On the second day of the second week of my internship at Butterflies, I visited contact points. These contact points are quite near Chandni Chowk metro station, a walking distance. I was aware that there'd be no proper structure made by butterflies for education, instead open areas were used as open classrooms for education and interaction. My supervisor gave me the directions to the Hathi Park contact point, with the landmark being the Barkhandi Mandir where I reached and called Sonam, the program officer for the contact point. She took me to the park, it was around 10 am in the morning with blistering heat and loo going through the trees. When i was waiting at the Barkhandi mandir i saw beggars, scraggy men with saffron robes and some with no clothes at all. One of the people who were coming to worship at the mandir brought chaach, and distributed it among the homeless people. Previously smoking a bidi, they now pounced at the chaach which was being donated so graciously. Right behind me, on the footpath, there lay a man with no clothes on, looked as if his entire body was sucked dry of water because of the sun. He called bhaiya and when i looked at him he asked for water. When i gave him my water bottle he insisted that he waste some of it by instead having me pour water into his hand and then he could drink it. A litre was gone in seconds, but i didn't regret it. Soon after Sonam called me and picked me up from the temple, her entire face covered in a rupatta. She took it off when she was with me, walked with me talking about what I plan to do today. I was not really sure but i had thought of playing some games with the children which would involve everyone and didn't require strenuous effort. I learnt these games from play for peace. Unfortunately I couldn't play these games due to my own lack of initiative. I wasn't pushed by anyone to do so.

I arrived at the hathi park. Under a large green plastic cone shade there were two green iron benches where sat two old men. Sonam had small talk with them, with the old men talking about whether the children are coming(probably in june they come every Wednesday and daily in other months) The old men, with empty water bottles, a frisbee and a jute bag left soon after.

Now I had the company of Sonam only.

Talking about the children, their timings on a regular basis, the assessment she does before taking in any child for education, her work in CASP before butterflies, were all topics that I was keen to talk about and she very systematically answered them with no stuttering or hesitation.

My curiosity arising for the mandir area, i asked if there were addicts present in the area.

Sonam replied with greater interest in the topic, adjusting her posture and facial expressions, that yes, there were and are addicts in the area and the children know more about them than her. The children being more aware of the substances they take, and how to identify a person who is intoxicated. She told me that it was quite easy for children to get influenced, and start smoking or drinking.

Our conversation slowed down a bit and two girls came to the area. Sonam being addressed as didi and myself as bhaiya. Every butterfly member is addressed the same way by the children, even the director Rita Panicker.

I am not going to mention the names of the children as I had signed a children's safeguarding policy.

Sonam asked the girls to lay down mats under the shade of a tree where two steel benches were. They brought the cash book and the ledger book of CDK, in case anyone wanted to deposit money. I asked the girls about their experience with "Buddies". One of them had been a buddy, meaning that she was selected. Her friend didn't have any experience with talking to a buddy. The first girl said that the buddies had to approach the children with potential problems, due to their own hesitation.

As two more boys came to the location Sonam had announced that she would take a dictation test. She did just that.

As more and more children came the open shade felt like an open classroom. With chaos, heckler kids and kids who were trying to study, and a tall child who came back from his work from a juice shop depositing money and leaving, it felt as if my presence should've brought something to the table. I should've interacted more, should've played some games or told a story. I felt as if my own potential and time was wasted on simply observing and not doing something which would've made the sunny Wednesday a bit memorable for the children.

I was soon asked by Sonam to reach the Sadar Bazaar contact point. It was just minutes away via battery rickshaw. Near the fire station, there was a dark greyish compact park with no vegetation where Anita, the program officer of the location stood out. I bought a water Bottle and entered the contact point. Her bright floral suit was like a colourful thumbtack placed on black cardboard. The children were sitting on similar mats as ones in Hathi park. They were almost double in number. Some girls were very young, maybe 5-7 years of age. There were a lot of children of 7th class. There were four in the group of 9-10th class. A lot of activity was being done. Talking to the children here, I got to know that they're supposed to do "cooperative learning". They had to learn and understand the concepts in the chapters with the help of each other. Any doubt should elicit a question from the children to the educator, in this case, Anita. She walked around the area, checking on the children and letting them know that there would be a test on friday for the specific chapter that they're applying cooperative learning on. They would also go somewhere on 24 for showing their cooperative learning skills, where there would be questions thrown at them by other children, and they'd have to explain whatever they were asked.

Compared to the hathi park contact point where the open area was ventilated and felt breezy, this area felt suffocating and humid.

The session dispersed soon after. The children seemed to miss the story telling which was going to happen. Children would take turns and read out loud a story of their choice, or one picked by the educator. That day the focus was on cooperative learning.

Anita asked me to go community visit the children.

I was accompanied by the children ranging from the age of 6-14. Visiting their homes, some one room apartments and some jhuggies, I asked where they hailed from, how did they get to know about butterflies, how has butterflies helped them and since how long have their children been going to the contact point. Some of them weren't admitted into schools due to the school marking off the name of the child or simply not accepting aadhaar cards. Butterflies helps connect the dots and get them admissions. It was a surreal experience.

In some households I was served cold drinks, which was shocking to me. They shouldn't have done that. But they still served it to me. Only one house had a cooler, rest had fans only.

The last children whose houses I visited escorted me to the location where I would get a battery rickshaw to Kashmere Gate metro station. I had eaten nothing since morning but I had felt no hunger.