Christmas in February...

Our watchman Srinivas and his wife have a little boy called Chintu. He is possibly one of the cutest little boys you will meet and incredibly shy. Whenever I (Andi) see him I always say hi or ‘Namaste’ and try and use a little Hindi - generally establishing a friendship with him. The other week I gave him a balloon animal I was given while leaving a restaurant after lunch with a friend - his face was a picture, as he had never seen anything like it. Glancing up at me he gently smiled his thanks.

He never usually speaks or initiates conversation, however he is always curious to see what we ‘whities’ do, or when his father brings up post etc he stands at the door staring into our apartment. So imagine my surprise the other day when waiting for the lift to arrive, Chintu runs towards me and opens his mouth to say, and bear in mind this is now February, “Happy Christmas ma” - I had made a break through!

At Christmas, Gareth and I gave his family and others working in the block, a gift in an envelope marked "Happy Christmas", plus he must have remembered us wishing people ‘Happy Christmas’, as so many times in the past they have wished us ‘Happy Diwali’ or whatever weekly Hindu festival is taking place! So now my friend Chintu can’t stop speaking to me, generally in Telugu the local language, which I don’t really understand. But again the other day he came rushing after me saying, “car, car” as I had left one door open, he had noticed and wanted to warn me.

I love these moments here. They may not seem that amazing or even interesting, but to me it was very special and as I see so many kids scrabbling in bins, working on the streets, begging for money, it is good for the heart to see my little buddy smile. As my birthday approaches and I look forward to celebrating with my husband and friends over dinner, I decided to say to those who were asking me what I would like for a gift this year, to consider instead donating that money or whatever they chose… to the Dalit Freedom Network, which we highlighted in a previous blog.

It sounds so pious I know and I cringe at that, but I do have so much and it’s a small way for me to reconcile some of the poverty we see every day, as close as the next street or the garbage skip up the road. So thank you to my in-laws Gillian, Linda and the family for their generosity and to other friends who may do this. And hey I’m no angel, Gareth still had to buy me a gift to open on the day!