the positives...

Sunday breakfast activity with Aashayein foundation again...the venue was a home for HIV+ kids...I really-really wanted to go here today as I missed a similar venue last month...that's the very reason I had to turn down farside's offer of joining his office group for an early morning drive to NH9.

We reached to find the kids already busy with their breakfast...the entrance of their dining hall was being guarded by a wee little girl, who smiled generously every time the camera was pointed at her...munching on her idli and boiled eggs, she was clearly more interested in the bunch of new faces in her 'home'...once the kids were done with their breakfast, a riot broke off at the place...smiles, laughter, shrieks, scream, music, dance...everything was there in the air...many of these kids are orphans...one of the kids had a few passport size pictures in her hand - of her dad, mom, brother and herself - when was even more younger...I started teasing her that the picture doesn't look like hers at all - something that we kept fighting over, for the next couple of hours :) many of these kids were very-very young - too young to understand why they are being put up here...but their smile and spirit belies all their miseries...I remember, I was once talking to one of my friends about my outings with the Foundation...I asked her what she thinks about how the people in such institution take our activities...do they look it as an act of pity on them? she said - "things are different with kids...they try to grab every little opportunity of having fun and be happy"...today's event were a living testimony to that...you extend a finger to them - they'll grab you by the hand...you put an arm around them - they will come and sit in your lap and smile lovingly right on your face...being with them for an hour or so is the purest for of joy I've been experiencing lately...

my association with the Foundation started on a selfish note - to get some good pictures...but then slowly, I got addicted...now I go there not just to have fotos but to spend some quality time and be genuinely happy...guess the motive is still selfish :) because no matter whatever small things we do with them, the love they shower on us in return is simply, priceless! farside pointed out rightly - "these children give us far more than we could give them."

I've no clue which one to choose for blip today...I am totally confused and biased (farside would know what I'm talking about :)) so here goes the picture with my favourite girl from today :)

Rest of the shots from today...