A Community Library in Sikanderpur, Gurgaon witnessed something magical recently. Well, who was behind this magic? A group of moms from the city itself who decided to use their time and skills to give it back to society, in their own special way.
Subha Bahl who manages the community library along with Gunjan Pande, Manavi Chakravarthy, Nidhi Kant, Deeksha Jashnani Bajaj, Richa Khanna Karanwal and Priti Kashyap Anand got together to paint the library wall and give it a new life. The idea to do something like this popped up last year around Diwali when the community library volunteers were thinking about ways to make learning fun.
“My friend Veena Padmanabhan brought up the idea over chai, and that’s how I entered the picture,” Gunjan adds.
So was it a task to get the group together? Not really I guess. Gunjan says “Finally, as word got around, a bunch of ladies — Manavi, Deeksha, Richa, Priti and I came forward with tremendous enthusiasm and just the right amount of artistic expertise to put the task in motion.The fact that we had amid us a professional artist in Manavi gave us great confidence to put our good intentions into some real action.”
Manavi adds “All of us are mothers, caregivers, professionals. Home and children n our elders at home always a priority but yet we like to carve out time to do some good make however small albeit a difference in someone’s life! So I gave them this offer n all of them jumped at the opportunity. So we started out n it took us all of 2 weeks 2 days. Working 2 to three hours a day, someday just two most days at least 4 of us n we got the task completed!”
It took many meetings to finalize everything including what kind of art would the children identify with and also appeal to them, all the essential assessments like finances, paint to be used and finally the walls to be painted.These moms with a mission were ready for another beautiful task that would truly bring smiles to the faces of many, especially children.
“Call it serendipity that one little girl with bangs painted on the wall by the very talented Manavi looked like the splitting image of a little girl who comes regularly to the library”-Gunjan
So did they face any challenges or hurdles? The only challenge was to get the was to get the wall cleaned and ready. Once that part was taken care of by the professionals, the moms were eager to paint their canvas.
“The wall was such a hit with the kids! Every day they would encourage us and praise our efforts and wanted to help out in some way or the other. So sweet so encouraging.”– Manavi
Gunjan adds “The biggest achievement is the smiles on the faces of those, especially children, who have visited the library ever since the painting. The Ohhhs and Ahhhs in awe are a delight. It is wonderful to see kids already spinning tales around the motifs on the walls including deer, kites, sun, boys, girls, butterflies, moon, flowers, stars, bees and the Akshar Gyan Tree.”
A big high five and kudos to all the moms who participated in this wonderful initiative and to all those who regularly devote their time in giving back to the society in whatever way possible. This indeed is very inspiring and we are sure this would motivate a lot of other moms to come forward!
Manavi also joined a few other moms to paint another wall at Agrasar Bachpan School recently
“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
