Life at Devnar always seems to be a little mad but the Christmas period has been more hectic than ever. This is a really quick run-down of how 'Indian Christmas' went...
21st December
Festivities kicked off on Monday with the long awaited Christmas Show. Preparation for this had been going on throughout December and rehearsals of the Nativity took up most of the school days in the two week build up. Along with this, each evening Lottie and I had been teaching the kids dances. Due to the sheer number of children who wanted to be involved, we were forced to hold auditions for those who wanted to be in the show itself doing a dance to Frozen's Let it Go. On top of this, so as not to disappoint those kids who weren't picked, we also decided to teach a dance to Pharrel Williams' Happy. This meant that, between 5 and 6 each night of December, the second floor hall was complete and utter chaos with our students jumping all over the place with enjoyment and Lottie and I constantly trying to invent new ways to be heard. The day of the play itself was also manic, though luckily it evolved considerably less shouting. The only major hiccups were a complete reshuffle of the partners in the Let it Go dance during the morning practice leaving us with one too few yellow shirts and therefore, a quest to find some sort of white or yellow polo shirt that wouldn't make Mahesh look too out of place during he performance. Eventually, after many trips running up and down from the second floor with my sari held up inappropriately high so as not to trip, a white shirt was found just in time for me to be greeted by Nikhil, one of my LKG students who, at this point, was wearing no trousers and was attracting a lot of attention from the official guests. We had to hurry him into the office and put his trousers only to find that the button had gone missing. This left me no choice but to wrap him up in sticky tape before sending him on his way and and taking up my position as photographer for the event. While I attempted to discreetly make my way around the stage and audience taking photos of everyone, Lottie took her place as DJ blasting out obscure covers of great Christmas classics such as 'We Three Kings' and 'Silent Night'. At one point during the performance a drain located directly above some of the kids in the audience decided it was the right time to recreate a very localised monsoon over their heads so they had to be moved and, during our Let it Go dance, Lottie had to jump up from her post in order to make sure the kids didn't fall of the stage as the circle they were dancing in had grown a little bit too large for the space provided but other than that the rest of the show, songs, and Bible readings went wonderfully smoothly and I couldn't be more proud of our dancers or the rest of the kids.
22nd December
It is no uncommon for people and companies to want to 'give back' to the children and provide them with some sort of service. This can means days of fun lessons at the school, brilliant donated meals and, often, trips where the children can enjoy themselves and be fussed over while also partaking in lots of activities and performances. With this in mind, it came as no surprise that, each year, the older children are invited to spend the day at a five-star resort just outside the city for a Christmas party. Our older students, along with children from local orphanages and kids from the host's grandchild's class were invited to perform for each other. This meant bringing out some of the kids classic dances (ones that Lottie and I now know well) such as the Annual Day remix the boys from 9th and 10th class do but with new twists such as having one of the boys dress up in drag to be the love interest in the song.
As well as these performances, we were all also treated to an amazing lunch: Chicken Biryani, Veg and Non-Veg Manchurian, Noodles, curd and, for pudding, chocolate doughnuts with butterscotch ice cream and soft drinks. Once fed, we all returned to our seats for a magic show. From what I saw, the magician did seem impressive, however, we ended up staying in our seats at the back of the audience with someof the kids who couldn't see the performance and didn't want to hover by the stage to be picked as volunteers. This meant the afternoon passed with a good few hours chatting to our students as well as the resort staff which was lovely and relaxing- just as a Christmas Party at a luxury retreat should be! By the time this was over, and our lunch had gone down, Lottie and I were far more willing to get up on stage and join in with the group dances-both traditional Dandiya Rass dancing as well as to more modern Bollywood and Tollywood tracks. While we were boiling, sweaty and gross by the time the music stopped, dancing and laughing with the kids meant that that didn't matter one bit- we were proud of our pink faces rather than embarrassed. When the day came to an end the children were all given individually wrapped gifts by the staff; colouring crayons, pencil cases, tubs and other stationary, before we headed back home on the buses.Working at Devnar seems to involve chaperoning a fair few of these events but, due to the non-veg Manchurian and how happy our students were at the end of the programme, this one is up there with the best.
