Written by Anoushka Correya
Since my mom has joined Bookworm, I have attended many bookworm events with her and helped her. But this time it was different. She asked me if I would go to Bangalore with her and I was super excited. I immediately started choosing my clothes and sweaters and stuff. And my mom reminded me that we were still in October. Days started zooming by and it was 11th of November and I attended a meeting at the library and it suddenly felt real. I was a bit sad that I was not going to help mom but I was super super excited to be helping Stephie, Ruth, Ana and Sammy. They are really cool people as we all have similar interests. Then mom told me that I would be in the Games center…this seemed all the more exciting. We started on Saturday night and it was fun travelling. Mom went to sleep as usual but the rest of us chit chatted through the night. We arrived in Bangalore, clicked selfies at the station itself and moved on to our places. Mom and me were in a hotel. It was a lovely room, I must say. We freshened and rested and ordered dinner and spent time with each other. I sometimes feel mom is always busy but this time in the hotel, I had mom all to myself.
The next day we were picked and taken to the venue. As we prepared for the event, I had butterflies in my stomach. As the inaugural ceremony, there was a huge crowd of children everywhere, raising such a storm that the insides of my body were ruined. We started the games and tried explaining but most could not understand much. One thing that surprised me the most was that the children either called me ‘akka, ma’am, aunty and even uncle’. It was too tiring for me because not one child listened to me, then when we got the translators, things became a bit easy. I also felt that the translators were tensed up a bit too. After the games, the children all started following me for the bands. I felt so happy to see them happy. It was a very tiring day but I liked it. It was a very different experience from helping mom in Goa where everyone knows English. Mom and me even discussed about what kind of difficulties they could face if they ever travel outside Karnataka. This trip belonged to me and mom and was a work trip but I also had loads of fun with my mom and the others.
