So, these kids I was working with in my autumn breaks have left me astonished and awestruck. The amount of hardships and dark days they have went through and despite all, their eyes twinkling speaks a lot about their commendable courage. Small kids, who we presume to be able to bear no hardships and fit for only tenderness, have gone through such crude and tough conditions like drug abuse, physical exploitation and mental trauma. In this young age, when all you are presumed to do is play and enjoy life, they go through conditions that no one would want to endure.
When I met the kids of the ‘Ummeed’ house of ‘Dil Se’ Foundation, I felt a sense of admiration and respect for them. They not only have had to face a lot of hardships and abuse but also are still not able to live a normal life. Although the NGO tries its level best to give them all the facilities that they can, but still somewhere deep down the children know that this is not there family, that this is not what is supposed to be ‘normal’.
Anand (name changed) had left home when he was 10 or 12 years old, he has tried to revisit his home a lot of times since then, but although he would reach the station of his home village, he would return, entrapped in conflicts of within. Of whether his family would accept him or not, whether they would be happy or disappointed. Of whether they expected him to not be there anymore, of what if they didn’t want him to return.
It is painful to not have enough food and clothing to survive. But what is more painful and killing is the absence of a strong relationship and a family that holds on to you no matter what happens….
