A college student played Santa and a group of street children enacted a play on giving.
Kolkata spread Christmas cheer in many small ways. The Telegraph reports some of them
Playing Santa
A third-year college student played Santa to a group of children on the streets.
Prapti Routh, 20, carried a bagful of chocolates bought with her pocket money because she wanted “to make the Christmas of the children different”.
Dressed as Father Christmas, Prapti, accompanied by four of her friends walked down from Park Street to St Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday morning.
“Everyday is a struggle for those on the streets. By spending a few hours and a few hundred rupees I am able to bring a smile to their faces, if only for a while,” said Prapti, who is from Burdwan and stays in a hostel in Hedua.
The best part was that many children were surprised to see a Santa walking up to them. “For children in privileged families Santa giving them gifts is a common thing but not so for these children. It wasn’t possible for me to buy them gifts, so I bought what I could.”
That was not all, though.
At the gate of St Paul’s Cathedral a little boy was crying for a fruit drink.
“I couldn’t get that but bought him an ice cream and he was so happy.”
Chocolates over and a visit to St Paul’s Cathedral, Prapti headed back to her hostel.
Christmas Carol
Young and old, in red T-shirts and caps, participated in a festival of carol singing, organised outside the Chapter 2 restaurant off Southern Avenue.
“Since childhood we have always thought that if it is Christmas it has to be Park Street. We wanted to break that jinx. We sent a handwritten note and a chocolate to those living in the neighborhood and invited them
to participate,” said an organiser.
The couple of hours of carol singing, led by Sumit Ray, ended with sandwiches, nachos and cakes.
Street play
A group of street children enacted a play on the joy of giving.
The boys and girls performed on how each one — a hawker or a sweeper — can “give” irrespective of their social position or status.
The children showed how a sweeper, who was cleaning the streets, found notes and kept them aside. And a student, who had lost them, came looking for the notes and was elated to find them.
In another scene, a hawker helped an old man cross the road.
“The children realised that each one can give and we could see that as they rehearsed for the play everyday,” said Rukmini Paul, president of Pathchala, the NGO that works for the education and development of children from toddlers till they turn 18.