23rd December
This was the day of the Staff Party at Devnar school. This meant that all the staff had each prepared some sort of dish; rices, curries, chapati, curds or 'sweet' (as any pudding or sugary treat is referred to here), to create one big feast for all the staff. The variety of food as amazing. As we eat what the children eat there is not a lot of variety in the bulk curries we get at the school, which is fine because the curries we do have a superb, but treats like Double ka Meeta and battered onions are very very rare in Devnar's kitchen. Jothi Mam even brought a huge pot of fruit salad; apples, banana, custard, strawberry jelly, cream and ice cream, which Lottie and I made valiant attempts to eat with our hand until someone took pity on our incompetence and found some spoons.
Later that day we were paid a visit by several other volunteers as they made their way through the city to Christmas at one of the Projects in Ongole. We showed Callum, Alex, Katie and Sophie around the school before all heading off for Ice Cream at the local Cream Stones as a treat. Taking two Autos caused a bit of trouble when it turned out that only one knew where to go and the other lost sight of it however, with the help of a number of passers by (both wanted and unwanted) we eventually made it to the shop few a good old catch up over Chocolate Fudge Volcano Ice Creams before the others headed to the bus station and Lottie and I walked home.
24th December
This was the day for all the children who hadn't made it into the Let it Go dance, as, in the evening among lots of excitement, Grishma (the daughter of the school's Founder Chairman) came to the school with her friend in order to film the kids dancing and getting into the Christmas spirit. This coincided with a donation of Christmas cakes which the kids all lined up for under the 'Devnar School for the Blind' sign while dancing, jumping and clapping. We also had two of the boys dressed up in Santa costumes stuffed with bedding handing out the cake. It was a really lovely evening with music playing throughout- it started with Christmas songs and Happy but soon turned to Tollywood favorites so all the kids could join in.
After this, the L V Prasad volunteers, Anna and Jos came and the four of us took our first trip to Paradise- a restaurant that claims 'The World's Favourite Biryani'. Hyderabad is famous for Biryani so it is often the 'special meal' and the school when an important donor has a Birthday but so far, Parasise does, in my eyes, have the edge on the Biryani front. After our meal and banter with the waiters (we had got there late and were the last to leave the restaurant) we headed back to the school to wish our last 'Merry Christmas-eves' to the kids who were still up and then all get into mine and Lottie's hard metal single beds for the night (we didn't quite fit and I ended up sleeping on the floor).
25th December
Christmas Day went by very fast. There was the early morning exchanged stockings and little gifts we had made each other then we headed down for a breakfast of Umpa and left over Christmas Cake with the kids, were very excitable in the courtyard with them and took lots of photos. Following that, we headed up to the room to open some gifts from our families that had been sent out and then I attempted to tie everyone's Saris. While I am slowly getting better at this, we ended up going down to the dorms and the Auntie's re-did every single inch of my hard work. Maybe by my Birthday I will have it mastered. At lunch we handed out chocolates to all the kids and then, when it had finished, Jos and I stayed downstairs to watch the boys play cricket. At one point I even attempted to join in however, as I am not the best when in tunics, the Sari made it slightly impossible.
As there is no internet at the school, we made our way to LVP to use the wifi so Lottie and Anna could skype their families and I could call my parents. Unfortunately for me I couldn't hear my parents due to bad signal and ended up roaming the Eye Hospital so as not to disturb my friends. The view from the roof top of LVP is brilliant so I based myself there, reading the Lord of the Rings and wondering how long it would before I had another Christmas quite like this one. After some time we had to go back to the School to pick up all of Anna and Jos' bags as they had a bus to Kerala (or was it Goa?) to catch. This was a cause of some minor stress but we eventually sent them on their way. At this point my family were able to call my and I skipped dinner to talk to my lovely Parents, brother and Nana. It was weird not to be with them but if I had to pick anywhere else in the world to be it would have been Devnar so I wasn't homesick like I thought I would be- maybe I was too tired to think about it too much as I had only managed 3 hours sleep on the stone floor. Lottie and I ended the evening with me eating a watermelon to make up for the lack of dinner, her opening the last of her gifts (mainly chocolate) and my falling asleep while we watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
Overall, Christmas was wonderfully different and I am so happy that we got to spend it all with the kids!
