The Sphoorti “Smiles” Project was started when I visited the wonderful kids at Sphoorti in Jan 08′ at Hyderabad. I wanted to tell a story through these kids’ smiles.

Pictures of poverty stricken children, with dire sickness and unholy conditions are often a showcase of irony than reality. It does break your heart though. And when you break your heart, there is so much guilt that you sometimes forget to give. It is not because you don’t care but maybe, you’re ashamed. I was ashamed.

This project was started to change that perception. There can be happy kids too. They can be infectious like the morning dew and dream like you do. It doesn’t have to be a sad story, always. There is another side to these wonderful kids. It’s called a beautiful smile.

Event Details: Read about the event in this week’s Boston Magazine

Click here for the facebook invite.

I will be raising funds at this event from the sale of these photographs (as postcards). If you know anyone that would care to come, please do let them know! Someone needs their smile too.

If you can’t make it, I can understand. You can still get five postcards from the kids, the one that says — “SMILE.” Pl donate generously …

The ‘conference’ was more like an interview session with a panel of journalists. She spoke a lot. A lot, about her life. There’s a great respect I have for her, knowing her life, her struggle and why she made movies which were straight from her heart and experiences.  You don’t get to learn more bout people’s lives apart from the films they make. For someone who is on the realms of being a big hollywood star, she is so humble, wears Indian dresses still, believes in Indian identity and does not fake an American accent. Very impressed. And here is the good part — We did end up meeting her for 1 minute (thanks to my wonderful cousin) and briefly spoke about our story. She said, she doesn’t usually ‘accept’ script ideas but will try to read it. I had 20 pages of the story written with a teriffic prologue. She kept it in her purse and said come on in (small tea-party and autograph session with NEU’s cultural group).

I don’t know where it goes from here, maybe the dustbin or maybe it’s just one of those “Ouch, it happened to me” moments. But I’m determined to sell this script someday, somewhere.

I will.

It’s funny how things happen at particular times. I’ve been relentlessly spacing my thoughts in different trajectories for quite sometime. They were mostly personal. And then I visited Sphoorti at Hyderabad.

Life came to a stand-still.

All the kids invited me, shouting “Uncle” with smiling faces. I don’t remember this feeling ever. It is incredible. They don’t want anything from you. I was trying to remember when I saw a smile so freely and genuinely heartfelt, the last time. In fact, I don’t remember. It felt like my entire life only had a fictitious smile forcing itself like a dagger down my throat. The freedom of this place is so beautiful, I think good gets better. I sat with them, spoke to them to see what they were studying. Some danced well, some were good housekeepers, some had a painting hobby and some just sat there doing their homework all evening. It didn’t occur to me that I was visiting some sort of Govt school with endangered species or neglected children. This place was filled with love, lots of it.

Sphoorti is a grass roots level organization in Hyderabad, aimed to raise very poor children who are either orphans or their parents cannot afford education. It’s not really an orphanage. It’s not a shelter for food. It’s not a place funded by a white-collar corporate-ngo-ceo with nationalized-advertisement. Its a small place where children live, eat, play and goto school. I first heard of the guy behind this — Srivyal, his background was something like an educated young guy who worked in the US and came back to start his dream, to contribute to the society in his humble means. When a friend asked me to contribute, I was a little sceptic, like you. Who is this guy? Where will my money go? Is it really helping the society? Will it really light the bulb?

I checked the premises, it was a 6 room house, almost horizontal in structure with a large center-court, where they play, eat study in the evening. I looked at one of the rooms and I learnt that eight kids sleep in that space. I choked. Eight kids? I had a bedroom in Boston which was double the size and had a king size bed for myself, all with plush, two layer mattresses. They slept on the ground with blankets and pillows.

After a long thought, I decided — * everything. I’ll contribute either way, I haven’t done much anyways. The fact that a weekend booze and party can fund a child’s education, complete for one year, made me embarrassed with shame. A weekend party? One year’s education? American Dollar never looked so powerful. But it’s true. A year’s education costs 3000 rupees — a mere 75$. Still, we want to blame the Government and bitch about the inadequacies but honestly we haven’t done much to patch up our neighborhood. There probably are thousands of organizations around the world which probably are doing wonderful things, but why would you care when you don’t have physical contact or transparency. With Sphoorti, it’s a different story. It’s small, 45 children (in just 18 months) but growing and very ambitious. It’s in my neighborhood. I’ve seen the kids. We are planning expansion of land and facilities in the next one year and I’m glad that I’m going to be a part of this. I’ve seen Srivyal and his people working so hard relentlessly and so selflessly to make this a better and a bigger place. And at the end of the day, when I see their sweat and our little green bills convert into something so meaningful in life, honestly I think, life is not impossible.

If you cannot do it or if you do not have time to do it, forgive yourself. Atleast trust one person who does it for you. When you forgive, you love. When you love, God’s light shines on you. Now, I don’t know much about God. But I do know that sometimes, life is like a blind dead stone. You’re nothing but a head, facing with hands stretched apart. And when you extend it in the right direction, even the slightest of gesture is so painfully beautiful, that it’s worth respecting life, for a moment.

Taareen Zameen Par, inspired video of Sphoorti

Please donate now, if you can’t make it. You’ll get two postcards from the kids, the one that says — “SMILE.”

For the pics from the Sphoorti Project, click here. They appear in the above video as well