try to keep expenditures to necessary things, or nutritious ones. That is, coconuts, juice and lassis are not exactly necessary, but are a compromise from ice cream; fun but still nutritious. I won't buy sweets or ice cream for them. Or movies, or bindis, etc. I emphasized that we must concentrate on useful things.

Mumtaz and Prabhu show real promise. that is, they are observant, somewhat serious and focused about themselves and able to keep track of important things. There were several instances in which this was displayed, most of which i am too tired to type out now. Nagamma and SHanti perhaps could do nearly as well. Vela is the most intelligent but as you know, spends all her intelligence-energy being sneaky, not being productive.

Mumtaz' example: we went for coconuts, and after drinking the juice, Nagamma declined to cut the nut open and eat the nutritious meat. (the rest of us all did.) I tske'd her and said smiling, 'this is a waste of food.' Not expecting it to have any effect, mind you.

Later at lunch, Shanti (I think) did not finish all her expensive meal. I said, 'no finish? no finishing food?' and before i could say anything, Mumtaz said disapprovingly, 'this is a waste.' (Of course, she is probably just parroting me to get my approval. But it is a step in a good direction.) Mumtaz then pointedly cleaned her banana leaf empty, and pointed out that the 2 others also had joined the clean plate club.

AFter 3.30, we retrieved Prabhu & Mumtaz from school, and all went for juice and bhaji (small veg. fry). I had promised to get all the schoolgoers one bag, notebook and ink pen.
-4 New School Bags: 125 Rs each = 500 Rs
-Shoes for Vela, Mtz, and Prabhu = 530 Rs (they bought good, strong shoes with lots of ugly straps. Prabhu, I noted, was the only one who enthusiastically dove for the strong strappy shoes, by far the most practical style.)
-One ink pen for each school-goer: 15 Rs each = 30Rs
-One notebook ' ' ' : 40 Rs each = 160 Rs
-Geometry sets for Mtz & P.: 50 Rs each = 100 Rs
When Nagamma and Shanti protested that they too wanted the geo. set, i said that if they successfully stayed in school one week, they could have them. Of course, I may not be around then.

Then it was back to the bank, to retrieve Mumtaz's passbook.
name of 'Mumtaz Jaffar,' though I wondered if this was just the name of the store she sleeps in front of! We took this opportunity to have the girls write all their names in English. Vela never gets hers right.

I showed her the importance of keeping the passbook safe, of knowing the acct. number, what the balance page meant, what a withdrawal slip was, etc. Also that her parents have no access to it. Of course the first thing she did was run and show her mother how much money is there, which must seem a fortune to them.

The bank gents wanted to know why I didn't give money for the other 2 girls, Nagamma and Shanti. I said that 'if these 2 girls stay in school for some time, maybe too they will get.' Trying to emphasize positive rewards.

I decided I must have the evening to myself to see one B'natyam show. So, this meant Nagamma and Shanti must be entrusted to retrieve their own school dresses from tailor at 8pm. I gave them the receipt, emphasizing the significance of this piece of paper (if you don't have the paper, no getting school dresses). As of 10.30 tonight i couldn't find the girls, so we shall see how much they really want to attend school.....!