And they danced... at The Happy School's Fifteenth Annual Day Function

And so, this week, it finally happened. The challenge was accepted - and overcome!

The Happy School for underprivileged kids, where I volunteer on Saturdays to teach spoken english to class 2 students, had their Annual Day function in Gurgaon this Monday.

Despite an accident that Pickle had over the weekend wherein he got ten stitches on his scalp ( he is recovering well, thank you and I will perhaps post an update on that at some point), we managed to make it for the function on Monday. Even Vijay took an hour off out of the office to come and watch part of the program, and he's the one who took the video below.

As I wrote before, I was given the task of preparing the kids who had been left out of all other performances with a song. My initial attempt of getting them to do my original choreo on Gal Mitthi Mitthi Bol was a grand flop show.

Peanut, ever-present by my side when I'm at these little projects, said 'I think you should make them do Follow the Leader. Not Gal Mitthi Mitthi Bol.'

I growled at her, saying I would make them do Gal Mitthi only. It was upon some quiet reflection later that I realized that the kid was right. Follow the Leader wasn't a complicated song at all, it was high energy and most importantly - the instructions were right there in the music. Given the fact that I had just a few days to work with these kids and they weren't the most coordinated bunch on the planet, it made sense to get them to do this song instead.

And they did. They practiced every day - I went in as often as I could, getting some solid coordination help from another long-time volunteer, Neeta. And on the final day, I sat through the whole function in a large, crowded hall and was once again fascinated by everything that Mrs. Kamal Capoor has achieved in the setting up of this institution. It was an hour-long, rich performance replete with plays, songs, dances - the enthusiasm of the children was really something to see.

But most of all, I enjoyed the performance that my little kids put up - and yes, they got to be on the stage, which had always been the point of it all. Not one was left out, not even the naughtiest and most undisciplined of the lot.

If you watch the video to the end, you'll catch a glimpse of me looking like a proud Mother Hen. I'm glad I did this. But to tell you the truth, I'm also kind of glad that Annual days come only once a year!

P.S - if you'd like to volunteer at the Happy School, Gurgaon or contribute in any way, please write to Mrs. Capoor at kamalcapoor@yahoo.com. I would direct to you her website, but it's a little dated and she's looking for help with someone who can help update it and make it easy for her to update regularly too. You can probably Google it nevertheless :). Now watch the dance!