21st December
Festivities kicked off on Monday with the long awaited Christmas Show. Preparation for this had been going on throughout December and rehearsals of the Nativity took up most of the school days in the two week build up. Along with this, each evening Lottie and I had been teaching the kids dances. Due to the sheer number of children who wanted to be involved, we were forced to hold auditions for those who wanted to be in the show itself doing a dance to Frozen's Let it Go. On top of this, so as not to disappoint those kids who weren't picked, we also decided to teach a dance to Pharrel Williams' Happy. This meant that, between 5 and 6 each night of December, the second floor hall was complete and utter chaos with our students jumping all over the place with enjoyment and Lottie and I constantly trying to invent new ways to be heard. The day of the play itself was also manic, though luckily it evolved considerably less shouting. The only major hiccups were a complete reshuffle of the partners in the Let it Go dance during the morning practice leaving us with one too few yellow shirts and therefore, a quest to find some sort of white or yellow polo shirt that wouldn't make Mahesh look too out of place during he performance. Eventually, after many trips running up and down from the second floor with my sari held up inappropriately high so as not to trip, a white shirt was found just in time for me to be greeted by Nikhil, one of my LKG students who, at this point, was wearing no trousers and was attracting a lot of attention from the official guests. We had to hurry him into the office and put his trousers only to find that the button had gone missing. This left me no choice but to wrap him up in sticky tape before sending him on his way and and taking up my position as photographer for the event. While I attempted to discreetly make my way around the stage and audience taking photos of everyone, Lottie took her place as DJ blasting out obscure covers of great Christmas classics such as 'We Three Kings' and 'Silent Night'. At one point during the performance a drain located directly above some of the kids in the audience decided it was the right time to recreate a very localised monsoon over their heads so they had to be moved and, during our Let it Go dance, Lottie had to jump up from her post in order to make sure the kids didn't fall of the stage as the circle they were dancing in had grown a little bit too large for the space provided but other than that the rest of the show, songs, and Bible readings went wonderfully smoothly and I couldn't be more proud of our dancers or the rest of the kids.
22nd December
It is no uncommon for people and companies to want to 'give back' to the children and provide them with some sort of service. This can means days of fun lessons at the school, brilliant donated meals and, often, trips where the children can enjoy themselves and be fussed over while also partaking in lots of activities and performances. With this in mind, it came as no surprise that, each year, the older children are invited to spend the day at a five-star resort just outside the city for a Christmas party. Our older students, along with children from local orphanages and kids from the host's grandchild's class were invited to perform for each other. This meant bringing out some of the kids classic dances (ones that Lottie and I now know well) such as the Annual Day remix the boys from 9th and 10th class do but with new twists such as having one of the boys dress up in drag to be the love interest in the song.
As well as these performances, we were all also treated to an amazing lunch: Chicken Biryani, Veg and Non-Veg Manchurian, Noodles, curd and, for pudding, chocolate doughnuts with butterscotch ice cream and soft drinks. Once fed, we all returned to our seats for a magic show. From what I saw, the magician did seem impressive, however, we ended up staying in our seats at the back of the audience with someof the kids who couldn't see the performance and didn't want to hover by the stage to be picked as volunteers. This meant the afternoon passed with a good few hours chatting to our students as well as the resort staff which was lovely and relaxing- just as a Christmas Party at a luxury retreat should be! By the time this was over, and our lunch had gone down, Lottie and I were far more willing to get up on stage and join in with the group dances-both traditional Dandiya Rass dancing as well as to more modern Bollywood and Tollywood tracks. While we were boiling, sweaty and gross by the time the music stopped, dancing and laughing with the kids meant that that didn't matter one bit- we were proud of our pink faces rather than embarrassed. When the day came to an end the children were all given individually wrapped gifts by the staff; colouring crayons, pencil cases, tubs and other stationary, before we headed back home on the buses.Working at Devnar seems to involve chaperoning a fair few of these events but, due to the non-veg Manchurian and how happy our students were at the end of the programme, this one is up there with the best.
