Volunteers of the day – Master Adhrit Dwivedi, Shweta Sharma, Shivi Gautam, Sonakshi Mittal, Ayushi Verma, Ashi Sharma, Arti Gupta, Sarthak Sachdeva, Pralay Ganguly and Vikas Babu started the celebration with the decoration of the spot. Poster of Goddess Laxmi, Diwali stickers, hanging wreaths, diyas, and rangoli gave the spot a never before look. The activity started with the prayer – ‘Itni shakti humein dena data, mann ka vishwas kamjor ho na’.
Soon after the decorations, the children were told why Deepawali is celebrated. A quiz was conducted and the correct responses were appreciated with on the spot prizes. The brief and quiz were followed by the Aarti of Goddess Laxmi which the children sang in full devotion with closed eyes and folded hands.
The children were told to avoid burning crackers on Diwali as this leads to pollution and suffocation. But to satiate the childhood interest for crackers, a few crackers were burnt as sample which brought wide smiles on the little faces. The celebration concluded with the distribution of Boondi Laddoos among all children.
28 volunteers were invited for conducting this special activity on Diwali and only 9 turned up. Surprisingly most of them were girls who made this Diwali special for the slum children with their presence, decorations, talks and gifts. Sonakshi, Shweta and Arti had brought big jars of chocolates for the slum children while Ashi gifted them with lovely crackers. 8-10 staff members of Fire Station also witnessed this celebration with the mutual exchange of sweets between them and the volunteers. Dr. Gopal Krishna Dwivedi accompanied and guided the volunteers as the faculty coordinator of Parivartan Club.