We meet Jennifer’s mom today morning (Jennifer’s from Bangalore) and
they’re standing next to each other and Deepika says, “Bilkul Aunty jaise lag
rahe ho.” And Jennifer puts her hand on her hip and says, “Main aunty jaise
lagti hoon???”
“Ab.. Nahi, matlab.. Tum apni mummy jaise lagti ho. Main
tumhare mom ko to aunty hi bolungi na?”
We visited Mount Carmel College and had a session with
them. By far this was the most enthusiastic one we’ve had. The girls were so
spirited and lively and had such drive in their energy. They also already have
a bunch of programs on women education and other social programs and they had
the force within to take initiative to speak up and start something as well. I
was really impressed with their spirit and their willingness to start new
programs based on our suggestions. And they had also banned plastic in their
college. Making rules or setting up something somewhere is one thing, but to
practice it whole heartedly is something else altogether, and here these girls
were doing it. They are quite an inspiration and I really commend their efforts
and encourage them to keep at it.
Made some really awesome friends in these refined young
ladies.
After the program we were having brunch in the canteen
and Jennifer and Solomon got into a friendly-ish argument of who is better –
Carmelites or Josephytes (You can figure out who is from where). And both were
saying that both were the best (duh) and Solomon kept saying that when a
Josephyte is near, there is no need to fear. And Jennifer said that that is the reason to fear. And Solomon
quipped back saying that Josephytes are dynamites and then Jennifer said,
“Exactly. They’re all sound and no matter. They explode and then nothing.”
Haha! And Solomon
was like “Ae! We can take you guys anytime haan!”
But then Jennifer said that if the Carmelites decide to
gang up on him, he aint got a chance. And Solomon was like they cant do that
coz they don’t stand a chance against
a Josephyite. And Jennifer was like, “Acha?? Should I call my friends??”
We were in the
college where she was from. And Solomon was like that’s not fair and
everything. And Prashanth who was sitting there said, “Ya Jennifer and all can
totally win.” And Solomon is like, “Whose side are you on?? You’re on her side? The girls? What about men empowerment yaar??”
They should add that to the Millennium Development Goals.
For Solomon.
In the evening, we had an interaction session with a few
members of the VAZ Foundation. They work for education and all in schools and
their flagship program is career guidance. Here we spoke about climate change
and the environment and what problems we’re facing in preserving it, and then we
all spoke individually about 1 thing we do that is harmful to the environment
and what we can do to change it. 1 thing I noticed was that there were a lot of
things that a lot of learned from each other that day with each suggestion that
came through. Some of it was a real eye opener too. And at the end we had this
excercise where we stood in a circle and Aman from VAZ led us through an action
song. It was something completely out of a children’s tv program to me, but it
really helped everyone feel more free and lose their inhibitions a little bit
more. It was a very enriching session. For all of us.
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