23rd December
This was the day of the Staff Party at Devnar school. This meant that all the staff had each prepared some sort of dish; rices, curries, chapati, curds or 'sweet' (as any pudding or sugary treat is referred to here), to create one big feast for all the staff. The variety of food as amazing. As we eat what the children eat there is not a lot of variety in the bulk curries we get at the school, which is fine because the curries we do have a superb, but treats like Double ka Meeta and battered onions are very very rare in Devnar's kitchen. Jothi Mam even brought a huge pot of fruit salad; apples, banana, custard, strawberry jelly, cream and ice cream, which Lottie and I made valiant attempts to eat with our hand until someone took pity on our incompetence and found some spoons.
Later that day we were paid a visit by several other volunteers as they made their way through the city to Christmas at one of the Projects in Ongole. We showed Callum, Alex, Katie and Sophie around the school before all heading off for Ice Cream at the local Cream Stones as a treat. Taking two Autos caused a bit of trouble when it turned out that only one knew where to go and the other lost sight of it however, with the help of a number of passers by (both wanted and unwanted) we eventually made it to the shop few a good old catch up over Chocolate Fudge Volcano Ice Creams before the others headed to the bus station and Lottie and I walked home.
24th December
This was the day for all the children who hadn't made it into the Let it Go dance, as, in the evening among lots of excitement, Grishma (the daughter of the school's Founder Chairman) came to the school with her friend in order to film the kids dancing and getting into the Christmas spirit. This coincided with a donation of Christmas cakes which the kids all lined up for under the 'Devnar School for the Blind' sign while dancing, jumping and clapping. We also had two of the boys dressed up in Santa costumes stuffed with bedding handing out the cake. It was a really lovely evening with music playing throughout- it started with Christmas songs and Happy but soon turned to Tollywood favorites so all the kids could join in.
After this, the L V Prasad volunteers, Anna and Jos came and the four of us took our first trip to Paradise- a restaurant that claims 'The World's Favourite Biryani'. Hyderabad is famous for Biryani so it is often the 'special meal' and the school when an important donor has a Birthday but so far, Parasise does, in my eyes, have the edge on the Biryani front. After our meal and banter with the waiters (we had got there late and were the last to leave the restaurant) we headed back to the school to wish our last 'Merry Christmas-eves' to the kids who were still up and then all get into mine and Lottie's hard metal single beds for the night (we didn't quite fit and I ended up sleeping on the floor).
25th December
Christmas Day went by very fast. There was the early morning exchanged stockings and little gifts we had made each other then we headed down for a breakfast of Umpa and left over Christmas Cake with the kids, were very excitable in the courtyard with them and took lots of photos. Following that, we headed up to the room to open some gifts from our families that had been sent out and then I attempted to tie everyone's Saris. While I am slowly getting better at this, we ended up going down to the dorms and the Auntie's re-did every single inch of my hard work. Maybe by my Birthday I will have it mastered. At lunch we handed out chocolates to all the kids and then, when it had finished, Jos and I stayed downstairs to watch the boys play cricket. At one point I even attempted to join in however, as I am not the best when in tunics, the Sari made it slightly impossible.
As there is no internet at the school, we made our way to LVP to use the wifi so Lottie and Anna could skype their families and I could call my parents. Unfortunately for me I couldn't hear my parents due to bad signal and ended up roaming the Eye Hospital so as not to disturb my friends. The view from the roof top of LVP is brilliant so I based myself there, reading the Lord of the Rings and wondering how long it would before I had another Christmas quite like this one. After some time we had to go back to the School to pick up all of Anna and Jos' bags as they had a bus to Kerala (or was it Goa?) to catch. This was a cause of some minor stress but we eventually sent them on their way. At this point my family were able to call my and I skipped dinner to talk to my lovely Parents, brother and Nana. It was weird not to be with them but if I had to pick anywhere else in the world to be it would have been Devnar so I wasn't homesick like I thought I would be- maybe I was too tired to think about it too much as I had only managed 3 hours sleep on the stone floor. Lottie and I ended the evening with me eating a watermelon to make up for the lack of dinner, her opening the last of her gifts (mainly chocolate) and my falling asleep while we watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
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| My Christmas View |
Overall, Christmas was wonderfully different and I am so happy that we got to spend it all with the kids!
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