My dad met with an accident recently. Although he didn’t suffer any grievous injuries, unfortunately the same couldn’t be said about my beloved bike which needed quite a makeover. As usual I took out my photography gears while my bike was being looked after. I started with this cute, little gentleman working for the garage, with whom our story begins.
He is probably the shyest street kid I’ve ever seen, I’ve seen enough to know that the kids brought up in these circumstances are unfortunately too bold and overly matured for their age; but this kid clearly had a lot of innocence still left in him. He was working his heart out, kept his head down and ran from one point to another when asked to fetch a certain range or a screw-driver. He was definitely the hardest worker they had in their garage, and wouldn’t stop cleaning the parts until the last spec of dirt was washed off! It was very sad and yet he fascinated me for some reason, I tried talking to him in vain as he wouldn’t even tell me his name. All I got were a few cute smiles from him now and then, and these few pictures before his elder brother came along. Here are a few pics of Chote Miya working very hard:
I spoke to the garage owner who gave me part of the story I was looking for. He told me that this kid only works there for the weekends and actually attends a govt. funded school for the rest of the days.
These schools offer cheap lunch to these poor kids in an attempt to lure them into attending classes, which, unlike most of the govt. policies here, does work!
Then came along his elder brother who was the polar opposite to his younger kin, and was very interested in my camera. After a while of bullying his other brother:
He came over to me, and grilled me about my camera and whether I was a reporter until his mom called him over. He reappeared shortly though, with a big smile. I asked him if he’d like to have some ice-cream,
his reply “Sorry, don’t have any money!”
I said “It’s okay, I’ll pay.”
his response “Can I share it with my kid brother?” 
I spoke to the garage owner, and took them both for an icecream, where Bade Miya started a fight with the seller claiming these cost Rs. 3 and not Rs. 5, and that they’ll find some other place to buy there ice cream.. 
Anyways, after getting our ice-cream he told me I should take some photos as it’ll make for a good shot, and instructed his brother to pose for the camera. This kid was really sharp, I wonder where he might have been if he had a decent upbringing.
Afterwards both of them went back to work, but kept coming back to me frequently and I had a few more shots as time passed by.. Bade Miya told me what the real name of Chote Miya was and unfortunately it was a Bengali slang, that’s why I keep calling them Bade and Chote Miya (Elder and Younger Gentlemen – roughly).
Bade miya also told me he really enjoyed studying, and that his younger brother just went to school for the food.. nice kid! 
Just when I was about to leave, he dragged along his other bro from somewhere and requested me to take another picture as he was left out earlier. I obliged, although I wish the results were better.
It was an amazing experience, I am surprised how much I learn about people everytime I pick up my camera for street photography; changes your entire perspective!
Oh, and Bade miya also learned how to operate the camera from me, and took a pretty decent picture of me and chote miya together. He even operated the manual focus himself, that is something I had hard time teaching to some college kids (not photo enthusiasts). Unfortunately, I didn’t shave that day and looked like crap, the consequence of spending the entire day in the oil and dust of the garage, otherwise I might have shared that one too..
But let’s not make the post too big!