The pure joy of giving

It could be any day of the year, but it just makes it easier to accept random people giving away unexpected gifts to strangers, especially dressed like that. And as one put it aptly at the end of event, it helps overcome our own hesitancy, push away doubts and just do it. The spirit of a festival affects us all, shoving everyday troubles away to be dealt another day. And instead, offers a chance to magically brighten our living, even on a cold day in December, celebrated as a symbol for all that is.

Alike 50-60 who made it happen (and others contributing only monetary wise), a chance to spread smiles among those who meet in our everyday living instead of yet another NGO/School gift distribution was compelling. And so, last Thursday, four teams started from Silk Board, Jayadeva Hospital, Tin factory and Yeswanthpur circle - 8 AM and thereabouts. All teams were then to converge to Cubbon Park to unite and revel in our day's experience.

Group C (the Sportive and Supportive team as it got labeled later) led by Gaurav (and supported by Hiren, Kamalesh) got us going with an outline of things to come. That was after we signed our attendance and pinned a self written badge (to identify ourselves, but I feel it served as a better identification amongst strangers that we were doing some team activity). Tasks were spelled out and readily we all raised our hands to carry them out. We then moved to Gopalan mall for breakfast (for some) in car and four motorcycles.

While waiting, Kamalesh, Ashish and Nadhiya carried out the first gifting - an elderly lady sweeper. The genuine joy on her face set the stage for our own experience too. And just before we were leaving, 6 kids added more color to the event - though a little spoiled by teens resorting to sneers and snides. Gaurav and team had already prepared us for this eventuality and we kept cool :) Apart from pre-wrapped gifts, we were also distributing toffees, biscuits and cup cakes and had money to buy food/drink - over the day it mostly involved fruits like banana, apple, orange and coconut water.

Learning on the go, we split the gifts into three bags (*, **, *** according to different age groups instead of boys/girls). Our next stop - near the Bypanahalli Metro Station. A large family selling various wares had bunch of kids - the smile and reaction to gifts and food items was overwhelming.

Being early in the day or what, we didn't meet any candidates at traffic signals. So, at Indiranagar Double road, we left Old Madras Road and decided to take CMH road. We treated a footwear mender and garbage collector. But still, plenty of goodies were left in our kitty. Murphy's law again to the fore.

Just past Ulsoor metro station, we spotted kids amongst construction workers. More smiles and joy, but a scared and crying kid too (later, other teams too revealed such incidents). And one sly fellow demanded and got a bat (which wasn't wrapped around the handle and thus spotted). All in all, the kids, their parents and us were all happier for the gifts received and given.

Onto MG road next. Just before Brigade road, spotted an old man struggling to walk - white plaster around a heel, asking around where to board a bus to Shivaji Nagar. We gave him cupcake (and biscuit pack which he refused) and brought him tender coconut.

The six ladies in our group then decided for a walk through Brigade road in search of needy (and call us if needed). Gaurav had an inspiration and along with Ashish carried it out - toffee and cupcake to a traffic cop :) Shortly after, myself and Ashish were called for service. The ladies were talking to a very old man selling ground nuts - got two packs from him and gave cup cakes. The very long walk thereafter to Residency road and doubling back to MG road wasn't fruitful in terms of gifting.

Meanwhile, others had got packs of cotton candy which we devoured before heading to final gifting location - Shivaji Nagar bus stand and neighborhood. The vibrant festival holiday mood was at peak here - so much hustle and bustle of crowd and hawkers alike and congestion so heavy that one couldn't walk more than two paces freely at a time. So, here it was that we managed to empty most of our hoarding, more smiles we saw, albeit amidst a tad uncomfortable surrounding of human congregation. And our elderly man with plaster was there too - must have got the bus without problems after all.

A light meal/juice at bus stand (too crowded here too) later, we headed to Cubbon park. More walking and a bit of confusion later, we finally gave rest to our tired frames and joined one another group near the museum. We greeted others whom we knew from previous treks, almost everyone was mingled - a big BTC family. A while later, the other two groups also arrived, almost simultaneously from opposite directions.

Ajita (overall organizer) got us quickly assembled (straight circle as the BTC joke goes) to conduct intro and feedback rolled together. As we were too many members, it took such a long time that Canteen wala got irritated as his customers found it difficult to find seats. We moved away (in our enthusiasm, we had quite overlooked our immediate surroundings) and formed quickly again to continue. People brought forth many positives and spark gleamed in their eyes as they reminisced the smiles and joy they had brought about.

Photo Credit - Shruthi

Photo Credit - Channa

Photo session (as separate groups as well as one big group) was followed by accounting and good byes to meet again to enrich ourselves as well the community we served. Sreeraj dropped me back home to end one of the best social events I have been part of.

Colorothon - 26 Jan 2014

I have been to very few social events, like note/pencil distribution to school kids with my company colleagues 2-3 years back. I feel uncomfortable and restrict myself to donations. But when BTC invited us for Colorothon event, I wanted to try it out again. More so as we were free to come by choice and just had to spend some time coloring.

To avoid last minute cancellations, (had to cancel a trek in December and infact cancelled cycling trip 25-26 weekend (I really gotta get my own cycle) which enabled me to participate for this) I didn't really inform Virander. When I reached Krishna Rao Park (about a km from Lalbagh) 15 minutes early (to 8AM), I realized late that I didn't have any BTC contact and felt lost and weird for some time! There was a political rally going outside.

