An evening with the blind boys orchestra

Agenda

·      I invited 10 blind boys to sing for us. 

·      I invited Anita from Ekansh ngo to help our kids interact with the blind boys by asking them questions on their favorite sport, actor, hobby…

·      She also taught our kids how to spell their names in sign language.

The good

·      Life is so busy, full of classes, social commitments. In spite of that several mothers made the effort to bring or send their kids for a charity event and we had a good turnout, 40 attendees (around 25 kids)

·      Kids hopefully learned that you can nurture your talent inspite of disabilities, where there is a will there is a way

·      Kids hopefully learned how difficult sign language is and how they take simple gifts for granted - like the gift to see and talk

The shockers

·      Inability of our kids to sit in one place for more than 15 minutes without looking bored and distracted, I pad culture and constantly “being on the go” with a packed schedule of classes has given them all attention deficit disorder

·      Inability to enjoy a good voice or good music, just wanting the latest/ cool Bollywood songs in order to have a good time

·      Inability of our kids to touch/ hug the blind boys while taking a picture, where is the empathy?

·      Inability to come up with enough questions to ask the blind boys, the genuine desire to get to know them better (must point out here that the girls were much kinder and more willing to interact than the boys, moms of boys need to work harder!)

·      When a sweet boy was asking simple questions like “what is your weight” the others made fun of him saying “he is calling THEM fat” is everything so trivial?  Do 9 year olds not have the maturity to be serious at times? In the US 9 year olds are helping their parents wash dishes, are we not treating our kids enough as adults?

So what is the solution? There isn’t one single solution. Key is to keep exposing them to variety of situations and use specific examples like today s event to teach them some values and keep reinforcing those examples time and again. Just like we plan classes for their physical wellness, we need to schedule time for their mental wellness which is going to be a serious issue for this coming gen !