I spoke to Lakshmi for a while today. There are a couple of updates:

After I went to the school and pointed out that I felt that the children could do with some outing, so they don't only see the orphanage walls all the time and might have a better time focussing on their studies. There is a caretaker who walks the children of classes 4th and 5th to the computer institute, so they can hang out and play games on the comp take some comp classes and generally buzz around and see some place different from the orphanage. It doesn't match the beach or the park, but it is a positive move.

When they had brought up the issue of transportation and the Mini-Van I hadn't understood the seriousness of the situation. They attempted to raise some funds and bought a second handauto (Rs.48000=$1000), but the use has failed miserably for the children in taking multiple trips, etc. It gets used for admin running behind donors, giving them reciepts, meeting them, considering Velayudam's age and inability to see well in the dark, he generally uses the auto, (unlike younger ppl like me who can use the bus for a large part of the distance and walk around or take an auto for the rest), so in the longer run it might break even, but I'm not sure if they will manage to retain it for that long.

My dad's old scooter is being used by Deven for doing running around govt officials. I kinda need to understand why these govt characters keep visiting the orphanage and why they need to keep running behind them so I can't elaborate. At one point of time they were asked to pay the industrial price for electricity and water which was a massive amount, but I'm not sure what the problem is now. It is also being used by the elder kids, which is kinda exciting. Can't wait to get back in March and meet all of them, maybe I'll finally learn to use it myself :).