The girls put on Little Red Riding Hood for Teacher's Day (in Bengali). They were fantastic, twice. They did one production at their school to honor their teachers there, and then again later at Shishur Sevay to honor our teachers here. Time is always short, and this time I canceled classes at Shishur Sevay all day so they could prepare for the next day. Our special ed teacher took responsibility and also developed a program that included all 12 girls, the abled and the disabled, or as we call them boro bacha (big children) and choto bacha (small children). She is the only teacher who can manage all 12 at one time, and keep everyone engaged and happy.
I went out to the big market in North Kolkata to look for costumes and masks and found a wonderful little shop in Barrabazaar, up a narrow flight of stairs, and into a room with paper mache masks of all sorts hanging from the ceiling. I quickly found my wolf, parrot, and rabbit masks, and also saw the huge variety of costumes they have, including for dance. This place is a find!
The next morning we all went to school in the rain.
Ganga and Bornali go in their runner's strollers.
The teachers sing for the students. The students give flowers and other gifts to the teachers.
Ganga and Bornali watch (well, Ganga watches the camera because she will then insist on seeing the picture).
I shot the pictures of Little Red Riding Hood production as video so I have no stills to post. After school we returned to Shishur Sevay where after some chaos we started our Teacher's Program. The chaos was because the girls dutifully washed their costumes because they were wet so we had to totally re-outfit them for the second production of Little Red Riding Hood. I wish I could say I was calm about it but I wasn't. I hadn't wanted them to change at all, only the ones in white. But the staff interpreted that as wanting all the clothes washed and the girls totally pitched in to be sure that NO costumes were left unwashed — all in a matter of ab out ten minutes. I think my real reason for upset is that I'd wanted pictures of them in the same costumes to post — the photographer me upset that my shoot had been disturbed. I do laugh at myself — frequently!
Back at Shishur Sevay the program began with the girls blessing their teachers.
Then Sonali was prepared for a dance, but she wasn't altogether happy about it.
She didn't like socks as ears or socks on her hands as paws. In fact she really didn't like being a rabbit. Or, maybe it was just stage fright. When the music started she rose from the floor and moved gracefully with the song. 
You can see that she has already shed the socks on her hands. But in the end she was very happy with her performance and promised to do it again. Her one request is that she not have socks on her hands because in case of emotional emergency she can't get her two thumbs into her mouth quickly enough. We have agreed, so expect to see more performances from her, and the others. 
The performance by all twelve is only on video. Little Red Riding Hood as performed at Shishur Sevay is also mostly on video. But the Shishur Sevay Players are an enthusiastic group, as you can see from the intense interest of the audience.
One day I will figure out how to get video into this too. But stay tuned for the eventual further performances of the Shishur Sevay Players.
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