Day 13: Kalanjali
Written by: Sanjuktha Thotakuri
Our final full day arrived, and emotions were running high as we set out to make every moment count. Sitting in the mandir, I was overcome with gratitude as I took in my surroundings. Over these thirteen days, I had gained a family and a deeper understanding of Baba and Guruji. It had been so long since I’d felt this close to Baba. Listening to the gentle chorus of namam, I allowed myself to be swept up in Baba’s smaran, letting all my worries drift away.
We spent the morning rehearsing for the cultural show, Kalanjali. It was amazing watching all of our different acts come together to make a beautiful show that represented Haritachala as a whole. Hearing Prav’s poem for the first time made me feel emotional knowing that I would be leaving Haritachala soon. The rest of the day passed by in a blur. All worked hard to make sure that the cultural show would be as perfect as possible.
In the evening we started to change into our white kurtas. We all ran around the room getting ready as we were already running late. The room buzzed with excitement as we did each other's hair and makeup. I came downstairs and ran straight into my mom who I hadn’t seen for two weeks. These past two weeks had been filled with so much excitement that I had forgotten how much I missed my mom. I spent the few minutes I had before the program telling her everything about the past 12 days.
The cultural show was perfect in every way possible. It was made up of sangeetham, gymnastics, karate and bharatanatyam performances each of which were filled with so much thought and hard work. Our group dance came together and I just had such a fun time dancing with these girls that I had grown so much with over these past 2 weeks. But the highlight of the night was the last performance. All of the kids and volunteers came together to sing a portion of the Madhyana Arati. Learning the arati was such an important experience for me and being able to sing it live for the first time made me feel so happy.
Afterwards we all rushed back upstairs to change into our sarees. All of the moms came upstairs to help us and we all looked so beautiful. We also had the fun surprise of seeing all of the annas in panchas. The dinner was pani puri and it was so yummy. We all sat in the kitchen laughing as Sruti Akka talked about the camp highlights. Every memory brought me right back to that moment and I just remembered how happy and carefree I had felt these two weeks. We said good night to the parents and headed back upstairs to change into our pajamas but the night was far from over.
While waiting for Sruti Akka we were finishing up our cards to the volunteers. Every volunteer received a handwritten note about how grateful we were for all of their help. We all sat in a circle just talking and laughing as Sruti akka walked in. We watched portions of the movie Ready and Keertana and Sweety akka gave us a live reenactment of some of the songs. Then Sridevi aunty made the most amazing cold coffee. It was so sweet and so good and I had at least four cups. High on energy and caffeine we spent the rest of the night talking about our lives and our favorite memories in camp. We talked about what we wanted to do next year. Some of us passed out throughout the night but the kaburlu (chitchatting) lasted until sunrise.
This night was truly unforgettable.