India became independent in 1947 after which jungle raj started here. Whoever felt like doing anything, did that especially in the villages. There is one such city in Haryana named Faridabad. Mining work was done in Faridabad, mining was done to such an extent that people broke the earth's surface while digging it. Mines were dug so deep that they could not be filled till date.
Due to the breaking of the earth's surface, these mines remain filled with water throughout the year, at a time when there was not so much dirt, people used to use this water for drinking but later this water was limited only to animals. Today's post is about two boys living near these mines whose names are Iqbal and Akram.
Iqbal and Akram are 11-12 years old and if we talk about their daily routine, they have to do 2 tasks in a day, the first task is to take the sheep and goats for grazing and the second task is to carry water on donkeys for the animals that have given birth. These 2 tasks alone sound very small or trivial, but it is not so at all.
The terrain here is very dry, there are no fruit trees here, but there are Kikar trees all around, so one has to go 10-10 km away from home to get fresh grass. This place is located in the Aravalli Mountain Range, so Iqbal and Akram say that both of them have also encountered leopards many times. The 11-12 year old children even confronted the leopard to save their sheep and goats. Akram says that we did not have any weapon, so it took away one of our goats.
I praised both of them for their passion and courage. On one side the goats are eating grass and on the other side the three of us are sitting together and talking about the lakes. Iqbal says that when summer comes here we swim in these lakes. I asked him how did you learn swimming? Akram says that our uncle taught us swimming. He used to tie a plastic bottle on our stomach so that we did not drown. Then later we learnt to swim.
I liked this small conversation very much, after spending a few hours with both of them I come back to my home. Akram and Iqbal say that come in summer, my uncle will teach you swimming too. I come saying that I will try to come and it was a lot of fun meeting both of you.
This is my entry for #monomad challenge.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Sony a7iii, canon 77d and edited in lightroom.