Every morning the children come on time for their milk and rusks based breakfast; breakfast is a moment to be shared with their own classmates, chatting or just drinking milk to the last drop and enjoying rusks or biscuits, everyone washes his glass and then the different class activities start.

Many of our kids cannot study, do their homework or simply play at home as they are busy doing small jobs, that’s why we coach them at school, trying to let them have fun trough play, music and dance!

As every year we have organized the school party and that day began remembering Nanda. A big boat was waiting for us on the bank, with all Nanda’s classmates and many kids we went down to the river, a wake of many colors amid the green of the mustard plants. Once on the boat, we went to the middle of the river letting a very long flower necklace fall into the water. It was so long that we could tie it onto the opposite bank. Rose and tagetes petals were placed on the small silvery waves of the river and all together we remembered Nanda singing with joy.

The day went on at the school with a cheerful show prepared for a long time: a play, many songs, modern and classic dance and the Kathak performances won over everyone! There were many parents, not only moms but, surprisingly, also many dads, happy to see their children’s performances! Cream sweets, jelebis, long latas and samosas cannot lack; they were really loved and were cooked in the ashram by skilled cooks who began to work very early to prepare the large amount needed!

On Shivaratri day, accompanied by the music played by our girls and singing Aghoranna Paro Mantro we modeled a Shiva Lingam with clay, flowers and berries under the neem tree close to the Ganesh statue; then the Saphera came with his snakes and everyone wanted to “wear” the cobra around the neck.

The activities of the ashram never stop, to the hospital very many patients come, sometimes from remote areas, so we organize many medical camps in distant places thanks to the willingness of our doctors, to whom we have to say a constant thank-you for all their job, comprehension towards the patients, dedication and will to bring their help. We organized a medical camp at the ashram with many doctors, specialists in various sectors, our boys and girls helped us giving assistance to every patients. It was an intense Sunday that went on till late in the night as we performed many operations in surgery.

Some of our elder girls are married, have small children and sometimes positive or sometimes heavy situations; when they can, they come to visit us just to say hello and very often to get help because they know that at the ashram they always find someone who can listen to and support them. This is the place where they spent a very long and cheerful time, learning, sharing, with their classmates, games and dreams that, unfortunately, very often haven’t become true! I always try to make them understand, especially the little girls and the girls, how important is studying, continuing to going to school to have a positive future, power of choice, of communication, of independence and of active participation in family and society.

The days fly by, and I find myself right in the middle of the most colored festival of the year…Holi!

Colored powders, never ending battles with red, yellow, green, purple water, three days of wild cheerfulness for young and old; obviously, here too, there were chases and colors! At the end of the last day everyone wore new clothes but the colored powders didn’t stop to color children’s faces!

In this timeless place you can live in complete concentration, in meditation, in work, in joy, sometimes in crying, into the silence of the deep and inside the harmonious happiness of Aghoreshwar!

Gururatna