Last Thursday I dropped at the Old Age Home to meet the manager Poonachaiah. I had printed invitations which had details of the party we planned for the members of the old age home on the coming Saturday. When I shared this with my friend Mudit, he had a big laugh, oh so you are inviting them for a party in their own premises..he he :) Yeah, funny I too laughed at the thought...:) Anyways the intention was to give information of the Agenda, Time and Place.
Mr Poonachaiah was pleased with the plan, he assured he will distribute the pamphlets which I had printed out to everyone. He suggested I invite the chairman of the Trust and I thought that was an excellent idea. A year back I had printed a request asking permission from the Chairman to do activities at the old age home. A kind and nice gentleman he had readily agreed. So I was really looking forward to see him there.
We had a party last year too, but this party was different and I was looking forward to it. The Agenda had music as part of the plans. Prax who is a guitarist had planned to get his friends Manu, Shruthi and Steve who would perform. It was all his idea and I must say it was a great plan.
Saturday morning did some shopping for the party, kept the camcorder ready and by 2pm headed for the Ashram to meet all of the rest except Prax and group. We planned to meet at 2:30pm so that we can all buy some more eatables for the party. All of us then went around in the vicinity and were ready by 3:30pm.
Indira Aunty who is the President of the Old Age Home and also resides in there was very pleased to see us. She made special squash for us in the Kitchen. I told her we were here to serve her and not the other way round. She was so persistent so happy to do it for us that we let her do it.
We then started the party with the intention of our group by Suresh. We then had rounds of introductions. Prax and team were supposed to reach a little late :) All the people at the old age home introduced themselves. There were lot of claps for the members who have crossed the 80 age bar :) The volunteers also introduced themselves and we were almost done when the Manager along with the Chairman joined us.
The Chairman gave a nice speech appreciating our efforts and also looking forward to the good evening. Till then the musicians arrived with their instruments. They needed time to set the instruments so they chose the kitchen to do that as that was the only place available :)
We realized we need to change the agenda, the food was after the music program but looks like the food needs to be served soon. So Siddhartha, Sujeet, Suresh, Deepak got busy in arranging the food items and serving it to the members of the old age home, manager and chairman. I was busy cutting the fruit salad in the kitchen amidst the musicians practicing.
After the food, the musicians team were ready. Prax was on the Guitar, Steve on the Tabla and Manu started with a bhajan. He had a beautiful voice and everybody there were enthralled. He is a Karnatic Classical Singer. Shruthi then sang the next bhajan, she is hindustani classical singer. What a great mix we had there :) So they alternated and sang some 5 bhajans. In the end they ended the show with a lively 'Dooba Dooba' which had Prax, Manu and Shruthi stand and sing....!!
We captured the event in our cameras, Prax on his digital camera and Sidhartha on his SLR. I had some worried with my camcorder initially but later fixed it and could capture some sections.
The Chairman was very happy and told us that he looked forward to more activities and welcomes our presence at the old age home. The session ended after we took feedback from all the members
We did the cleaning up and then we left promising to return soon. Before leaving some of us spend time with Mr Rajgopalan and his wife who are bed ridden and couldnt make it to the event.
While leaving the Ashram, I was so filled with positive energy and had great plans for the future...:)
Coffee, Wine, Tea....
12 years ago
