Wedding Bells at Sevalaya :-)

Dear Friends,

Abirami, when she was around five year old last both her parents in quick succession. She and her elder brother were left under Sevalaya care, by the villagers and some distant relatives. From then on she grew up as a cheerful person, forgetting her past. We could see she was very good in fine arts. She picked up drawing and painting skills very well. She was good in singing and dancing too. So Sevalaya decided to help her excel in fine arts line.

After her 12th grade in school, it was decided to put her in Fine Arts College and educate her in the filed she is good at. She wanted to take up drawing as her carrier but came to me and asked “Is this going to be very expensive? How will you manage?”. I told her that need not be her concern, and Sevalaya as an organization will somehow manage to get funds and educate children in the area they want to excel and have shown interest. So she joined a professional course in Fine Arts College in city. She had to get ready very early, catch a bus to the railway station and then a train to come into city and then reach the college. Many occasions, the breakfast will not be ready by that time. We had told her to eat out on such days, but poor girl will hesitate to spend money and will go hungry and attend the college. “This is public money, we have to be very careful” will be her answer, when I ask her why she is skipping breakfast.

After she completed the four year professional course, we offered her a job in Sevalaya School as drawing teacher. She was very happy to work in the same school where she studied, where she lived all her life.

When she was in college, she met Prabhakaran, who was doing music. He was specializing in key board. As they used to travel in the same train every day, they got closer and fell in love. Few months ago, Abirami told me able this. Then we had to make the enquiries about the boy, his family background etc. We went and met his parents and broke the news. The boy’s parents also came to Sevalaya to see the “home” of the girl. The discussions went on and finally it has been decided to have the marriage function on 8th May, 2019, in Sevalaya Kasuva village campus.

We have conducted such marriages in the past. The donor community helped us in meeting the wedding expenses and also presented lot of gifts to the new couple so that they can start their life. In Indian custom, there is big list of things to be done for wedding – what parents should do, what brothers should do, sisters should do, aunts, uncles, etc – yes, big list of relatives and bigger list of gifts! In this case, it will be all Sevalaya and its donor community – we have to play the role of parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts etc. Hope all of you are ready to contribute.

Inviting you to the wedding of Abirami, daughter of Sevalaya, on 8th May, 2019, at Sevalaya Kasuva campus, Thiruninravur, Thiruvallur dist. Please come and join the wedding celebrations.

With Love

Muralidharan V

Founder & Managing Trustee,

Sevalaya