Walking to New Light from the Mother Teresa home this morning was an assault on the senses.
I discovered they were honoring a goddess today. The Durga Puja festival marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura – it epitomizes the triumph of good over evil, which I’m always happy to celebrate.
I’ve never seen the Kalighat area this busy before. Every inch of the sidewalk was filled with women selling flowers, with street vendors, with brightly colored saris in every color imaginable, with people honoring the goddess Durga and there was barely room to turn around in the streets there were so many people. I loved it.
I was able to spend the afternoon at New Light’s creche cum shelter and the evening at the Dalit Center today.
I’ve been getting to know all of children, learning all their favorite games, what they’re drawn to, what they love. They all love playing crocodile, crocodile, doing handstands and dancer’s pose in a circle holding hands and falling in a heap when one of us eventually loses our balance. They love learning how to make origami-paper cranes and blowing bubbles whenever they wash their hands before lunch.
And each of these children are completely unique. One of the boys will always be the first to tug on my arm and ask me to swing him around. One of the young girls loves to sing to herself and dance around the room, another loves to jump up and give me a big hug and one young girl will quietly walk up to me and softly touch my hand simply look up at me and give me a shy smile. One of the girls is never afraid to boss the boys around and one of the boys will always take my hands, pull me over and show me exactly what game to play with him. One of the little ones always puts her feet on mine, will hug my waist, look up at me and we’ll sway and dance together. Another little one always prefers drawing on my hand rather than on paper. They’re curious, energetic, shy, precocious… They never fail to make me smile and laugh.
Being with these children always makes me happy, a deep in the gut kind of happy.
These children will always crawl on your lap, climb up your legs, try to jump on your back and I love each of them. I’ll always tell them ami tomake bhalo bashi - I love you in Bengali.