We just celebrated our Fifth Birthday! Read on to find out what was Namish Kumar’s first experience of Birthday Manao and what went down…

Namish Kumar

CSR Manager

Ever felt that your birthday is coming up but you are not too excited for it? Well, has happened with me too! However, it would never happen to me again after being a part of Birthday Manao, a monthly celebration by Wishes and Blessings at Jaav. Birthday Manao is an initiative by WB wherein we celebrate birthdays of visually impaired kids, kids who never celebrated their birthday before or kids who had no idea that birthdays are meant to be celebrated.

I was all set to witness and be a part of the ritual of celebrating birthdays of kids who were born in that particular month. The moment I reached, I asked my colleague where the kids were because this was the first time I was going to spend some quality time with them and her prompt response was “they are watching cricket.” With my mind full of questions I got super curious to know what she meant by that if they were visually impaired, without wasting any time I went straight to the room they were in and what I saw melted my heart. Kids surrounded by a TV in the middle with pin drop silence in the room, waiting for the next ball to be bowled. This was a moment that immediately made me feel how ungrateful I have been for the things I have always had. While I stood there in awe, two more kids entered the room and asked what the score was. This was all pretty new for me and I was letting everything to sink in. I wanted to talk and be in that moment but not disturb them while they were enjoying the match.

Well, after all of this I definitely needed a moment with myself and I had to be ready to shoot these kids while they celebrated the birthday of their friends. While all the kids started gathering for the celebration, I could feel the energy of the kids. They were super excited. The energy was such that it didn’t matter whose birthday it was, it was all about the celebration.

A visually impaired kid playing tabla, one playing the harmonium and everyone else is jamming for that one person who is bound to feel special today. It does not take eyes to see but a heart to feel how beautiful that moment was. One by one the cake cutting happened and for every birthday girl and birthday boy their friends were singing and surely made them feel special. Were the kids so happy about their friends birthday or was it the special treat they were excited about? I don’t know, but the energy created an aura so positive that you’d not want this to end.

This visit to JAAV has made me forever grateful for what I have and made me learn that happiness comes from within!