Have A Nice Life!!!

Have a nice life is a way by which we bid goodbye to all the children we taught, to all the children we love. 'Have a nice life' is one last message to all connected to Nirvana as we leave them. While some of us (a few final yearites) celebrated it as their goodbye to college.

Inspired by a song named 'Have a nice day' by Bon Jovi and by Mohini's habit of drawing a smiley anywhere and everywhere, we decided to take up the job in a big way. We decided to celebrate 'Have a nice life'. As 20th April was the last working day of college for final year students, we decided to celebrate it on this day. This was also the last day of Nirvana. Due to final exams, we would no longer be able to continue teaching.

We got about 500 smileys xeroxed (Smiley is the logo of NIRVANA) on red and white along with few with captions 'NIRVANA'. At night on 19th April, we began sticking theses smileys at about 11 p.m. By 3:30 we were done. The college canteen was our major target apart from library and roads. Girls on the other hand made 4 beautiful posters (2 for Nirvana & 2 as final year goodbyes) to be put on either sides of the canteen entrance. We expected the college to wake up to a happy surprise. Another aim of celebrating in this fashion was to let all students of college know what Nirvana is.

In the morning we where glad to see actual smiley's on faces. We had stickers to be put on everyone we came across, hence spreading the emotion. The day was a huge success and lot of fun.

Evening - the last day of the class

It was the last day and there was a surprise in store for both children as well as few students. All had assembled near our school. The last photographs were taken with children at school. Each student held the hand of each child to guide him towards canteen. All children were made to wash their hands and enter the canteen. About 80 balloons awaited them ready to be burst in less than 3 minutes. It was one of the best sights nirvana had created. All students were then made to sit in a 2 lines. The surprise that beckoned them was a dinner party. We wanted them to eat as much as they could. The basic idea was - who knows when they will get to eat good food again? We had chole bhatura along with gulab jamun and Manchurian specifically made for them in our college canteen. Leaving out a few very young children, all of them ate filling up their tummies. Some young children cried and were reluctant to eat, we still don’t know why!

After this was ice cream time which every one enjoyed the most. We hope they get to eat many more ice-creams in their lives.

This was followed by dinner for all the students (i.e. we teachers). During Nirvana many a new relationships were made, many others were bruised. But the last supper was meant to leave everything else aside to celebrate a common cause, to celebrate a common victory.

We were told that the dinner party would cost a maximum of Rs. 1500. Next day when we went to pay the bills; another pleasant surprise came our way. Shekhar Bhai (Canteen In-charge) told us that A. J. Shah Sir volunteered to pay the bill. We had seen him in the canteen during the party, but none of us had talked to him. The moment we found out about this, we called him to thank him for his gesture. We are still grateful to him for his generosity.

It was the end of a long journey of about 40 days when we had to sacrifice so much time, money and energy. The journey was tough and demanding. But there's one thing we all must surely agree to, it was worth it, the journey was satisfying. These 40 days will remain in our hearts forever, the 40 days of sharing love and hope, the 40 days of Nirvana......