Exchanging genuine smiles with the elderly women

We often consider that old age is the second childhood, as senior citizens tend to be fond of activities that they were not able to do in the past years. This would include sharing their experiences with someone who would want to learn, and sharing quality time in their area of interest. We were fortunate enough to view how being in the second childhood feels like.

On 7th October, the Year 12 and Year 13 students, along with T. Tricia and T. Vanessa, visited the Bangkhae Old Aged Home 2 (located at Kanchanaphisek Road) and the Bangkhae Old Aged Home 1 (located at Petchkasem Road).

When I arrived at the IPS Thai room around 7:40am, I saw Sumayya and Ramita with simple, delicate, yet extravagant cards for the lovely grandmothers at the centres. The focal point of the artwork was the flower-shaped designs on the front cover of the card (Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the front cover at the moment). I was fascinated by the work they had done; perhaps opportunities like these give us the chance to comprehend how capable and modest our students are at IPS.

Top: Sumayya's card
Bottom: Ramita's card

We pulled up to the Bangkhae Old Aged Home 2 at 9:00am sharp. While Ramita and Saksith were presenting their plans to the office staff, I kept telling myself that no matter how the flow of the plan goes, I have to smile and make the elderly women feel loved, just as I would for my own grandmother. "You rather seem to be usually quiet, Shruti", T.Tricia said. "I am okay, Teacher", I said trying not to feel stressed.

As soon as I entered, I felt like a wave of positive vibes hit everybody all across the room. When we started with the greeting and the introduction section, all I saw were elderly women greeting back and giving an infectious smile. We first distributed papers for them to share about their most memorable experiences. While they started drawing and writing, we went around the room and helped them as some of them had forgotten their glasses and had difficulty seeing the paper. When I started helping one of them she asked me about my school and hobbies. I, not being a native speaker of Thailand, found it difficult to construct proper sentences; however right beside me was Suryanshi, who helped me communicate with those lovely women. "Sawasdee kha", I said politely. "Sawasdee luk (Hello Daughter)", came the gently reply.

As soon as we entered, our mission: to make them smile even wider...

Saksith and Natacha were so impromptu and warm with their hosting, that it seemed that the women loved them immediately. We were aware about Saksith’s incredible hosting skills, but this time Natacha had the spotlight. The women were enthusiastic to share their drawing or writing. All of their artwork were surely attractive and some illustrated deep meanings as well, that made a lot of us emotional. However, the smiles they had were so genuine that even ours did not fade away. "Suddd yord khabbbb", Saksith said energetically! Saksith and Samad played charades with them, by acting out an animal which they would guess it right away. We even taught them how to dance to “Gangnam Style” and “PPAP”, which they enjoyed thoroughly. In return, they taught us on the way Thai dance is supposed to be done and started dancing with us around the room.

Saksith and Natacha describing their artwork

Thai dancing with the women

As we started leaving, Sumayya handed out her beautifully carved card. With the support of Ramita’s translation, T. Tricia told them how fortunate we felt to spend the entire morning with them, and wished them success and peace. They also sang a “thank you” song to us for having spent time with them, and blessed us for a great life ahead. I feel that blessings were the ones that we as students needed the most, so this action of theirs warmed my heart. We kept the donations in their office and bought a showpiece for the IPS news report office that they had marvelously crafted by one of the women herself. It is very rare to find these in the market and it was nice to appreciate their artwork, as it felt like they have put their heart and soul into it.

Ramita translating for T.Tricia

Around 12:00pm we had lunch at Secon-Bangkhae. Everybody sat in groups of tables and reflected on how kind-hearted those women were to give us their blessings. My mother always said to me that there is a lot of power in the blessing that the elder people give. I believe that this is the best part of being a student, as we get to visit places where we exchange goodwill to each other despite not knowing them personally.

"I see this all around Thailand", T. Vanessa said, as Saksith brought his Thai milk tea. "Yeah teacher it contains a lot of condensed milk, which is tasty but may be fattening", I said in reflex. "Precisely!", she nodded in agreement.

We reached the Bangkhae Old Aged Home 1 at 1:00pm, just on time as scheduled. Since there were about 30 people, Suryanshi went around the room and broke the ice with an introduction. Most of the women stated that they enjoyed playing BINGO. Fortunately, we had prepared for a game of BINGO as a backup plan, which we thought we should use it as they would love the game with us. The numbers were a bit small for them, so we went around the room and wrote it in a larger size. We also helped them play while Natacha spoke the numbers and Saksith walked around playing light music on his guitar.

Playing BINGO!

Singing some songs and seeing smiles on their faces

By the end we even sang some songs all together. While leaving the venue, Ramita and Sumayya handed out their gorgeous card. T. Tricia had told all of the women that it was a pleasure to spend the entire afternoon with them, and wished them good luck for their future.

This experience was a huge eye-opener for us. As a privileged Indian, back at my home I complain about the Wi-Fi not working or being upset with our grades, and then you meet these elderly women and see how content most of them are while being so hospitable towards us.

It was a different experience for us, as we had never seen what second childhood felt like. I feel very blessed that we were able to meet these people, as we do not get to meet them very often. I would like to thank T. Tricia for giving us this wonderful experience, and for helping us realise that our family members are the most valuable people we would ever have in our lives! It is very difficult to write in words about how precious the moment was and how heart-warming we felt about it.