MILLEE says goodbye to Karekura

after spending an unforgettable summer at karekura, millee has now switched base to lucknow (uttar pradesh). it was heart-breaking to leave the 50 kids that (not just david) we all fell in love with, but with the objective being to do a comparative study in the north, it became necessary to pack our bags and go north :(.

not that saying goodbye is ever easy, but this time was especially hard. how do you explain to these kids that you've shared every day with (for all of 8 weeks) that you might never be back again? when they've spent nearly every summer morning looking forward to your arrival? truth be told, we had come to look forward to our days with them quite as much. after all, we too had our learning experiences to undergo.

david put it aptly - they loved us just because we were there. i still remember my first day with them - i was embarrassed to be given so much attention. ten of them were on me at a time, asking "what is your name?". on hearing mine they would promptly offer theirs (and i'd try hard to remember, to do justice to their enthusiasm). but these were all the words we could exchange in a common language. all other communication we shared was across the language barrier.

a memorable incident i shall always recount was when i was showing anusha the pictures i had taken on my camera one morning. she asked me to scroll through all the pictures, then go to the ones i had taken the day before. i had visited my (stanford) room-mate's grandparents, aunt, and cousin. anusha made me explain to her who was who, and registered all. i was touched beyond words at the way the conversation proceeded... not because she registered all (obviously), but because she really cared to understand who was who... in the bit of my life i exposed to her.

there are many little things that made these children unforgettable to us...

• their undying enthusiasm in greeting us and saying goodbye for one. gosh, it was a process to get in and get out of school. in the afternoons, an incessant wave of "bye"s would surround us, making the ensuing silence almost hard to handle.
• the hypnotic effect the camera had on them (esp. mine, truly :). they'd lose interest in all else and beg for photos. radha, in fact, cared little for anything around her if a camera was visible. also adorable was the pose anusha and co. would strike as soon as the camera was aimed at them. definitely mind-blowing :).
• sheer lack of inhibition when it came to pouncing upon us to tickle, shower us with hugs and kisses, and inevitably causing us to lose our balance. (i learnt to shed mine, day after day.)
  
• the tender smiling faces when they saw the "winner" screen on the phones. (and sometimes, even when they'd lost but thought they'd won... in floored e.g. :)
  
• the "fider"-"spider" incident between siddharaju and anusha that will be talked about to kingdom come.
  
• srividya showing attitude, according to aish. the little miss has the most beautiful, penetrating eyes i've seen on a child.
  

these are only among a few, and those that came to mind first. the entire experience is hard to sum up in words. i think i speak for us all in that the infectious smiles and laughter that these kids added to our lives for this brief period will be reminisced about for years to come.

david, in all his awesomeness, put together an awesome yearbook for the kids. hopefully they will remember each of us, and each other. we'll definitely remember them all. if you'd like to see the yearbook, david will be only too happy to oblige. if you'd like to see more photos, just send me a request and i'll send you the url.

as for the present - our move to lucknow has been an effort, but successful. there will be more on that in a later post.