Today has been a wonderful celebration for us all, because the Pachaikilli Playcentre and Pre school Resource Centre was inaugurated, with a great deal of ceremony and local colour. It is quite remarkable that Dr John only gave the order for this to happen on Tuesday, having obviously twisted Daleep’s arm firmly up his back so that our old friend had agreed to skip the last session of his CMC symposium and to come back and be guest of honour.
Sekar was given the unenviable job of Making it So – in the words of the great Jean-Luc Picard. He accomplished this we suspect by giving up on sleep for a couple of days, bless him. We are so very much indebted to him and his commitment to our project. He had to find a form of words for the ‘tablet’ or plaque, which Dr John would agree to; have it carved on a stone; have that stone cemented onto the outside of our building; fix a temporary curtain over it; invite all the dignitaries of CMC to the inauguration; draw up a programme (again with Dr J’s assent- no errors to be made in the order in which Important People speak...); purchase innumerable shawls and sandalwood garlands as gifts for same Important People; design and have made a huge plastic banner – complete with 3 flying green parrots garnered from the internet; organise the public address; put word out to all local people from Self Help Groups; make sure there is water on site; get engineers to connect electricity to next-door house’s supply(!); have 50 chairs sent up from RUHSA; and get a priest for the opening prayer and a large 5 wicked candle for ceremonial puja. In amongst all this he managed to shop with us three women in Vellore – see earlier blog- for play equipment, on Tuesday, and ditto further shopping with Andy and Brian on Wednesday.
Mr Immanuel organised a taxi for us all at 7.40 this a.m and off we set as we want to be early to set up the toys in the centre. Forgot to mention that Sekar had ensured that the toys were transported from RUHSA to the centre and even found a potter to donate us our first lump of clay. When we arrive we find that the site has been raked, tidied and gravelled and the plaque is firmly ( well to be honest the cement is still wet) in place. It is great and – I lost my bet in previous blog- has Daleep’s name in large letters across it. Ditto our names, but much smaller in the corner, and Dr John’s, same size! Not sure if I mentioned previously that Pam came up with the suggestion of Pachaikilli playcentre. On our first trip in 1991 we used to cycle in to the Barbara Jennings school every day, passing a tree full of green parrots. There is a lovely action song which the teachers used to sing which is about a green parrot singing- ‘Pachaikilli parum’.
Many RUHSA staff seem to be on site – and the engineers from CMC- to get everything set up, so while they are doing that we all start unwrapping our purchases and setting them out on the shelves. It doesn’t take us too long with all hands on deck and goodness does it look wonderful when the room is full of brightly coloured toys and books! Gradually the local women start to arrive and lend a hand, decorating the puja candle with flowers and fixing our scarves with pins ( discover Indian women have secret ‘pin stock’ about their persons for just such a necessity) They are clearly amazed with the play equipment. As more people arrive they bring with them some small children, who don’t hesitate to get stuck into the toys. An instant success of course. After some phone calls from Sekar we discover that Daleep has been taken prisoner by Dr J and is bogged down in a tour of RUHSA. One of our earliest associates from the weavers’ society, Karunamurthy, is talking to me and says ‘Daleep was always a punctual man’. Eventually, about 45 minutes late, Dr J arrives with Daleep and the first thing he says to all of us is ‘ I am so sorry to be late’. He hurries to get the curtain unveiled, then Andy is ushered forward to cut the ribbon- with a few words of Tamil and English- and in we all go to begin the ceremony.
Chairs are placed at the front for all 5 of us plus Daleep, Dr John, and Carolyn and David Whitwell. After the puja candle-lighting and prayer we are enmeshed in a positive shower of sandalwood garlands and shawl gifts – all very lovely and Kashmir wool apparently. During this Daleep is muttering to me about how much he hates to be late. Speeches are then made by all and sundry, with the longest being by me and then by Daleep. He has grasped very quickly, as I remember he always was able to do, the essence of what our centre is about and how it chimes with his ( and our) philosophy of development. He has picked up on my words about teaching the young children to make choices and to understand that they can take control of their own destinies and he goes on to talk about how impressed he is to see the changes in their communities, with people having taken control of their own lives through the Self Help Groups. Later when Susie Whitwell, Carolyn and David’s daughter, who is in K V Kuppam for a brief stay, with her friend Laura, says how impressed she was with Daleep, Mr Immanuel replies that ‘ He could impress anyone in two minutes’- which is a good way to express it.
It is all in all a super event, and we have to admit that we have greatly benefited from Dr John’s insistence on having Daleep there for the ceremony. Sekar has done a great job of translating all that we have said- Pam has spoken about the wonderful friendship shown to us by the community of Sitaramanpet; Wendy has spoken of her gratitude for the love she has found here in K V Kuppam over her 13 years of being associated with the playcentre projects. Sekar finishes with a rendition of the green parrot song and with that Daleep starts to insist on haste as he has a train to catch from Katpadi. We rush back to RUHSA for a lovely lunch, Daleep just has time to throw at us his copy of The Hindu which carries a gloomy editorial about economic prospects for Britain, and off he dashes. We feel the need for rest, as it has been an emotional day and also the weather has hotted up considerably this week. Teacher training starts tomorrow in earnest!
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