Bum Bum Bhole !!!

Yesterday i had the chance of visiting TEARS annual celebration. Now TEARS is a educational and training institute for mentally challenged people. Although it is not an NGO by definition because it takes money from parents but the work they do is nothing short of social service. The age of children engaged ranges from 2 to 22. I call them children coz they will always remain so at mind at heart. In this annual function, all children no matter how severely disabled they were (mental or physical) had to perform something.

What touched me the most during the whole function was a small dance presented by a group of about 20 odd children who were still learning to form alphabets by joining dots. The children here are as much as 20 years in age but it was great pain to even make them stand together on the stage for 5 minutes of bollywood music. The music chosen are very apt - "Bum Bum bhole !!!" from TZP, definitely one of the best movies i have seen in my life.

Being the observer I am, I started looking closely at the children. There were different categories. There was this group which was purely amazed, seeing all these blinding lights flicker in oblivion, the multitude of people in the background, the loud noise of music and strange movements of fellow students. It was pure magic to see such innocence of twinkling eyes telling their story of being alienated. Their teachers would come intermittently to move their limbs but hardly could they understand anything.

Then there this small child of about 6-7 years constantly staring and blinking lights placed almost on the stage. Probably he was trying to make out how such a thing was even possible. Experience would have told him that his best friend is he himself, hence as always he was asking questions to himself, biting nails. Then there was this group of students directly behind him who were trying to give their best shot by displaying all movements they could. I recalled my first time of being on stage when I hardly remembered my lines in the play still conjectured something. These were all but normal just trying to make a point of existence. My eyes welled. I pride myself of being macho and someone who is not very emotional but my eyes welled. i checked around. I was not the only one. The lyrics were perfect too. All filled with romanticism and imagination. Thank you Amir Khan. Thank you TEARS.