kids in India

Today I want to show you pictures of kids.

Kids going about their games and business, kids who laugh and play and smile like kids anywhere. They are not all "too poor" or "too rich" here in India.
These are regular kids who I meet when I move about the city.
I especially like to take pictures of kids who look happy.

( if you want to see the pictures larger, click on them. and...check out how many are wearing pink!)

Yasmine, who I met at the Dargah ( shrine of Saint Nizamuddin). She is a lovely self-possessed little girl.

Kids playing in the tomb of a Mughal Emperor, in the shrine.

A family coming to make offerings at the shrine.

Not very well-off, but repectable, having a day-out.

Street children, having to scrabble for money and f ood from babyhood. But the camera delights them , they want to see their pictures right away!

Alice is showing kids their pictures in the shrine.

Young girl in Srinagar with her baby sister. Shehanaz?

(I ask their names, but often forget, I'll take notes for next time!)

Subhash is the son of my freind's house man.

He is totally blind, and lives at the Blind Relief School.

He has two blind brothers, but they are not all at the same school unfortunately.

But he is a cheery lad, and very bright.

I gave him a bottle of scented oil, which he liked very much.

This boy is wheeled to his begging post outside a Dargah in Mehrauli (South Delhi) daily.

Being crippled, he is probably looking at a lifetime of charity, but one can see that he has a home, is loved, and cared for. It is very hard for low-income families to cope with a disabled member.

He was very composed and calm.

The Candy Man! An old-world sound, the tinkling brass bell, announces the candy man on his rounds in the urban village of Mehrauli. Kids scrounge their paisa and scamper to order a lolly..the candy man draws a strap of pliable taffy out from under the plastic sheet on the pole. On a twig of straw, he twirls it to form the requested shape, a fluted wonder, a butterfly, a snake, a toothbrush! or a fat twist.

It was Children's Day, and schoolkids were on an outing in Qudsia Bagh, Mughal Garden. I attracted a lot of whooping and haaalo-ing as they streamed joyfully past!

All schoolchildren wear tidy uniforms in India.

Bigger kids doing things....

Yesterday.

Boys spend Sundays playing video games, even in the cramped lanes of Old Delhi! The "vee-dee-o parlour" is out on the road.

Or they go fly a kite, in the hurtling traffic of Chandni Chowk!

We will see more kite pictures as the winter season progresses.

These girls are members of a learning club, set up by an NGO named Project Concern. The school is located in one of Delhi's gigantic re-settlement colonies, inhabited by mostly very poor immigrant families from the Eastern areas. They pay a small fee to join the school/club.

I was so impressed and touched by the enthusiasm and application of the youngsters, and their wonderful teacher. They are in the "Beauty Parlour" class, practicing their mehndi skills, using their hands and scratch pads. In the "Tailoring Class", a practical lesson plan takes them from basic hand hemming on up to pattern cutting and sewing whole outfits. These skills will be useful when they have their own families to clothe, and some of them will be able to take on paid tailoring work as well. Every bit helps.



My last girl, Sheila in Landour, Mussourie. We met her in the Christian Cemetary, a peaceful hillside terrace of British graves going back 200 years .

Her father is the cemetary caretaker, but he has taken care to send his bright daughter for a proper education at the local school. She expained ( in very good English) that she was studying for exams, so we asked her, " where do you study?" , and she hopped up on a grave " right here!, it is quiet and I can concentrate". Her books were laid out on her workstation, a nearby tomb.