Capturing Happiness?

I really love children. Even though, I went to Garib Nagar Slum a couple of days back for a Getty Images assignment, it was to meet my good friends, the Slumdog Millionaire child stars, Azharuddin and Rubina, flocked by the rest of the media that day.

I've been so much around this Slumdog world, and so has everyone. New stories keep getting created around them. Will these children get a house or not? Do any of these slum dwellers get good houses? And now, we ask, "What would you like Danny Boyle's house or the MHADA one?' Then we can ask, why would you like this and not that, and who will live in which house, and what further conflicts they might give us so that we can write, photograph, and view. We refuse to let children be children!

We are all so consumed by work that even people become subjects. It wasn't surprising to find that many of them did not really interact with these children while they wrote, photographed,and questioned. For few of us, they were children, and not just an assignment. This is probably why they treat us not like media, but as friends.

Every assignment is an experience, as this was, when I sat with Rubina and Azhar, and their parents drinking tea in a broken shop talking about their lives and times. Most of us have seen hunger, tap water, and interesting days, but we forget to play and watch around us. That's why I love children, they understand happiness, because they don't question it. If not for my camera's swinging moods, I could have gotten more pictures than let those moments of conversation slip before my eyes. But, the day travelled as I played with the children, walked around their homes, and managed to capture life and actual 'happiness'.