Kshana decided to take the cricket fever one step ahead by having its very own Kshana Premier League at The Bandra East Community Centre which is a home to 40 cricket crazy boys.
The boys were divided into 6 teams with names of their favourite IPL teams. Two Kshana members were assigned to coach and guide each team. The boys couldn’t wait to play cricket with their brand new cricket kit which was a gift from Kshana to them. We brought caps and printed the Kshana logo for all the children so that it could help them beat the heat and focus on playing well.
The matches started with a lot of clapping, cheering and boo-ing. All the teams were riding high on expectations. The matches had all the elements which would keep the spectators at the edge of their seats. There were moments of anxiety, moments of panic, moments of happiness, and moments of disappointment.
The boys would scream with joy and jump around with their ‘Four!!’ flashcards whenever the ball hit the boundary or gasp collectively in horror when the umpire declared a player ‘Out!. And then the screams of ‘Hozzzatttt!’ from the team that was bowling and murmurs of ‘Woh toh out nahi tha!!!’ from the team which was batting. These are the few moments that we cherished with the boys who reminded us of our childhood days.
We had a huge audience comprising people from the nearby slums who just could not resist catching a few minutes of the match. Our wonderful commentator kept the audience entertained with his witty remarks about the players, their batting, bowling and fielding skills (and sometimes the lack of it! :P). There were so many photographers who just couldn’t get enough of all the action (inspite of dodging and getting hit by the ball!). The boys had such high levels of enthusiasm that the presence of any cheerleaders was just not required..hehe.
The Royal Challengers won the finals and were declared as the champions of the Kshana Premiere League. There was lots of yelling, hugging and dancing to celebrate their victory. All the other team members and Kshanites joined their dance session. It was so surprising to see the boys dance so actively inspite of being so tired with all the cricket. The DJ kept playing popular chartbusters and we danced like there was no tomorrow. We did not stop until it was dinner time. It was then, that we realized how hungry we were. The boys were greeted with a delicious meal comprising chole, puri, gulab-jamuns and chocolate cake! Post a quick prayer they pounced on their food and insisted that the Kshana members also eat with them. The boys saw to it that each of us ate atleast one gulab-jamun before we left. It was such a sweet gesture indeed.
We wrapped up after sharing a wonderful meal with the boys. We said our goodbyes and left with the memories of an action packed day which I doubt anyone would be able to forget.
Aashray Home in Bandra West was next on our ‘Spread Some Smiles’ List.
We started the event by having a quick game of ‘Four Corners’ and ‘The Newspaper Dance’. It was such a funny sight to see how the girls managed to balance themselves on barely one inch of the newspaper.
Post that we started with the main activity planned for the day, which was a game of Antakhshari. The girls divided themselves into two groups with a few Kshana members assigned to each team. One team named themselves as ‘Shining Stars’ and the other called themselves ‘Chak De!’. It got very noisy indeed when both the teams started cheering for themselves on the top of their voices.
The game of Antakhshari lasted for over an hour. There were 5 different rounds of the game. The ‘Musical Round’ was considered as the most difficult round as the girls found it very tough to guess a song just on the basis of an instrumental clip that was played. The ‘Dum Charades Round’ had everyone rolling on the floor with laughter as one member of each team tried to act out the song given to her and then her team tried their level best to guess the song. The girls also enjoyed the ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Round’ where they were given the name of a popular Bollywood on screen couple and they had to sing a song which featured that couple. The Finale had the girls singing songs and dancing on them as well. This round was enjoyed the most by the girls. Special requests were made to have the Kshana members on the dance floor and we obliged :]
The DJ took that as a hint to start playing music. Needless to say that there was lots of dancing and madness!! The kids requested for all their favourite songs – ‘All the best’, ‘All is well’, and ‘Pappu can’t dance’.
The DJ reluctantly stopped playing the music when we started serving snacks — wafers, cupcakes, Frooti and chocolates. The kids passed the mike around and hummed their favourite melodies as the enjoyed their yummy snack.
Once they were done eating they called all the Kshana members in the room and thanked us. They presented us with a hand-made ‘Thank you’ card which was simply beautiful.
Photography was not allowed at Aashray but we left with the mental images of the smiling faces and a resolve to be back at Aashray soon.
The next Kshana Event is being held at Ashray- Residence for Orphans & Vulnerable Children, Opposite Globus, Hill Road, Bandra (West), Mumbai. The event is scheduled on 9th May 2010. The event timings are 2 pm to 6pm.
This is going to be a Kshana event with a musical twist to it as we plan to have a game of Antakhshari with the kids. We are also going to have some fun filled games, which will be followed by music and providing a light snack.
The last and the most exciting part is going to be - Giving away the presents!!!! 
:)
The total cost of the event is Rs. 7,000. Donations are welcome in cash or cheques drawn in the name of ‘Kshana Charitable Trust’.
Kshana is a registered NGO with the Charity Commissioner since December 2008. We have received the 80G certification. We assure prudent use of your donation.
Hope to see you there. Do let us know if you can make it.
Call Esha - 9820373176 or Roshni - 9820750480 for any further details.
Kshana is now a registered NGO with the Charity Commissioner from Dec 2008. You can also take a look at our 
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