Deepam WM Scholarship 2013

Saturday, 13th July 2013 at 9:45 am, I receive a greeting in English from Ajay – “Good morning sir. How are you ?” and a few minutes later, Jyothi  says, “All these kids are very small !”. This evoked an internal response screaming “They have all grown up !”. Ajay and Jyothi are just a few of them any grown up Deepam Alumni who held the light this day. We invited six such children from yesteryear Deepam West Mambalam and their parents to honour these kids for striving hard in academics despite their various travails. Scholarships were given to them towards their education.

Emotions were running high amongs the kids as it brought back tearful happy memories of the school and Deepam; while Ajay’s grandmother was really proud of his achievement – joyous trinkets down her cheek showing all that the small token meant to them. It was a proud day for every parent present there.

If one side presents the past, the other side of the coin is our current Deepam kids. Flanked by their seniors on one side, and volunteers and parents from the other 3 sides, the wondrous children were all attention to every word, cheer and tear. Though some might have even been overwhelmed, it was as joyous an occasion for them as well. Many of them recognized their ‘annas’ and ‘akkas’, applauding incessantly with tiny hands when they received their awards. Grand promises were made by them to emulate their seniors and be ‘big little stars’ like them.

As we were about to say “phew, what a morning!”, we have RR Sir bringing a red envelope to the front and announcing with his usual finesse an award  for Praveen Kumar for being nominated Volunteer of the Month a few months back. A delightful icing on the cake !!

Volunteers, as always were cheering from the sidelines, pouncing on a rare opportunity to express satisfaction and happiness.

And, so we have six new stars in the Deepam sky …