For a taste of sheer joy, head on over to the Early Intervention Centre at Ummeed in Mumbai. I spent a morning there yesterday and it set me up for the week. I literally couldn’t stop smiling. Every child was cuter than the next – and the mothers! Such an amazing group of devoted, happy women – in love with their kids and eager to help them develop in every possible way.

And I was dazzled by the creativity of the staff – Vinita and Hetal are the teachers and Deepali is the helper. They see EVERYTHING. Here’s a child needing help to focus, there’s a mom needing to be encouraged, on one side of the room a child about to dissolve into tears, on the other, one who has to be reminded to sign his choice. Eye pointing, sign language, speech therapy, physio – it all happens simultaneously and with dizzying speed, and they never drop the ball.