On the 2nd of September, we visited AGAPE again. The purpose of this visit was to spend some time with the kids and draw and paint with them. When we reached the Home, all of them had assembled at one place. It took us a little bit of time to get organized, but very soon we split them into groups according to their age and each of us took up one group. We handed them the paper and colors, which instantly brought a smile on their face. We could feel their excitement in the room and we joined in. Each of us took a sheet of paper ourselves and started drawing. We were truly amazed by how much talent those little kids possessed. Some of them were even better than us!! When they finished one painting, they would look at us and say... “ Akka chudu !!! Anna chudu!!! ” with a big smile on their face!! And that was all we wanted! We clicked a lot of pictures and gave them refreshments. We sang songs and danced with them. I felt like a kid again, and I re-discovered my love for colouring books. I actually went n bought some for myself later! :)
But the adventure was just beginning for me. I was on driver duty for the day and a whole bunch of my friends were banking on me to take them home safely from Uppal. I brought my old van with me, which suddenly decided halfway through the journey, when we were just about to enter Osmania University on the way back, that it had had enough! It stopped and refused to start. Loud noises started emanating from the engine and some funny green goo ( I later learnt what that really was) started dripping down to the road. Like that was not enough, Abhishek decided to entertain us and played some music. One of those songs was "Pon Pappi Jam" (which we later discovered much to our amusement was actually -Pump up the Jam).. Varenya fell in love with that song and played it a hundred times. But the madness did not stop there, she sang with it too! :( 
But the adventure was just beginning for me. I was on driver duty for the day and a whole bunch of my friends were banking on me to take them home safely from Uppal. I brought my old van with me, which suddenly decided halfway through the journey, when we were just about to enter Osmania University on the way back, that it had had enough! It stopped and refused to start. Loud noises started emanating from the engine and some funny green goo ( I later learnt what that really was) started dripping down to the road. Like that was not enough, Abhishek decided to entertain us and played some music. One of those songs was "Pon Pappi Jam" (which we later discovered much to our amusement was actually -Pump up the Jam).. Varenya fell in love with that song and played it a hundred times. But the madness did not stop there, she sang with it too! :( Finally after trying various things like kicking the tyres, and pushing the van, we called for help. The mechanic obviously did not realise our plight, and as we waited in the van with no air conditioning, we waged a mini-war on a million mosquitoes, sang that stupid song again and again, Isha slept, and the sun set completely. Still no sign of the mechanic.Just when we decided to get out and start pushing the van again, it started raining. I could go on forever about how long it took and what a pain it was not to scream at the mechanic for coming late. Anyway, all's well that ends well. The car was repaired and we reached home safe and sound. This was really one project I will NOT forget in my lifetime!
--Rtr.Amrita Kanjani
