We adults often take many things for granted. No matter how cliché the half empty-half full glass theory is, it does explain a very important lesson in life – one should always be content with what we have. Unfortunately, most of us, including me, do not follow this in life. We crib, whine and crave for things that we don't possess. While there is nothing wrong with having desires, we somehow fail to notice the other side of the coin.
Inequality was, is and will always exist in the world that we live in and no one can do anything about it. However, spreading awareness about the same is something one should encourage. Enter James Collison, a Kenyan-born, England-raised, Venice-based photographer, who has travelled the world to capture snapshots of children and their bedrooms. Sounds bizarre, right? But hang on, your views will change once you go through his pictures.
This eye-opening series is called 'Where Children Sleep' and it features bedrooms of poverty-stricken kids. These social classes will both disturb and shock you at the same times. And that's not the only catch here - they are not just nameless and identity-less pictures of kids and their bedrooms - they have names and some very shocking stories to tell.
Read on.
1. Alex, 9, Rio De Janerio, Brazil
This is Alex. He is unable to go to school, so, he spends his days begging on the streets to make ends meet and at night, he sleeps on whatever he can find - an empty bench, an old sofa, or the pavement.
2. Dong, 9, Yunnan, China
Hailing from Yunnan, China, 9-year-old Jong shares the room with his parents, sister and grandfather. His family owns just enough land to grow their own rice and sugarcane.
3. Alyssa, 8 , Harlan Country, USA
Eight-year-old Alyssa lives in a small house in Kentucky. There is no central heating in her house and it is only heated by a wooden stove. Alyssa's father works at Walmart and her mother works at McDonald's.
4. Prerna, 14, Kathmandu, Nepal
This is Prerna. She is 14 and works as a domestic help in Kathmandu, Nepal. She works 13-hours most days days and earns Rs 400 a month. She sleeps in a tiny, cell-like space at the top of her employer's house. She goes to school three times a week and dreams of becoming a doctor one day.
5. Risa, 15, Kyoto, Japan
Risa lives with 13 other women in a tea house in Kyoto. 15-year-old Risa is a "maiko" - an apprentice geisha. Her jobs consist of performing songs, dances, and playing the shamisen or the koto (traditional Japanese instruments) for visitors during feasts. She sleeps with five other women in a room that doubles as a dining room and a tea room.
6. Anonymous, 9, Ivory Coast
Despite being an orphan and refugee from the war in Liberia, this 9-year-old boy goes to school in Ivory Coast for ex-child soldiers and lives in a concrete shack with some of his classmates.
7. Indira, 7, Kathmandu, Nepal
Indira lives with her parents, brother and sister in Kathmandu. She works at a local granite quarry where she has been working since she was 3. Fortunately, she also attends school. She shares a mattress with her siblings. Their house has one room, one bed and one mattress.
8. Anonymous, 4, Rome, Italy
This Romanian boy sleeps with his family on a mattress in a field on the outskirts of Rome. Life isn't easy for him or his family. They managed to pay for their bus tickets from Romania to Italy, after begging for money. With no identity papers, his parents clean windscreens at traffic lights since they cannot obtain legal work. None of his family members have ever been to school.
9. Erlen, 14, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
This is perhaps the saddest one of the lot, 14-year-old Erlen lives in Favela in Rio, Brazil. She is pregnant for the third time. She does not have a personal bedroom, she sleeps on the floor. However, her mother swapped places with her and allowed her to sleep on the bed during the later stages of pregnancy. She lost both her babies shortly after their births. If her new baby survives, she will be a single parent and will have to drop out of school.
10. Bilal, 6, Wadi Abu Hindi, The West Bank
Little Bilal's family are Bedouin Arabs who live in a one-room shack they built themselves beside an Israeli settlement at Wadi Abu Hindi in the West Bank. Bilal does not go to school but he helps take care of his family's 15 goats.
11. Nantio, 15, Lisamis, Kenya
A member of the Rendille tribe, Nantio lives with her two brothers and two sisters in a tent-like dome made from cattle hide and plastic, with little room to stand, in Kenya. She went to the village school for a few years but later dropped out. She is hoping that a "moran" (warrior) will select her for marriage.
12. Roathy, 8, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Calling this kid impoverished would be an understatement. The home of eight-year-old Roathy is near a rubbish dump swarming with flies on the outskirts of Cambodia, where he sleeps on a mattress made from old tires. Every morning at 6, Roathy and hundreds of other children like him are given a shower and breakfast at a local charity center before he starts work. Work for him is all about scavenging for plastic bottles and cans, which are then sold to a local recycling company. Breakfast is sometimes the only meal of the day.
13. Rinku Singh, Dinesh Patel, Uttar Pradesh, India
Rinku and Dinesh aren't a part of James Collison series but the two boys do have an inspiring story to tell. Hailing from extremely poverty-stricken families, this duo caught the eye of struggling sports agent J.B. Bernstein. While Singh is the son of a truck driver and shared a single room with eight other siblings, Patel was brought up by his grandmother in Khanpur because his parents were too poor to afford to raise him. They got an opportunity to star in Bernstein's reality TV show. This show was about training young kids in baseball. Singh emerged as a winner while Patel was announced as a not-to-miss talent. After this show the duo entered the professional baseball scene in the US and the rest as they is history.
And then there are some extremely privileged kids like these:
Anant Ambani, 21, Mumbai, India
Son of the richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani, Anant's life is all about magic carpets and golden spoons. He lives in a 27-story residential skyscraper called Antilla in Mumbai.
