Happy Belated Krishna Janmashtami !

Krishna Janmashtami is the annual commemoration of of the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, which fell on August 28 this year.

Darsha, Yashavanth, Manu, Mohan, Darshan, Jeevan, Umesh, Venky, Adarsh, Vishnu, Vishnu, Raju!

There were celebrations throughout the country, including at Karunya Mane! On Wednesday morning before school, our little boys got dressed up as Krishna and had a good time playing their "flutes"!

Umesh! 

Little Venkatesh!

Puppies!

On Republic Day (January 26), the kids were invited to our next-door neighbors, the animal shelter People for Animals, for a flag raising ceremony.

While there, our two youngest boys found the litter of cute puppies.

Jeevan and the puppies 

Venkatesh and the puppies

We're not sure who's cuter, the boys or the adorable puppies!

KM Boy and Girl of the Month - September, October, and November 2012

The boys and girls of the month at KM for September, October, and November are:

September - Shanti and Prajwal
October - Arabia and Razak
November - Arabia (two-time winner!) and Venkatesh

As their prize, Shanti, Prajwal, and Razak got to go to Anath's wedding in early November. Ananth is a good friend of our kids and arranges for them to go to summer camps every summer vacation. The three kids enjoyed their outing in Mysore, saw a fabulously glamorous wedding ceremony, and had a really yummy lunch! Arabia was unable to attend because she had a prior engagement working with the other 4th graders on an conversational English learning project with some friends from Chicago.

Razak, Prajwal, and Shanti (right) and Kruthi and Anath (bride and groom)

Little Venkatesh at the front of the line

Little Venkatesh has been with us now for almost a year, and he's attending St. Francis school in pre-KG. He grew up on the street with his grandma and we took him in at KM when he turned three years of age. He's very well behaved and quite healthy and strong, and loves to write on his little slate with chalk. Here he is waiting in line (first little boy in his blue uniform) to be taken to school in the morning.

Ice cream!

In May of each year, the kids at Karunya Mane go home for a two-day visit if they have a home to go to (that we know about). Some of the kids without any parents or family stay at KM during these two days, and naturally they feel a little sad.

This year, we took the kids who stayed at KM to a very nice and yummy ice cream store in Mysore. There were sooooo many flavors, some of them had no idea what to order, so Aunty Anu told them to just try the chocolate (always a winner). Some of the older kids tried the more adventurous flavors, and they all shared their flavors with one another. Yum!

little Jeevan

Nanjunda

Renuka

Kartik, Sharath, small Sreenivas (smiling), Devaraj, Razak

little Venkatesh

A new baby...

Banu, a young woman who lives on the street, just had a baby, who we named Venkatesh. We're not sure where Banu is from, but she looks about 17 or 18, and came to the street a few years ago.

The baby's grandma is Kaveriamma, one of our other street women, and her grandson Rajesh, who is also about 17 or 18, is the father.

Mom Banu and baby Venkatesh