Last Day :(

Currently sitting in my room, with my hair all frizzed up and my muddy sneakers dripping onto the rug beneath me from the rain. I just finished saying my goodbye’s. They gave me another painting of the goddess Parvati because that's what my name in Hindi means. I sat with them one final time during dinner and 3 of the younger boys had tears flowing down their cheeks. 🥺 I thought I had built intimate relationships with the boys when I was here in January, but I've built even deeper relationships with some of the boys I knew from before, but also with some new boys as well. That's why it made this 'ta ta' even harder 😭

Now that it’s my last day, I can’t help but laugh at those moments. I smile at the moments where ‘L’ would run up to me and squeeze the living daylights out of me and scream “HUG” after I taught him what that word means; the attachment that ‘V’ and ‘K’ had with me and how they’d never leave my side if they saw me in their vicinity; ‘K’s face always glowing with laughter and his little filmy hero hair flips; 'B' and 'M' getting so cutely jealous every time I speak to the older boys; 'S's beautiful voice singing 'Kya Baat Ay' along with me. UGH! 

All of these moments further reinforced to me that all the material things, like fame and money, don’t mean shit. All these kids need and crave is some love, some attention, and a safe space. So many of them, new and old, have come up to me this week and have confessed their secrets - whether it be their past, how they got to the Ashram, or their crushes. I don't even ask them these questions. We sit in comfortable silence and once they feel ready to share something, they share. I’m not the Prime Minister of a country nor am I a movie star - the boys see me as a regular, Telugu girl from New Jersey. They see me as a fellow human.