A Day in a village on Aug 15

On 15th August, we went to a village called Chinkempanahalli..about 60 kms away from where we stay in bangalore. Sundaresh's relatives stay there.

We started at around 7 in the morning. Drive on the airport road was wonderful..we even crossed 100Km/hr speed! Can you imagine, crossing that speed in bangalore :P

Reached the village at around 10. Found Murthy Mama standing at the gate.
He is a man in his 80's but is fitter than guys in 30s. Today he was a little down because of flu.
Murthy Mama is one of the influential people in the village. He helps the villagers a lot. The village has a small primary school..about 15-20 students at max. Another cousin of Sundaresh was also invited to that school, as the chief guest for the 15th August function. The school is just behind Murthy mama's house and we also went there.

The arrangements were already done for the flag hoisting. The chief guest, teachers, students and the villagers had already come there and waiting for some politician sort of person.
Then 2 middle-aged men came in a white car, dressed in pure white shirt-trouser.. typically politicians!

They came late but started hurrying the teachers to start the function.
Sowmya lit the deepa, one helper from the school did Mangal-Aarti of Gandhiji's photos and then Sowmya, the 2 politicians, gram-panchayat president all joined hands in hoisting the flag.
We all sang the national anthem..Everytime I sing the anthem, I get goosebumps..My eyes get lit with pride for the country I am in..
No matter how much I say that India is like this and like that and it will take ages for India to become comparable to US, I am proud of my country.
After the flag hoisting, there were songs sung by the students, a dance performed by the group of students and a speech. After the performances, there was prize distribution for various events held in the year.
Prizes were a notebook for the first prize, a pen for the second and a pencil and eraser for the third prize.
There were about 2 students in each class :) and almost all of them got the prizes :)
The prizes were I think sponsored by Murthy Mama himself. What a nice way to contribute to the society :)
This made us think, whenever we go out for dinner, we spend minimum 300-400.
If we spend even half of it and buy books (any kind of book, comic, storybook, study book) for these kids, it would be so good.
We don't know what kind of education they receive in those schools and how far they will reach in this fast paced world with that education. We don't know if they will study further or if anyone harbours the dream of becoming an engineer or doctor or lawyer or artist...just the fact that their parents, though poor, are sending them to school is encouraging enough to do something to help these little kids in studying well, becoming knowledgeable.
So, we have decided that next time we go to the village, we will take a lot of books for these kids and we hope they will enjoy the books and learn something new.
While thinking and talking about it, we realized that the function is coming to an end. Helpers were ditributing snacks and sweets to the kids and everyone gathered there. We left the school and proceeded towards Murthy Mama's house.
The village has 2 renowned temples :
1. Ganesh temple owned by My grandmother-in-law's sister (not open to all)
2. Hanuman temple (believed to be granting everyone's wish and open to all)
We performed puja at the 2 temples, visited the mulberry leaves farm owned g-i-l's sister, saw silkworms, had delicious lunch at Murthy Mama's house and finally left for bangalore.

While coming back to bangalore, we visited another relatives house in Yelahanka.
Had a good time there.

Finally, reached home at 7:30.
Over all a good day, nice experience.
It was a unique celebration of Independance. Once I had attended the celebration in Chicago. It was nice in a different way.. celebrating Indian Independance on American soil.