Abilashrayam Trust (Orphanage) Visit

July 17th 2010, Saturday : Punya Team visits Abilashrayam Children Home (Orphanage) near Kodigehalli Railway Station, Bangalore - 31 Kms from BTM 2nd Stage.

The journey started at 3.45 PM as we decided to reach the place by 5 pm. We did not have an idea about how far the place was. We boarded a bus 25 A which took us till the Majestic Bus Stand. From there we waited for 288H to board the bus to our destination, Kodigehalli Railway Station. We had too huge boxes of a Grinder and a Mixer which were to be given to the Trust as a part of the requirements laid by them.


It was almost 4.45 waiting for 288H to come at the platform, we were getting late. And then at 4.50 came the 288H, we boarded the bus and suddenly Chirag's phone rang, it was Mr Kiran from the Trust, he inquired did we get the bus or not? After conversing with him we sat with our huge luggage boxes on the seats :-)


The bus was displaying the Next Stops and suddenly after 15 mins it said Kodigehalli and we got up to be at the gate as we had to carry those 2 boxes with us. When the bus stopped, we were a bit confused as it looked like a temporary stop, we inquired with the Conductor, is this Kodigehalli Railway Gate, an Uncle from back said, its far from here get seated :-)


And we were back to our seats. We were still confused so we called up Kiran to ask him where we have to get down exactly and he confirmed me the route and the landmark. The place was still 3 more stops away. From inside we were a bit more excited to meet the Kids than to worry about handling them the Grinder and Mixer Safely :)


The place was not very much developed kind. It had small route and our bus stopped at the Railway Gate at 5.27 PM. We got down with our boxes and called up Mr Kiran for assistance till the Orphanage. He was there in 2 mins and we went with him to the Children's Home finally.


The Kids were playing around with each other. It was there play time, but since we had the Box with us so we had to go till upstairs to keep them. We followed Mr Kiran and reached the first floor, the room so cutely decorated. We were too happy to see the drawings all over the walls. Walls had crafted A-Z, So many cartoon characters sketches and also the entry to the rooms had the titles. The Washroom said.. "Wonder Looooooo...". We couldn't stop ourselves asking him who did all this. Kiran told us, some people had come down from London to meet the kids specially, they stayed with them for a month and they decorated all the rooms for those Kids. It Felt So Sweet of them !! 


Mr Kiran told us about the Kids, the people in-charge of the Trust and the caretakers of the Kids. Most of the Kids were single parent, whose parents were not able to support their kids for education and living. Two Kids among them did not have any parents. One Girl was just 3 and half year old. She was too silent one. 


We inquired Kiran about their regular routine, about their school, standard into which they all were studying and their special qualities. We asked him to make a list of the name of student along with their standard, their favorite special activity and in case they were funded by someone, as we were looking for Kids whom we can help with education scholarship.


It was 6.10 till all these discussions lasted and we were not able to stop us from meeting the kids now. Their play time was over, It was study time for them. We went to the ground floor, where they had their study room. All were quite and they had their notebooks open to complete their homework.


We entered the room and said a Hii to all of them, they responded in a chorus. :-)
I started from one kid, i asked him his name and then i asked him who am i - he responded LKG, i couldnt stop laughing on the cuteness of him. I gave him 2 chocolates and asked him to say Thank you. He followed. To the next one i asked his name and then the class, and then again who am i, he answered the same :-) This was a real fun. All of them after that replied the same thing :-)


One of the girl, the youngest of all was sooo cute, She was so shy to even answer the questions. Her smile was too cute.I asked her to come with me, she smiled and nodded her head for a big Noooooooooooooo. :-) Felt so nice for these kids being so happy :-)

We gave chocolates to all the kids one by one. To one of the Kid "Pawan" i asked to write my name. He wrote in a nice cursive handwriting :-) While going through the trusts site before coming here, i read about him, he was just 4 but was too good at drawing and he loved it a lot.


It was their Study time so we couldn't play much with them. We said them a byee and they responded again in chorus. I remembered my school days when we used to shout in chorus "Good Morning Mam ...", "Good Afternoon Mam.." :-)


We went upstairs to take the acknowledgement from Mr Kiran.

We spoke to him for another 10 mins and we decided to leave from there, as it was almost 6.45 and it would take us another 2 and half hours minimum to reach back. Mr Kiran came with us to leave us till the bus stop. We took a last snap with him at the Abilashrayam Trust Gate for the remembrance. On the way back Mr Kiran told us about the eldest Guy they had in their Orphanage,He is too fond of repairing things. He used a broken charger, a DC motor he got for his project and a toy airplane fan to make his own fan. :-) 

We reached the bus stop said a Thanks to Mr Kiran, to help us out in finding out the bus stop. He left after that and we waited for the bus at the bus stop. In the meantime while waiting for bus we had Veg Puffs, Biscuits, Chocolate as we were hungry. Bus came in another 20 mins, we boarded it and reached Majestic again, from there back to Home by Bus no 25.


The total day was like a wonderful outing. The Kind of relaxation we had with this visit is really inexplicable. In all it was a total fun !! Had An Awesome Day Out !!


Thanks to the Chirag(Team Member, Punya) for supporting me in this visit, Mr Kiran (Abilashrayam Trust Member) and to Varun (Founder and Chief Volunteer) without whom i couldn't have plan this visit.


Thank you all!!