a charming little talent show in the evening and tripurari pournima display of skylamps all their own work proved the high point she neither carries a chip on her shoulder nor a revolutionary flag in her hand that sets off a chain my servants child brings along hisher friends to my place and i start looking into their hobbies and studies too she adds an understatement considering that the numbers of slum children visiting her household has crossed 80 usually starts with my servants child her marriage to achyut hirve has only given her a chance to travel to places like mumbai bhopal and hyderabad where she gathered similar groups of slum children and equipped them with enough fundas to break through the cycle of poverty illiteracy exploitation and more povertyit for the third year in a row the brightest night of diwali was celebrated by 85 children from the gosavinagar slum in kothrud on wednesday besides the oil lamps of traditional tripurari pournima the night was lit up by the smiles and the joy of the slum children i have a way of instantly making friends with children no matter where they come from hemlata is not preoccupied with middle class prejudices coming from a family of teachers her concern has been nurturing a generation of good citizens especially from among the economically deprived turning out in their festive best the children did the hirves proud with their creativity and compassion the venue was the ground floor residence of the hirve family at the reserve bank of india staff quarters in dahanukar colony kothrud where the children aged between 5 and 15 have been attending a mix of tuition hobby and moral classes pune they began the big day with a rangoli competition and followed it up by cooking for each other i start by helping them with their homework i try to find out what their real interests are says hemlata for hemlata hirvewho has been slowly and quietly inculcating the values of cleanliness education culture and hard work in the otherwise underprivileged lot it was the biggest day of the year