I was casually glancing through a Bay Area Ashtavadhanam photos on Flickr when a comment on a photo caught me by surprise. The photo of the user, that familiar school going girl of AP - two braided plaits, neatly done in white ribbons (రెండు జడలు, తెల్ల రిబ్బన్లు) first impressed me. I thought it may be some one's childhood photo. But the comment on this ashtavadhanam photo confused me further.
memu dinini choosi chala ananda padinamu .memu ipudu padava tharagathi chaduvuthunnamu.memu enimidava tharagathilo deeni gurinchi oka patyamsham chaduvukunnamu.ashtavadanam chala asakthi karamga untundi.
regards,
r.lalitha
g.rani
I then browsed through the girl's flickr profile / photos and was surprised to find that she is studying in "Kalleda Rural School", in Ravoor Village, Warangal Dist. The school kids have flickr a/c s and post their daily life pictures !!!!! Amazing. The school is supported by India Rural Development Fund that has quite few Telugu people on the board and hence the Andhra School I guess.
There is a Kalleda Photo Blog and the students are listed in this group's contacts. Even a cursory look at the photos is so inspiring. Their enthusiasm doesn't stop with just posting the photos. What impressed me was that they are venturing to comment too !! And the above comment from the 10th standard girl on "ashtavadhanam" just bowled me over.
I also saw a white lady who was involved in this effort. She has a flickr account too and these kids post their comments on her photos. Here is a very beautiful photo of this foriegn lady draped in that 6 yards of Indian feminine grace, called sari.
The learning in this whole episode is that the only thing that seperates the rural Indian children from the so called corporate educated, urban kids is, access to better infrastructure and exposure to technology.
After all, once you have the seeds, all it matters is how you water them and how conducive a field you sow them in.
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