For them,a special Diwali

Sweets were offered to children and activists of 11 Ganesh mandals and LIC’s Pimpri Chichwad branch donated items of daily use to the children. Abhyankar,who has been conducting several programmes with her team for the children,said spending quality time with children and making them feel loved were as important as cash donations for them. Elsewhere,at the boys’ observation home at Shivajinagar,Art of Living volunteers celebrated Diwali with members of the remand home.

At Budhwar Peth,Saheli,an NGO creating awareness on HIV,had already celebrated by distributing sweets two days back,as most of the women had gone back to their native places for the festival. At several hospitals like Sassoon General Hospital,some patients were discharged ro anable them to celebrate Diwali at home. Dr Arvind Inamdar,head,cardio-vascularthoracic unit of the hospital,said,“Some patients requested they be discharged to celebrate Diwali. We accommodated them,and set new dates for surgery,’’ says Inamdar.