Circus Trip

Thanks to you all, in two days we managed to raise far more money than we ever expected. On Thursday morning an email was sent out, without a clue that donations would come walking at our door-step.
As a result, on 27th October we could take around 65 street kids, a couple of mothers accompanying their toddlers and 1 stray dog (yes that is correct. It was some kids pet) to the circus along with 15 volunteers. The volunteers included donors interested in meeting the street kids and going to the circus of-course. Many had never been to the circus themselves! A reporter from Afternoon Dispatch and Courier who accompanied us wrote, “All the kids were thrilled to bits, each and every one of them overwhelmed this reporter by coming up and shaking hands and wishing Happy Diwali. All the kids were bright and free spirited. HF obviously treats them well.” As you may already know we were covered by Midday, Mumbai Mirror and Afternoon, seeing which the circus owner decided to upgrade us from 25 rupee to 50 rupee tickets. With the money left over, we could afford to give kids an unlimited supply of Fanta, Pepsi and other pesticides, samosas, vada pav and Brittania biscuits (courtesy a Santa-like donor who sent 160 packets of cream biscuits over). Some things don’t change, and the circus is definitely one of them. Saraswati, a single mother of three, predicted that the elephant would drink whisky, get drunk and get an injection from an elephant doctor in the coming act. Under the pretext of accompanying her children, she too enjoyed a lighter moment in her hand to mouth existence, nursing an injured toddler while working as a domestic servant. When asked how she knew, she said she had been to the circus when she was nine. Besides Himesh Reshamiya songs it seems little has changed since 35 years in the world of circus. Thank you for making Hamara Footpath a truly a collective effort. Your prompt support gives us greater strength to go on doing what we do. It also strengthens our belief in focusing on our work and letting the rest take care of itself. Goodwill it seems has a magical way of finding us.

You can be involved too. Email hamarafootpath@gmail.com