Krishna Rao Park

I roamed around the very large park, noticing volunteer activity and various posters about Colorothon. The park has a separate section for elders for exercising (with very interesting machines and ropes), cricket ground, lots of space for badminton and other sports and ofcourse enough space for walkers and runners. There is even a walking club for the park! Cleanliness was good (but we sure did spread large amount of garbage by end of day, and I guess volunteers must have cleaned them up)

Colorothon

At one end of park, I saw agenda for Colorothon - was a whole day event, I was thinking it was all about drawing and going off. 7-8 AM for volunteers to arrange things. 8-9 AM for registrations. Flag hoisting followed by motor cycle rally. Then the main attraction - drawing. Followed by singing events, a show by IDL blind team (theme of social event - for the cause of blind), comedy show, magic show, drum show, prize distribution, etc. Chief Minister was supposed to come, but we had to be satisfied with Infosys Nandan Nilekani.

I wandered outside in search of breakfast. The road opposite the main entrance is lined on one side with various vegetable and fruit vendors (a mini market). Fortunately, there was a hotel neearby (South tindi's according to Google maps, I couldn't find name, only copper art with various kitchen utensils above the entrance). It was crowded so much as to form a queue everywhere - billing, getting food and finding a place just to keep your plate down and eat. Many ate with plate in hands only. With good cause - reasonable price (lesser than Indiranagar) for very good food. Overcrowded, but neat place.

I went back and did a bit of volunteering, despite not getting a badge :P - like carrying card-boards and water bottle packs. Volunteers were helpful and answered questions that varied from good to silly with smile and patience. Many of them were from Khushiyan and BTC. Soon I spotted Shwetha, Virander, Deepika and other BTC members and sighed breathe of relief. I was thinking I would never find them in this large gathering.

After registering (basically getting a card-board, sheet of white paper (both with ads) and form to indicate our personal info - along with pencil/rubber for drawing), we waited for events to start. After 9AM, people gathered for flag hoisting - Nilekani had come by then. There was a speech, "Vijayi vishwa tiranga pyara" and a Kannada song sung. We clapped and saluted. (Was disappointed that National Anthem wasn't sung). It was so long after that I saw flag hoisting, perhaps first since school days.

Soon, Shruthi joined us too and we went around clicking pics. On the main stage, singing events started (got to hear "Aye mere watan ke logo" (Sung by Lata more than 50 years ago!) which was followed by IDL blind band. We then moved on to finding a spot under trees to start drawing. I got a crayon set from public bucket (for elders like us :P not for kids, who had to compulsory bring their own)

I regretted sorely not getting my drawing pencils/sketches/crayons/etc (lying waste for years) and my camera. But surely a good decision to come for the event. I was struggling to find reference figure to draw (I am very poor with imagination and certainly can't draw anything other than cartoon). So, at first I tried to draw the joker on the crayon kit. It was very small and pathetic - I eventually erased it off. I spotted a kid wearing playboy t-shirt and drew that. And then another joker from drawing kit Shwetha had got. It kept me busy, though it was very funny for a late 20s guy to draw. Coloring with crayon was really good feeling. And then to keep company, simply shaded bottom of the paper and drew a simple tree. The result :D

After submitting, I got to meet other BTC members - Ajitha, Piyush, Girish, Murali. We went to see if Magic show had started. While waiting, we had some snacks - very pricy stalls. We almost missed the entire show due to confusion of stage. K S Ramesh had come to perform. Though I have seen 'The prestige', I was very awed with the tricks - pulling out pigeons (why pigeons in most magic tricks, why not any other bird?), tearing newspaper but showing it as one piece, calling kids and showing tricks with hand kerchiefs (combining many into one piece/different color/pattern, seemingly producing umbrella out of empty hankies), single rope being cut into two but fit back and finally making it a circular one by cutting off a small knot culminating in vanishing act by covering a girl and removing cloth (done so fast to seem really as magic).

We had lunch (after more photo shoots) - Bisibellabath was good and tea was decent. (Ofcouse, can't tell about the curd rice I don't eat). Lots of chit chat to the point of getting bored. We saw police men/women, NCC cadets, etc painting too. One police guy was pretty serious in drawing a peacock and his use of pencil was very good.

Many real artists (probably some were invited) were painting on canvas (like they show in films) - they were really so good. One elder was drawing a portrait of a girl. Another a many headed elephant. One fit an army man in India map. Artist Harrsha drew a pencil sketch in about 5 minutes! His painting were too good. He was in crazy demand. One drew tattoos on body (Chotta Bheem was popular demand, just like their over-sized character masks drew children throughout day). Was so good to see lot of artistic skill amongst the kids, some were simply too awesome. We signed our names on a large poster.

Missed most of prize announcement (Judges were about 10 renowned artists). As customary in filmy melas, an announcement was sad to hear about missing kid. One guy lost bike key. Later we helped pin good drawings (from those not winning or not in top 200 to be auctioned) on large green sheet running the length of park from entrance to building in middle of park. I couldn't find mine to bring home :D and gave off participation certificate too :P

Next event was drum show, but we left before it started. It was staged on other side of entrance where cricket ground was there. Lots of stalls sold variety of items like bread magnet (wonder what it was!), Indi dolls(Discover the power within :D), paintings and materials, etc. We sat for a while and left before event started. Drums were distributed to public, which were enthusiastically beaten. I really like the IDL blind band drumming them, especially one guy seemingly lost in the beauty of it all. Ofcourse, kids beating them was cute too.

Piyush dropped us back, very thankful as I was tired from lot of standing/walking throughout the day. A very feel good factor event, some 6-8k people participated, perhaps less or perhaps more. I will leave you with a very good album which captures the very essence of Colorothon, much better than my insufficient writing:

Ravi Valdiya's Album