Kaleem's birthday (and cute kids)

Kaleem celebrated his eleventh birthday on May 6 this year.

Darshan and Devaraj giggling. Little Pooja eagerly waiting for her slice of birthday cake.

Amita trying to feed little Umesh a piece of cake. Suma also waiting for cake.

Kaleem

Happy Birthday to Devaraj

On January 3, little Devaraj turned eight years old!

Independence Day birthday

On India's Independence Day (August 15th), the kids -- as did all kids in India -- got dressed up in their white school uniforms and went to school for a half-day of ceremonies and games.

Front of the line -- Jeevan, Arvind, and Anand.

Ramesh and Saroja number the kids from 1 to 31, to keep them organized, and they all get in their place in line whenever going somewhere. The littlest ones -- Swarana, Parveen, Vishnu, and Sinchana -- get a ride to school on his scooter.

Also on Independence Day, we celebrated little Vishnu's birthday! He turned three that day and enjoyed cake, cookies from Santosha Cafe and Matt, and lots of birthday decorations. Vishnu also got a birthday card all the way from the U.S. -- from Tracy Cox in California!

Manjula helping Vishnu light his candles.

Vishnu blowing out his candles while everyone sings "Happy Birthday" to him.

What people do on their birthdays

A tradition in India is to celebrate one's birthday by feeding the less fortunate. Indians often donate rations (rice, dahl, etc.), or money for meals, to orphanges on their birthdays.

Last week, one of the rickshaw drivers in Mysore brought his mother to Karunya Mane on her birthday, as she expressed the desire to celebrate her day by giving our kids cake and other goodies. He brought his son and wife, along with his mom and dad.

Cutting the cake

Vishnu and Darshan "helping" to cut the cake

Manikanta showing off his two (!) pieces of cake

Our little Shirley tried to get in on the fun

Happy birthday (again) Sreenevasa!

Well, Sreenevasa decided that he wanted his own cake for his birthday, today. So we figured why not, since he's likely never celebrated his birthday before---at least not the official way---and the kids do love cake! After cake, they went right to studying.

Kaleem, Harish, Nanjunda, Sreenevasa

Parveen, Anand, Arvind, Pallavi

Sinchana, Parveen, Anand, Arvind

Happy birthday Jeevan and Sreenevasa

Sunday the 22nd was Jeevan's fifth birthday, and his third week at Karunya Mane, and in school. Since this coming Wednesday the 25th is Sreenevasa's birthday (age 13), we celebrated both boys' days with a little cake and a whole lotta singing. Jeevan's mom also came to visit him on his birthday, and Jeevan was very happy to see her.

Sreenevasa in green shirt.

Happy birthday Umesh!

One year ago today, little Umesh was born to mom Kavitha and dad Rudra, and brother Darshan. Umesh has been a happy and healthy baby since birth, with mom taking excellent care of her second son. Today everyone celebrated Umesh's day with a little birthday cake!