Indian Independence Day

Yes I know that was nearly a week ago....but it has been 1 big week and I am just catching up!
Things I noticed

• the government had a great ad on the TV- about the colours of the flag -saffron at top, white with the blue Ashoka Wheel in the middle and green at the bottom.....not mentioning religions or communal groups at all -it was a wonderful little animation of how well the colours compliment each other and blend together which results in the wheel in the middle ....saffron of course relates to Hindu people and green to Muslim people.
• not long ago schools run a programme for kids to think of how to build friendships with Pakisthani kids
• last time I was in Delhi there were many billborads up suggesting good to make friends with one's neighbours
• NDTV has a sereis of little story bites running- tha latest is someone talking who works for Dastkar[ this is one of the really GOOD organizations] through the kindness of someone's donation they were able to pay off the loans of a number of woamen and train them in weaving to support themseleves with dignity. These women had taken a loan of 500 Rp [= $15] and then spent 20 years as bonded labour trying to pay off the debt.
• Anyway on Indipendence Day I attended the local show ground where there was an all schools programme, these are just the children from our small village, all attend schools within walking distance [Ghaneara out next village and about 1.5 km away had their own programme] these kids just come from with in Pushkar- I had to point this out to myself a number of time...there are so many of them, probably half as many again who do not go to school!

The batch of photos are a bit boring but they give a sense of how many children were there- it is a very big areana and I stood in one spot and took pictures every which way....

Here are some of our Shakti Project Children- kids who through the kindness of people all over the world get a helping hand to get into school.

our boys in the row behind

The tall girl sitting up staright  in the middle is Mumtah- she is so pleased to be at school- family probelms and we thought she would have to leave to work at home but she is stubborn and the family have come around and she is at school again this year Yeh!!

Great kids!