Wordless Wednesday

At interval ("recess")

Manish and Dhilip

 

V. Sanjay 

 Jayanthi, Sathyapriya, Vijayalakshmi, Agalya, Abisha

 

Naveen, Elumalai, Ranjith

 

 Jaikarthik

 Madhavan and Harikrishnan

 

 

I will, for the moment yet, suppress what actually happened this weekend and remember what was. What always is.

 

I found this on my computer this afternoon:

 

Wordless Wednesday

Ingenious Kanmani cut up an old shirt and used the material to sew a secret pocket onto his undershirt.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Today is Ganesh's birthday, or one of his two birthdays, lucky god. Ganesh is a most popular Hindu god, part elephant and part human. He is celebrated as bestower of good fortune and wisdom.

During the festival, Ganesh becomes present for all those who worship him.

There was no school, and some of our employees invited me to join them in their little village celebration. Here is Ganesh in his makeshift temple:

An elaborately beflowered Ganesh with his offerings of food (chick peas, fruit, coconuts).

 

Faces from the crowd of devotees:

 

Moorthy, a village boy who attends Rising Star.

 

 

With Kanchana, who invited me, and her daughters Vijayakumaralakshmi and Varalakshmitamilekkaiya. Or something just like that.




Alamelu and son, Rajesh. I did remember his name.

 

 

 

Kumar, our Tamil teacher and shop owner. This is the largest store in our village. Does this tell you why I am always craving food that is not available?  

 


Kumar's sons, Something-something-kumar and Something-something-else-kumar, standing in front of their family Ganesh shrine. They have made offerings of oranges, apples, and corn.



Adios! Until next year, or at least until Ganesh's other birthday.

Wordless Wednesday

mangoes

Flu epidemic! This was the floor of my office a few days ago, not including the children behind the desk and under the desk. Here's the girls' section.

M. Vijay found it hilarious that he was wearing two nametags simultaneously. Both with Spiderman stickers.

Little Anitha is amused at something. Maybe at the infirmary on my floor?

It's Durgadevi's birthday, which means she gets to hand out eclairs.

Wordless Wednesday

Eagle scout project 2

For his eagle scout project, Max brought us books and funds several weeks ago. I unfortunately don't have pictures of the Pippi Longstocking books, one for each child, he delivered to fifth standard. We are almost halfway through and the kids love them.

Neither do I have pictures of the Tamil books and Tamil-English bilingual books we purchased with the funds he donated. But they're a huge hit.

I do have pictures of the moment when he brought fourth standard their eagerly awaited tomes. We had already finished an earlier book in the series, Little House in the Big Woods. The kids were insistent on continuing on to the next one. We had only had two copies of the previous book, one for me and the other for them to fight over.

Ergo, we were all greatly delighted to receive books for each child to follow along. Hardbound and with colored pictures, no less.

Moorthy and Revathi

Kanmani

Sagayamery

M. Vishva


I've created a monster. I hoped the kids would learn to love books, but could never have foreseen this level of excitement. They are crazy about this series. They were jumping up and down and clapping their hands to see the new books.

That evening at bedtime, I happened to find myself over at the girls' hostel. Sagayamery, almost asleep, gazes up at me drowsily from the concrete floor. "Ma'am," she whispers, "tomorrow we're on page six."

I loved how that was her last thought for the night.