Close Encounters

Colourful wooden toys are a speciality of the small town of Channapatana, en route from Bangalore to Mysore. The Government has established the Lacquer Ware Craft complex at Channapatana which encompasses workshops where the toys are hand crafted by highly skilled artisans. This complex also houses the Government Urdu Primary school. Oblivious to this fact, I stepped into a room, and was surprised to see several little children squatting on the floor with a writing pad and a pencil each. This school comprised of two rooms. At one corner of the larger of the two rooms was the teacher's desk and at the other was a small kitchen where the mid-day meals were being prepared for the kids most of whom were from very humble backgrounds. Students of classes one, two and three occupied different parts of the same hall with one teacher monitoring all of them. For the teacher, the daily commute is over 150km. She endures the marathon ride in a crowded city bus for this valued 'government job' is a lifeline for her. The faces of these children portrayed a multitude of emotions which were eye-catching. Here is my attempt to capture a few.