As part of T&F’s CSR, Samira, Nilanjan and I got the chance to visit the Udayan Care Boys Home in Mayur Vihar last week on 25 June. We started with introductions and a slideshow about famous historical monuments and places of Delhi. There were several questions but, no problems — Nilanjan had answers to most of them! We then took the children out to one of the sites shown on the slide show—Agrasen ki Baoli. This is a step-well (14th century, Tughluq monument) in Hailey Lane, in fact quite close to our office! As the shelter is conveniently close to the metro station, we took the metro to Mandi House and walked to Hailey Lane. The children had a lot of fun exploring the site and managed to scare away some bats who till then were peacefully drowsing away. There was hardly any water in the step-well and we could see the three visible levels of the step-well constructed with arched niches on both sides. The baoli has been designated a protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India. The venue presented us with a lot of photo opportunities and the little ones were prompt in taking advantage of them. After spending an hour or so at the baoli, we decided to head back home for lunch. It was back to the metro station (this time Barakhamba because the boys wanted to go to another station). We reached Mayur Vihar at 2 p.m. and met Mrs Gupta (the mentor-mother) who told us about the children, their hobbies, education and career prospects. Post-lunch, we had a quiz session where the children managed to get almost every question. They were, however, a little stumped by the section on contemporary music (as was I).
Then it was time to relax. We distributed the gift packs (colouring books, crayons, geometry boxes) we had brought with us and the younger ones immediately started using them. The older ones were content to sit and chat with us. We talked to them about their aims and interests. While it is uncertain how much they benefitted from our visit, we certainly came away enriched by the experience.
Anindita
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