By Mini Abraham, Volunteer Development Coordinator, Mumbai Chapter
Sept. 8th is celebrated all over as Mother Mary’s feast. During that day, it was decided to appreciate and acknowledge the presence of grandparents in the life of our little ones.
Since the people of Maharashtra preserve the age-old tradition of preparing dishes from vegetables which are grown especially during the monsoon, we decided to combine the efforts and asked each student to accompany their grandparent along with the vegetable prepared in the traditional method and also give a small explanation about the dish presented by them. It was impressed upon the participants to talk about the effort the student puts in along with his or her grandparent to put up the dish. Through this, we encouraged bonding between both the generations.
The best dish with the best presentation by the student and the grandparent was appreciated with board games which again encourages a bond between the two generation. It was gratifying to hear the octogenarians express their gratitude for organizing such a unique festival and also for appreciating them. They also were happy to dole out some old Hindi songs and Marathi poems. All in all, it was a time well spent. I am encouraged to bring up more activities to rekindle bonds and joys in doing simple things in our otherwise busy life.