Bachpan ke din

In early 2007, while in India, I visited Sewagram, a small village near Nagpur. This place is famous for an Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi. It was a hot April afternoon and there were not many visitors at the Ashram. I had the whole premises to myself. It's a very peaceful, simple and a quiet place. Regardless of what your opinions are about Gandhi, it's quite a humbling experience to see the lifestyle of this man who shook the mighty English empire.

Anyway, as I was browsing through Ba Kuti (Kasturba Gandhi's hut), I came across a bunch of little kids who were also spending the afternoon at the Ashram. They were from a nearby school and their teacher had left them on their own in the Ashram for a little while. I started chatting with them and they were quite intrigued by the camera hanging around my neck. I happened to capture some photos using my less than amateurish photographic skills. I feel that their expressions conveyed a lack of any judgment, opinion and bias. Their smiling faces are simple and pure. If you look at pictures of adults, you can see a hint (sometimes more than a hint) of the corruption from our experiences while growing up. Adulthood robs all of us from this "simplicity". I guess this is what is called "The loss of innocence".