It was a fun-filled day for the group of special children as they sang, danced and enjoyed to their heart’s content in the presence of former India Test cricketer M.S.K. Prasad here on Friday. “A great experience,” was how the BCCI national selector described his feelings as he interacted with the physically and mentally-challenged children and watched them perform dances.
Hidden Sprouts is a school for mentally-challenged children near the Ushodaya junction but one could also find children with physical disabilities getting trained in reading and doing mental and physical exercises here and a visit by M.S.K. Prasad was an opportunity for them to display what they had learnt.
The enthusiasm was writ large on their smiling faces as they performed a dance on the Ramayanam and broke into a jig to the tunes of a few folk songs from movies. A student Sumalatha, who comes to the school from Arilova, enthralled the audience by singing the song Mounamga Edagamani.
As the former Test cricketer and a few guests with him were spell-bound by the special children’s performances.
MSK Prasad met every student and posed for photographs with them. Later, he promised to help the school in all respects but found it necessary to create a corpus fund so that the school could be run without any difficulty.“After every tour of the Indian team, I will extend support to the school,” he said.
He promised that the students of the school, their teachers and staff would be hosted by the Andhra Cricket Association for one day during the second Test between India and England to be played at the ACA-VDCA stadium here from November 21. He appreciated the founder of the school K. Srinivasa Rao for running the school efficiently and bringing cheer to the special children. Instead of receiving felicitations from the school management to mark his visit, Mr. Prasad honoured Srinivas in recognition of his services to the special children.
Two former scientists of BARC and ISRO, A.L. Mohan and P.S. Prakasa Rao respectively, who are also involved in running the school, said Mr. Srinivas had dedicated his life for the school and support from personalities like MSK would be of great help to the school.
The school started with two small rooms raised on a plot of land with the support from local MLA V. Ramakrishna Babu and later a large shed was erected. .
MSK distributed T-shirts to the students which were sent by a former player B.S. Raghuram.
An NRI Ch.V. Ramana Murthy working in Qatar has donated Rs. 20,000 to the school in memory of his father Ramamurthy.
