It was supposed to be the sports day for the children at Living Hope Children's Home but since the founder Pastor William John was going to be out of town, Dhiraj John, the current Director of the home pushed it to August 22. But Independence day could not go without due celebration and therefore Dj arranged a friendly football match for which 10 of us showed up and had a wonderful time.
The teams were -
1. Aishwarya (Captain), Dj, Raju, Ninki and Matthew.
2. Natasha (Captain), Ebby, Ash, Bunty and Manish.
Where Dj goes, Raju goes and they work amazing that way. Apparently Ash and Ebby (John brothers no. 1 and 2) don't work well together because of the short age gap, but I think they were awesome yesterday. The game went on for about an hour and a half (I think. I'm not really sure because I didn't keep track of time at all) with both teams keeping head to head throughout. We finally ended with Aishwarya's team winning, the final score being 20-19. Not bad I say, we were just one goal behind.
My dream, as Dj put it came true when the children were herded outside, and I gave the commands leading to the National Anthem. It was something I was begging them to do since morning. After singing below the flag, the kids rushed to wish Aishwarya and I a 'Happy Independence Day' and so many of they wrapped both their palms around mine, it was one of the most touching things I've ever done.
We took a brunch break, hung out and played some dumb cricket and I don't even know who won and who lost. We chucked cricket, since things weren't working out and we tried our hands and legs at Lagori. We ended up having the same football teams and again, for some reason Aishwarya's team won 5-4 to us. Again, not too bad because we were just one point behind, but just not good enough.
The best part of the day came when the kids were out and we all took separate groups and played with them. I had a group of about 20 boys ranging from classes 5 to 7. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I asked them what they wanted to play, so we spent a good half hour playing Dog and the Bone, the Tiger and the Cow (ಹುಲಿ ಮತ್ತು ದನ) and some Kabbadi. I couldn't help it when I made the kids sing some nursery rhymes and I sang along and tried to teach them 'Humpty Dumpty.' We wound up from there and went and watched the 'Big Kids' play Kabbadi and Aishwarya and I joined in and were completely useless.
We then had a tea break where Aishwarya, Ebenezer, Matthew and I played some UNO with Ebby and I plotting against Chuck while Chuck and Matt Green tried to counter the plot but failed miserably.
I had to leave to keep up to my horrid 1830 curfew, but despite that, I have to say, with the Kids, Dj, Ash, Ebby, Raju, Matt, Bunty, Manish, Ninki and Chuck it was the best Independence Day I've ever celebrated and we actually celebrated our Independence.
Happy Independence Day
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