SHISHU MELA KALYANI 2012
On the morning of 25th November, a bus left with 35 volunteers, mostly sleepy to our journey from Kolkata to Kalyani. A one & half hour ride, with delicious breakfast & pleasant weather, seemed to be a good start for the day. We were escorted by a 'Flower Shower' & smiling faces of the children when we reached the place, a maidan in between the town of Kalyani, where more than 150 children from different Chatravaas were gathered to witness a celebration of themselves. Quickly, we refreshed ourselves & followed it up with a little briefing of all the volunteers. A Kalyan Ashram event mostly starts with a music & dance welcome. And so it did. The Karyakartas made all the necessary arrangements & it looked so beautiful & exciting that even we joined them for a jig. Some photos suggest that too. Then we paid homage to the deities & our unsung heroes, after hoisting the flag. Finally, the children out there, seemed more encouraged because they knew races gonna start now, what they were waiting for. First was the race, from the age group of 5 to 14 years, everyone participated, not once but twice. More so because, with every win there is a prize, just like us. Second, was Bin The Ball game, where you have to bin the ball in a basket from a distance, where even the volunteers gleefully took part. Final event was the relay race, which looked difficult for these children but then they did a pretty good job to complete the races. Even we had prizes for that too. After doing all this, we all took a break to just relax & take note of what all we did, how we did & many more. Lastly, a sumptuous lunch was like the icing on the cake. Again, we had a small session of play with the children before leaving for our city. The most saddest part was the goodbye, always has been. You just can't get enough of them, they're 
