The toddlers have a new look - shaved heads and brand new summer dresses. The dresses have been designed and tailored by the ladies of our sewing classes.
The shaved heads are to keep the little ones cool and clean. This is ’boil season’ (apart from the boiling heat or because of it, lots of skin rashes and pus filled boils appear and the kids really suffer). It helps so much for the kids to be tonsured. Dr. Lila, our full time health officer, makes sure that all the children have a bath and get a nice dusting with prickly heat powder every day.
The kids love their new look and are positively light headed - in the nicest sense - here they are - all looking and smiling like little Buddhas.

Despite pleas to parents not marry their daughters off before they are at least 18 and have finished school, we are regularly losing our girls. We have also promised them, several times, that we will make all arrangements for the wedding of their daughters, if they let them complete their schooling. Parents feel they must get the girls married early, as early as 13 or 14 even and have many reasons for this. “It is the practice,” they say, and “it’s too dangerous to let the girls “out of sight” when they reach puberty”. Some parents are forced to leave the girls alone whilst they are away at work, especially when the girl comes home from school. They also feel that educated girls will be considered superior to an uneducated prospective husband and it will be difficult to get them married. And that “the girls become too independent if they are educated.” We tell them that the girl has equal rights to an education that it’s illegal to marry them off so young, that they would be so proud of an accomplished daughter. We argue and inform them about the dangers to the girl’s health to become pregnant when she is only 15. The hospital delivery rooms here in Vrindavan are full of these young mothers - children giving birth to children. The mothers of most of our students were married and have had several children by the time they were 17. They feel the inequity of the system; they see the effects on their health and lives but are powerless to resist the demands of their superstitious and uneducated elders. Though we have promised each girl who finishes school a very sizeable kitty at the end of their schooling, which their sponsors have agreed to contribute toward, we have still lost at least 4 girls in the last few months. We tried to intervene in the case of Ratna, recently. We spoke to her father and even the groom and informed them of the illegality of the issue. But we failed despite many different approaches. Ratna had been brainwashed in to believing that she was going to a better situation and insisted, blatantly, that she was 18 years old, as there are almost never any birth certificates given to us we do not have a proper birthday for most of our kids. Her father is a widower, quite old himself and in very poor health. He has taken this stance so that he can be assured that Ratna will be taken care of, should something happen to him. He says she had been having a liaison with a neighborhood boy and this would have brought them ill repute. The man he found for Ratna, he is at least 26 years old, is fairly well to do. They have land of their own, a few shops and a house they own, so Ratna’s father thinks he has settled her in to much better circumstances than she has at present. Clearly Ratna and many like her, are made to believe that the external change will be more hopeful for them. One saving grace is that he has lived up to his promise made to us and has kept Ratna at home after the marriage and will send her to her husband’s only after 2- 3 years. We will keep the pressure up to ensure that happens. Two more sisters are still at SMS. Rajinderji, our principal looks in on the family every now and again to remind Ratna’s father that we care for her future even though she is no longer with us Ratna, we felt, would make a great nurse. She took care of her terminally ill mother so diligently. Ratna is only 13 and was one of the girls we all had many dreams for; we do miss her and regret she has missed her childhood.
The other three older girls who have stopped coming to school are Neeraj (whose two sisters do still attend) Shivani and Hardevi.
Neeraj’s parents promise to send her every time we go and inquire, but then, just don’t. She is not married yet but we feel this must be their intention. Shivani has been sent to live with relatives in another village, we are told. Hardevi’s grandmother heard about another young girl from a school in Vrindavan eloping with a boy and ever since has decided to keep Hardevi at home. We did succeed in the case of Jamuna, one of our oldest and tallest girls. After much discussion her mother agreed to wait at least a year before getting Jamuna married. Jamuna is 16. One success story has been Santosh Kumari’s. Her mother has promised she will not get her married till she‘s 21. Santosh Kumar’s sponsors have been most generous and this has made all the difference in the changed attitude of her parents who now believe that we will be there for the girls all the way.

According to the traditional Indian calendar, this full- moon day during July - August commemorates the great Sage Vyasdeva, the compiler of the Upanishads, the Mahabharata and many Puranas. The Gurus or Teachers are honoured as representatives of Sage Vyasa, as they illuminate our way with wisdom. The students of SMS radiantly attired in traditional costumes offered their tributes of respect and gratitude through song and dance. Traditional raga based songs and Odissi dance recitals precisely prepared, were also offered by our students of budding talent. Later, they enjoyed a sumptuous lunch with their teachers and fellow students.

Safe drinking water and fuel efficient cookers are the newest additions to the facilities at the school. The steam cookers consume much less energy and keep the nutrients sealed in. Our thanks for this are going to Amal Bhakta das (USA) who helps us in many our projects.

A reverse osmosis plant provides safe drinking water for all the children. This has been made possible because of the generosity of Jani Family (UK-Kenia).