Meeting Arslan

Yet another interesting day in India!
After my visit to India last year I decided to sponsor a child through the Indian organisation Deepalaya. He is a 12 year old boy called Arslan who is one of 5 children in a very poor farming family in a rural area a couple of hours out of Delhi. I had pre-arranged  to meet him and today was the day. Tarun and I had an interesting drive down to the area where the school is. The building stands alone in the middle of several fields that had recently been ploughed. The area grows wheat, mustard and a range of fruit and vegetables. The complex included two school buildings (junior and senior), a girls home and a boys home, and a small hospital ... all run by Deepalaya. There are 800 children who are brought in by bus from neighbouring villages.

When we arrived we were given the customary chai before being taken over to the senior building. We popped into several classes... The only difference between them being the age of the kids. It was like visiting a classroom even earlier than my time at school, with the children seated in rows facing a blackboard. There was nothing at all on the walls and no sign of children's work anywhere. The behaviour was also rather reminiscent of my time at school as every child rose as we entered the room and chanted the usual greeting, quietly remaining standing until told to sit. They were all neatly dressed in uniform and very well behaved.

After visiting a few classroom we finally made it to Arslans class. He is a very cute little boy who was rather overwhelmed by all the attention he was getting. It was like we were being followed by the paparazzi as there were several of the school staff, including the rather strange principal, who accompanied us with cameras. ....  not the first time I've felt like a movie star while in India  as I get plenty of stares..... something to do with the colour of my skin I presume, although I'd prefer to think it was because of my stunning looks.

Arslan, Tarun and I, followed by the paparazzi of course, went outside where we gave Arslan some clothes for him and his family, a few other things, and chocolates and pens for his classmates. Then back to the classroom where Arslan handed out the loot to his friends.

Meeting this boy was quite an experience. It was like something unreal became real as before this he was just a name and a photograph. I came away feeling that the money I was spending here was money well spent and appreciated. I also got to meet his 15 year old sister who was quite beautiful.

We were given lunch at the school before leaving for another school which was on the way back to Delhi. This school was different again. Tarun knew it because a friend of his had recently been volunteering at it. I gather that it is run by a wealthy English couple in conjunction with a guest house . We met up with some young English people who were apparently doing their gap year here. We walked up a hill to see a wonderful view of the area as Tarun recounted the stories of the leopard that hangs out in the area......I actually think that this story was more reL than some of the others he's been trying to scare me with.

It appears that the estate run by this English couple has the very Indian name of Tickley Bottom! We all went there for chai and had the added bonus of watching some Indian film crew shooting something... were still not exactly sure what.

The drive back to Delhi was one of the most scary things I've ever done in my life. Imagine a dodgem car rink with an additional 50 cars added to it and
the lights out! Tarun did offer to let me drive but I knew he was enjoying every minute of the chaos and didn't want to deprive him of the pleasure. I did contemplate ringing the kids to say goodbye before I died but fortunately it proved to be unnecessary as we got back to Tarun's home in one piece.

It had been a fantastic day