On her daily commute from her home in Defence Colony to Vasant Kunj, Shreya Soni, a Marketing Consultant, would meet children begging on the street at every traffic light. In her 30 second interaction with them, she forged a friendship and bonded with them by teaching them a bit of English and they in turn would teach her how to count till 30 in Hindi.
“I have a soft corner for all things abandoned and though my interaction I realised that all that these poor children wanted was to have a conversation with someone who made them feel normal,” says Shreya who founded Picture Wala, a moving circus that provides entertainment for street children left to fend for themselves.
The idea came to Shreya when she asked kids who perform gymnastics on the street to entertain commuters if they had ever watched a movie for entertainment. Picture Wala brings together volunteers to screen movies and provide refreshments every fortnight for the kids.
Apart from screening movies, the volunteers also plan to organise photography, art and story telling workshops. A bunch of volunteers who are passionate about football are also taking time out to teach the children the rules of the game so that they can play the sport the proper way. The idea is to create an environment in which children who have had the harshest of childhoods can sit back, relax and enjoy being entertained.
At the most recent screening that was conducted at Mother's International School the children were shown the movie Iqbal. After watching the movie, Raja, one of the children, on being asked what he liked about the movie, commented on Naseeruddin Shah's character and said “We treat drunkards like untouchables and do not care for them. We must not let that happen and should in fact share our food with them and help them get better.” During a photography workshop that is being planned, the volunteers plan to train kids in photography and then the child who takes the best photographs will be given access to a camera that he/ she can use to further develop skills. The effort is to make them shoot life from their perspective.
Amalia Chawla, a volunteer says watching the kid’s eyes light up during the movie and sharing emotions with them was an experience that will motivate her to continue to think of ways in which she can help the kids.
Talking about the difficulties she faced while starting the project, Shreya says it was easy to convince mothers to let their children go watch a movie but many of the fathers wanted to know if they would get paid if they sent their kids. Another hindrance was agents who make these children sell goods on the road. “In the effort to provide some entertainment for the children we realised that we should not harm the kids by causing a rift between them and agents who unfortunately control their life,” adds Shreya who hopes Picture Wala's tiny step to watch the children’s eyes light up and sparkle will bring them closer to a life that someone their age ought to be living.
