Sunshine Story: Members of social media group celebrate birthdays of 40 street children

The Oberoi Mall Goregaon traffic signal was the venue recently for the birthday celebrations of approximately 40 street children who live under the Western Express Highway flyover There were 15 young men and women between 22 to 30 years of age who had gathered with a birthday cake and bags filled with clothes and shoesTIME FOR GIVING The Happy Birthday Bharat Twitter and Facebook members distribute Tshirts to the slum children below the flyover near Oberoi Mall in Goregaon PicsSameer MarkandeThese youngsters are part of a social media group called Happy Birthday Bharat For the past one month these people who have become acquainted via Twitter and Facebook have been celebrating slum childrensrsquo birthdays across the city every weekCake cuttingEvery Sunday the group with members from different walks of life get together at a new location in the city to celebrate birthdays Piyush Chudasama a member of the group says ldquoThe initative first started in Delhi with Avijit Bajpai celebrating the birthday of street children there He posted about it on Twitter mdash HappyBdayBharat and since we follow him a few of us in Mumbai decided to start celebrations here too We also have a Twitter handle and Facebook page where we post the location of the birthday celebrations as well as pictures of the samerdquoTASTY TREAT The lsquoHappy birthday Bharatrsquo cakeSharad Jain another Happy Birthday Bharat member says ldquoWe all contribute money and buy a cake on which we write lsquoHappy Birthday Bharatrsquo which stands for the unknown kids who represent the India of tomorrow Interestingly these street children do not know their birthdays or their age So all of them have never cut a cake nor celebrated a birthday When we celebrate their birthdays there is this joy on their face that makes our day and weekrdquoLETrsquoS CELEBRATE The birthday of more than 40 slum children was celebrated last Sunday by the 15 youngstersFor Hardik Joshi it is about spreading smiles He says ldquoWe just want to make these children happy When we are here they must play enjoy themselves and feel as though that day is their birthday and this is their birthday party We give the children new clothes and shoes so they get gifts on their special day We also distribute chocolates to themrdquoParty timeldquoThese children are made to feel special just like most people do on their birthdays with cakes chocolates new clothes and a party We generally gather in places that are near the signals but away from the traffic so that we donrsquot cause any disruptionrdquo says Kunal BauvaPreeti Parekh and Saloni Verma who were attending a Happy Birthday Bharat party for the first time say that their Sunday was turned to a Funday by seeing the joy all around Parekh says ldquoSaloni saw their Facebook page and liked the initiative so we decided to come today We were just observers hopefully soon we will also be contributingrdquoVerma adds ldquoThe children have never seen or tasted a cake in their lives to be able to give them a moment of joy feels really nice I liked that the cake they get is the tastiest one from a premier cake shop Even the clothes and the shoes that are given are branded Seeing young people do good work is inspiringrdquoldquoWe are all working and so Sundays are the best day for us to come together and celebrate the birthdays The number of people attending the parties is increasing by the day We started as a group of a few members and now every week we have had the numbers increasing What is nice to see is that there are many new people coming and the friend circle is increasingrdquo says ChudasamaMaking memoriesWhile birthday celebrations are an annual event for most for these street children it is a once in a lifetime happening Joshi says ldquoThese children spend their time begging on the streets selling wares or looking after their siblings We spend an hour or two with them as we make friends with them and aim to spread joy among these little onesrdquoPushpa a street child says ldquoI have never celebrated my birthday before this I donrsquot even know how old I am But I liked the taste of the cake and the new clothes and shoes I got I sell balloons and flowers at the signal and make Rs 100 on an average I had a great day todayrdquoFor Rahul another street child it was a day he will never forget He says ldquoSometimes people from the mall give their leftover cake and chocolates when I beg But this was the first time that someone bought a cake for me I wear torn clothes and donrsquot have shoes But today I got a Tshirt and shoes for the first time It is nice to have something to call my own for the first time everrdquoJain goes on to add ldquoWe want many more young people to join in We had Happy Birthday Bharat celebrations at Andheri East Jogeshwari Kandivali Powai and Mira Road before this Next month we will move to streets in the Central suburbs and celebrate birthdays there Our next Sunday party is at 11 am near Fun Republic Andheri W Some members will go to Pune to start the movement there as wellrdquoldquoSo far the planning is done via a Whatsapp group that we have and we share details on Facebook and Twitter The youth involved are from different walks of life mdash some of us have our own businesses some of us work and some are students If more people join in we can give the children more goodies We are thinking of including education to the initiative soon But letrsquos see how this goes firstrdquo ends Bauva