Mumbai Day 2

Our second day here and already on the road at 8am to beat the legendary Bombay traffic so we can sit in on one of the Akanksha center’s art classes. The theme of the day, ever so aptly and perhaps in anticipation of the U.P visit, was Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The children were asked to go into the courtyard and gather waste that they could transform into art. The goal was to cultivate values of reuse and recycling in children, with art as the vehicle. Metaphorically it was an exercise in reinvention. And needless to say, the Akanksha kids once again astounded me with their incredible imaginations.





We then had a Q&A about the U.P where the kids asked about the motivations and reasons behind doing the project. Conversations gradually progressed to how long it took to fly from New York to Bombay and how long it would take on a ship or on a train if there was a tunnel under the ocean. I shared with them a few of the dailies and out of curiosity asked them what their favorite was – the nearly unanimous winner was the Michael Jackson tribute from June 26th. You can imagine how this warmed my heart. Already moved and inspired, the kids surprised me further with a few gifts that they had personally handcrafted, some of which you will see in an upcoming daily. So definitely stay tuned.
We leave on a day trip to Pune early tomorrow morning to visit the Akanksha schools there, so in need of some shut eye. I still don’t have my voice back and have become increasingly efficient at projecting in whispers. But despite it all, I sleep tonight feeling very refreshed, thanks to these kids and the tireless Akanksha staff; a family I am starting to feel a great kinship with as these days here in India continue.