Daily Archives: March 20, 2019

Riccardo Melzi

From Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Parsi new year, Paryushan, Eid to Raksha Bandhan, the month of August brings to life the religious and cultural diversity of India. We see almost everyday, children in and around temples and churches, agiyaris and mosques…Sometimes dressed up for early morning prayers, selling flowers to devotees passing by, other times dressed as gods begging for alms, participating enthusiastically in religious activity or simply obeying conventional demands of a faith, passed down. While religious freedom is a fundamental right in India, the relationship between children and religion is nuanced and convoluted.

Here’s Riccardo Melzi’s visual narration of children in diverse and distinct religious settings across the country, illustrating his passion and love for photography in the culturally colourful land of India. From Nandgaon, Vrindavan, Barsana to Varanasi, Riccardo was drawn to the pivot of religious grandeur accompanied by his camera.

Children Of God

From Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Parsi new year, Paryushan, Eid to Raksha Bandhan, the month of August brings to life the religious and cultural diversity of India. We see almost everyday, children in and around temples and churches, agiyaris and mosques…Sometimes dressed up for early morning prayers, selling flowers to devotees passing by, other times dressed as gods begging for alms, participating enthusiastically in religious activity or simply obeying conventional demands of a faith, passed down. While religious freedom is a fundamental right in India, the relationship between children and religion is nuanced and convoluted.

Here’s Riccardo Melzi’s visual narration of children in diverse and distinct religious settings across the country, illustrating his passion and love for photography in the culturally colourful land of India. From Nandgaon, Vrindavan, Barsana to Varanasi, Riccardo was drawn to the pivot of religious grandeur accompanied by his camera.

Where Children Play Cricket

Every child in India will have remnants of their childhood linked to the game of cricket. Along the banks of the ganges, during the shutdowns in Kashmir, across the open fields in Bihar, in the narrow bastis of Dharavi and Chandni Chowk, and during monsoon in Mumbai, the culture of cricket is inherent in every corner of India. In a game, almost synonymous to a religion in our country, there are no boundaries of gender, age or caste… the only boundaries that matter are the sixes and fours. 

For the children of India, this Sunday morning ritual calls for – dividing players into teams, setting up make-shift wickets at the batting end, segregating the colony or basti into boundaries for the ‘sixers’, using local lingo picked up from the older players, tossing with a one-rupee coin and finally, playing a long, passion-filled game of cricket. 

This IPL season, don’t miss this photo-essay, that exuberates in every frame, the joy children find in playing their favourite game despite no place to play.

Any empty space is a cricket pitch…

Picture Credits : Mahesh Kumar

Be it in narrow alleys

Picture Credits : Unknown

Across railway tracks…

Picture Credits : Danish Siddiqui

Or on sandy beaches..

Picture Credits : Unknown

Perfectly acceptable substitutes for stumps are…

Picture Credits : Unknown

Bamboo sticks, tires, bricks, stones or even firecracker boxes..

Picture Credits : Getty Images

Tin pieces from demolished rooftops

Picture Credits : Mukhtar Khan

Police shields …

Picture Credits : Basit Zargar

And empty liquor bottles..

Picture Credits : Unknown

Discarded chairs or Chalk drawings on walls… 

Picture Credits : Unknown

Card board boxes, leaves and cloth pieces act well as knee pads…

Picture Credits : Reddit

Boundary walls are…

Picture Credits : Vivek Prakash

Entrances to temples…

Picture Credits : Sanjay Austa

Rocky Mountains sides…

Picture Credits : Matthew Lewis

The insides of a truck

Picture Credits : Unknown

Thatched roofs and mud walls…

Picture Credits : Unknown

Or even riversides and lakes

Picture Credits : Anupam Nath

But nothing stops children from finding ways to play their favourite game

Picture Credits : Unknown