From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Meet this group of special children who can add more spark to your Diwali celebration if you can be among those fortunate few who could lay hands on the special diyas decorated by them for the festival of lights.
Sishu Sarothi, a Centre for Rehabilitation & Training for Multiple Disability, which has been doing yeoman service for differently able children, takes all possible steps to ensure that the differently able children under its wing are all smiles on any festive occasion.
The institution not only facilitate celebrations of a fun-filled Diwali or Deepawali by its children, but also train them to help others in the society to celebrate Diwali in style with gorgeously colourful earthen lamps prepared by them for the occasion.
Several good hearted individuals, organizations and corporate bodies join hands with the staff and teachers of Sishu Sarothi to make an all out effort to facilitate these children to have fun on such occasion of merry-making like Diwali like all other children.
It was a heartening sight to behold when scores of differently able children of Sishu Sarothi on Monday celebrated pre-Deepawali along with their teachers, parents and others in the campus of the schools.
They were all smiles when their teachers, guardians and well-wishers joined them and help them light the sparklers and decorated lamps on the occasion.
“Some of our children are capable of enjoying the festivities on their own while some others need our help to do so. But what matters most for us the smiles on their face where there is such a celebrations like pre-Deepawali. It has been a tradition for our institutions to celebrate every festivals on the eve of the actual celebration day so that our children can enjoy every bit of it despite their different abilities,” said Ms JB Kayasthya, a teacher in Sishu Sarothi.
On Monday, it was FICCCIflo that sponsored the pre-Deepawali celebration in the school while on Tuesday it will be held by the institution’s management itself.
The most moving part is that some of these differently able but talented children make amazingly colourful diyas (earthen lamps) for use by other people during Deepawali.
The teachers and children of the institution this time have made about 23,000 such decorated earthen lamps and out of those over 20,000 have been sold out. The buyers include corporate houses, individuals, different institutions.
“We get lots of orders for our decorated diyas every Deepawali. People come to our institutions and buy those diyas which bear tender touch of out talented children,” said the teacher adding they may need physical help to celebrate Deepawali but they ensure that they too help others to celebrate the festival of light.