E-Paper
Slum friends in wonderland!
ANUBHAV?4 and Akriti?3 tasted tomato soup and chowmein for the first time. But, they were not alone. For over a hundred other children similarly tasted something that they never knew existed. All of them were children of slum dwellers residing in Gomti Nagar area. And for them Monday night at GSI lawns was a night to remember. The occasion was the marriage of their teacher-friend-philosopher guide, Sarroo Didi (Sarika Kalia) with Siddharth Verma. There were several VIPs in the wedding.
ANUBHAV—4 and Akriti—3 tasted tomato soup and chowmein for the first time. .
But, they were not alone. For over a hundred other children similarly tasted something that they never knew existed.
All of them were children of slum dwellers residing in Gomti Nagar area. And for them Monday night at GSI lawns was a night to remember.
The occasion was the marriage of their teacher-friend-philosopher guide, Sarroo Didi (Sarika Kalia) with Siddharth Verma. There were several VIPs in the wedding. But, these ‘children of lesser God’ had a time of their lives at the ceremony.
Sarika, daughter of the senior advocate of high court, SK Kalia, devoted her life for the betterment of these children.
She completed her post- graduation in Human Research and Industrial Relation and had a lucrative offer in a multi-national company. But, she preferred to work for the downtrodden. She took out all her savings and also took help from her father and sponsored education of these children most of whom had single or no parent.
Vimla Yadav, the director of Indian Public Inter College Gomti Nagar, and her husband Rajesh Yadav joined her and gave admission to these children at a concession, or no fee. Sarika soon became popular among children as Sarroo Didi.
It was her sheer good luck that Siddharth, a post-graduate in economics and MBA, was also fond of children and was touched by the human approach of Sarika. This was the reason that made SK Kalia plant a pleasant surprise for the couple on their marriage. Vimla helped her and they decided to invite all the children as special guests in the marriage. Of course, none in the family knew this.
It was at 9.45 pm. There was a long queue of children at the marriage Pandal starting from the gate and ending at the dais attracting each and everybody. All cameras turned on the young guests and for a moment all the glittering guests lost their charm.
The children were holding two rose buds each, one for the bride and the other for the groom and in a few seconds the dais was full of children.
The whole ground filled up with a thunderous applause by the guests. None of them had ever witnessed such an emotional gathering of young special guests in a marriage ceremony.
