A time to remember....

I remember telling Arpitha, the day after sending out the mail about Chrysallis fund collection ... that the response has not been very encouraging.....This had nothing to do with the fact that she had collected 2K on the 1st day...n I had collected 1K...or that people who contributed last year had kinda missed my mail or so I thought:)..or that the email responses were fewer than last year...

I believe that anything that starts on a discouraging note...ends well....coz today we stand at a total collection of 52,000.....

Right from making new friends to waiting in Phase-1 reception at 6:30 to collect money ...there was this one occasion...when I was waiting for Deivanai to collect money...n I happened to meet Vidya, Sharath's sister without any prior intimation.. n ended up collecting funds from her also....

What started off with Shilpa wanting to buy me a gift from Chennapatna for accompanying her to a friend's wedding....ended ...in us planning a trip to Chennapatna ...last Saturday...n buying their toys as gifts for the Chrysallis parties....

Praveena, Deivanai, Sudha n me set out on a fun-filled trip to Chennapatna and almost ended up looting a godown there of some of the most colourful toys I have ever seen....

When you have friends.....who are more than willing to share their time ....wrapping gifts becomes a simple job... thanks to Shilpa, Preeti, Praveena and CJ....V finished packing 748 toys in less than 3 hours:)...I think all of us have a great future in wrapping gifts:)

My father was the person counting the gifts..... as we sorted them as per age and gender into separate bags....maintaining his count in English, Malayalam, Hindi...n ya....Kannada...also....I almost rolled on the floor ....when I heard his Dhombadhu...that's thombathu----90 in Kannada:)

Nothing can be more satisfying than knowing that u have shopped for gifts paying the price they truly deserve..After handing over the gifts at the Chrysallis Centre, on the way back home...v visited an Arts n Crafts Exhibition and saw the gifts we had procured for as less as Rs.13/- being sold at Rs.40/- and a pen stand ..v bought for Rs.23/- being sold at Rs.100/-!!!!

Lastly....what we did manage to do....will make many children happy and thats what we strived for:)

For more photos....http://picasaweb.google.co.in/seemadharma/Chrysallis2009#

D Chrysallis Connection!

http://picasaweb.google.com/seemadharma/Chrysallis2008Gifts?feat=email

5 years and its difficult to believe that its actually been that long:)....would definitely sound very dramatic if v tell you that ...it seems like only yesterday...but it does...

2005

Pravs sent an email forward about the Chrysallis event and when v mailed the contacts mentioned in the email, it sounded like a fun event.

Even before we realised it, we were busy collecting funds from friends and ended up buying close to 100 gifts for the event...

Since then, the entire process of buying, sorting the gifts as per gender n age n gift wrapping has become a small little tradition...

Friends and family get-together at home, packing anything pinky:) to gals...n fighting for gift wrappers or cello-tapes or stapler pins to do the gift wrapping....

Coming back to 2005....as we stayed close to Yelahanka, we had volunteered to organize the party for the Srilankan refugee children of the IGIA school....

Now, we used to also teach the 10th STD kids Maths, Science n Social Science on weekends. When the kids happily told us that v cudnt take classes on Dec 10th...coz they had the Christmas party...v had the joy of telling them that you would get to party with us:)

The party turned out to be a joyride...with hundreds of kids from orphanages and challenged homes in B'lore dancing,performing n having a gala time....The volunteers BTW....got to do face painting, food distribution, decorations n a whole lotta fun stuff....

2006

Gifted close to 200 kids, but only Pravs was able to make it to the parties!!
We bought Books(Story and Coloring), Crayons, Color Pencils, Sketch Pens,Lots of Cars, Lots of Dolls, Purses, Chains, Bangles for the girls…. Pouches, Water Bottles, Pencil Boxes……….. Tennis Balls,Spiderman and other Toys that kids (boys) would love:)…we were actually short of ideas as to what to buy for the really young boys:)

2007

Gifted close to 133 gifts...n v organized the party at home grounds:)...yes at the IGIA school..n ya....there is this custom that the volunteers should arrange a small programme for the kids...so this time the kids ...I think had the misfortune of having to tolerate their teacher's dance performances:)

2008

Gifted 1401 children....y v mention the number every other year is only coz ...v realised the value it had...only after this party.....

We volunteered at Bubbles Learning Centre for Autism and there were children who were mentally challenged, who would not respond or talk or take part in any of the party activities, but the moment you give them a gift, you could actually see their faces light up ....:)

2009

Yet to update:):)

D Cut!!

U go somewhere thinking u will do something.....but instead u land somewhere else....doing something U have never done before....n looking like something..... U have never looked before!!

Looks like I have fallen for the word "something"....

But ya...while I enjoy doing things at the spur of the moment...without any meticulous planning...I must admit that there is a teeny-weeny feeling of guilt also "somewhere"..

If most of what I have written above..sounds like I am beating around the bush...lemme get to the point...

I was supposed to attend a friend's sister's wedding last evening....n instead ended up landing in a salon....where they kinda effortlessly transform poor souls like me...into ppal....we wished v looked like..... all the time....

All they did was a haircut....but Im hoping that the effects dont last only a day...like they always did in the past:)