Christmas comes early for slum kids

Cheers and chuckles reverberated through the shanty having tarpaulin sheets for roof as children were greeted to a pleasant surprise.

A host of like-minded people, part of The Magic Lantern (TML) initiative, chose to forego their holiday to bring smile to the faces of these underprivileged children living in a slum near Koramangala, southeast Bengaluru. They gave them goodies and made them sing and dance.

It was perhaps the first time that 13-year-old Gangadhar V encountered ‘Santa Claus and his English-speaking friends’. “I am so happy. I want this day to come every day,” he said with excitement. Sitting in a circle, his little friends concurred as they curiously looked at the new guests.

“We usually play football after school and during holidays. But today’s event is nice. They give us food and blankets. They teach us English and games. We sang and danced,” Ram Kumar, who studies at a government primary school near Jakkasandra, said in Kannada.

For several TML volunteers, visiting a slum was a new experience. Among them were Reena Khanna, a teacher, and her daughter Agrima Khanna. “It’s our first experience. We sang and danced with the children. I was as happy as they were. I want to come here again and again,” Agrima said.

Software engineer Ashish Chaturvedi usually spends his weekends with friends, partying or going on a long drive. On Sunday, he was at the slum with children. “This is a different experience and it’s good,” he said. Sunday’s four-hour-long fun-filled event has a story behind it. “During Deepavali, we were distributing food and fruits to children of almost all the slums in the city. That’s when a slum dweller here asked if we could teach their children. We thought why not and decided to form a team of like-minded people to educate the children and make them employable,” Nanditta Kapoor, who is part The Magic Lantern, told DH.

She continued, “Our aim is to not just teach them the alphabet, but also teach them how to live with dignity. We started giving them tuition on the weekend. Sports, yoga, dance, games and craft work are part of our curriculum. We will reach children in many more slums in later years as our team gets bigger.”