What I did in Haregaon

                       I was in Haregaon for Six days, generally when girls go for a come-and-see it is generally one month, they are given a particular thing to do to pass their time there, it may involve teaching the hostilities or helping out in some way. I was to help sister Marie and Sister Philla in training a group of girls of the ninth standard English class in putting up an extremely simplified version of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice". The lines were simple however it was a mammoth task for the Girls to do it, most of them managed to rote learn the lines. They understood what the lines meant, however when they would get nervous they would make many grammatical mistakes.They practiced a lot when I was there and I am sure that they will do a good Job of it in the coming weeks. Here is a picture of the girls with Sister Philla and Sister Marie...One of the Girls is hiding in the picture as she was really annoyed that I was leaving ....

The Girls and the Sisters..

                  Well the skit was one of the things I was doing, here I used to wake up at 6am and accompany the sisters and the girls to the nearby church for mass... Then around 11 am I accompanied Sister Shubadra my roomie to the Balwadi which is another name for play school. The Kids there were real cute, everyone greets you with a Nameste when you enter and leave.. Its nice to be greeted with a Nameste it is something we don't do often in Mumbai.. They have one amazing teacher in the Balwadi ,her name is Maria, she suffers from a skin disease because of which she cant go out in the sun so there is another helper employed to take the kids out. Maria is amazing! especially when it comes to storytelling. The normally distracted kids pay such rapt attention during story time ....her stories are interspersed with songs pertaining to the stories.. It is great fun watching the kids anticipate the song and happily sing along! Here is a picture of Maria and the kids during story time ! I wish I could have taken a video, but my phone does not have a great camera for videos....:(

Story Time !! The story was on a sparrow "Chiu Taai!"

              Apart from this I also spent my time reading, I read a few interesting articles given to me by Sister Philla. I also read a book on the Society. However most of the time I was with this book ......

           The book simply asks us to adopt an attitude of praising God whatever the circumstances we are in... This is not an easy thing to do, but the book talks about how we can benefit from this attitude. If you believe in God this makes some sense, if we believe our lives our run by God we can also believe that whatever situation that we are in even if it seems to be hopeless... will bring something good. The book is also about accepting blessings in your life and not being afraid to just live and be glad to be alive and enjoy what life gives. I really liked it because it made a lot of sense to me... I also needed to read something like this at the time .....
           Apart from the sisters and the girls in the hostel the convent was home to three dogs that were adopted by the sisters there, the male Prince is a cross between a German Shepherd and a street dog. He has his female pals Sonie and Tipsy. The dogs are kept in their cages during the day, because school which is on the same premises is on during the day and the dogs aren't very nice with men. Prince and Sonie are around 12 or 13 years old.... Lately Prince has been howling in his cage during the day, because of which he is tied out, he has used this opportunity to dig a huge hole in the ground, I guess it is for the harsh summers there! The hole is real deep!

Prince and his hole in the ground!

           Shrirampur is known for its Sugar factories, there are huge sugarcane farms here. The Sugarcane factory in Haregaon had closed down few years ago, leaving a lot of people there jobless. The people have now either started shops, do some odd jobs around the place or have to travel very far for employment. The place also sees 12 Hour power cuts, its from 12pm to 12am for one week and 12am to 12pm in another because of this some of the people have to spend on inverters so that their kids can comfortably study. Its sad that they have to face this when in Mumbai we use and abuse electricity like its nobody's business.
As I was leaving I saw a lady cobbler sitting at the side of the road. Now I have never seen a lady cobbler in my life, I just assumed its something that men do..Since I have seen only male cobblers in Mumbai. The sister with me told me that she was happy that the women here seem to be empowered,sometimes more than men.....Its is a good thing.... but it would be better if the both were empowered equally...
        One thing I learn t in Haregaon is that, to receive you have to give! I gave a little love to the girls that I was dealing with and I received loads in return! Not just here, I have observed this in other areas of my life.. there is great satisfaction in giving more and the more U give the more u seem to get in return!
       All in all it was a good experience I learned a lot about what a vocation is thru chatting with the sisters... They have a nice way of life... I still think I have to process a lot of it ..However, I am glad finally made the decision to go there......