friends -- into Karunya Mane, Manikanta insisted on coming with them. We told him that he has to go to school if he stays at KM, and he agreed. But of course, he could not know how drastic a change that would be for him. So he's struggling a bit, and we are doing what we can to support and guide him as he goes through this transition.

We went to the city to where the boy's moms work to look for them, but they weren't at their old stomping grounds. Then we went to the railway station, since that's an obvious place they'd go. Even though they may have had no money, they are street smart and know how to get onto trains without a ticket. And, yes, there they were, sitting together on the sidewalk outside the train station. Just sitting, and waiting ...for what nobody knows... They looked embarrassed, sheepish, and like the guilty little boys they were when we walked up to them.

Our kids have lived for so long on the street without much guidance or support that, in some ways, they are mature for their age, as they know how to survive with very little. Yesterday, while on their little adventure, the boys bought a pen for 30 rupees from someone, then turned around and sold it for 50 rupees, netting a 20 rupee profit. So although they know that being at Karunya Mane and in school is better for them than living on the street, their old habits and ways of life remain. It'll take time for that to dissipate from their thoughts, and in the healthy, supportive environment of Karunya Mane, we are sure this will happen. They have come such a long way since when we first met them on the street three years ago. The next step will just take time -- years for some of them -- and patience and understanding on our side before they realize and believe in their hearts that they are no longer street kids.

We hauled them back to KM and had a good long talk with all of them. They were all very apologetic and said they won't do it again. They know what they did was wrong, that is certain. Whether they'll do it again, only the future will reveal... we sure hope not.

Amita comes to Karunya Mane

Amita, Lokesh's sister who didn't go to boarding school last year because mom said no and was not allowed to come to KM until now, finally managed to convince her mom to let her come to stay with us. They live in a slum area and Amita had attended the nearby government school, where she did well as a student, but obviously is still far behind where she should be---she should be in seventh grade, but the new school has put her back a few years, to fourth grade. Amita and Prema are good friends.