Living in India all my life, and working with deprived children for some years,child labour is not something that i am a stranger too...
but a pitiful sight wrenched my heart and i wanted to share it with those who may be able to do more than me...i could only talk to them,take their pictures and silently wipe the solitary tear that crept out of the corner of my eyes...

They were 6 to 12yrs old...
they are recruited especially because they have tiny fingers and smaller their fingers, more intricate the designs they can weave with wool or silk or rayon...more vivid will be the carpet they make!
I was on a dream tour...always wanted to go to Egypt.Always wanted to see the pyramids...on my way back from the oldest pyramid in Saqqarah, my driver suggested a peep into a carpet factory. Colourful carpets telling stories of Rameses II and his journey into afterlife...or tranquil landscapes of the nile delta...or birds of paradise frozen in midflight greeted us in the quiet darkness of the factory.
Little people sat the huge looms and smiled gently at the stranger and went back to their complicated task...blue wool, red wool, a twist...and then another...green wool...blue again...
isnt it their time to be at school? or play with colours?
They dont go to schools...i was briskly informed by a teenager...
whats the use?
they work from morning till evening...with a short break for lunch...
the little girls and boys...
no time to play...no time for friends...no time at all...
its the blue thread...the red thread...a twist here...a loop there...green thread...blue again...
i quietly stood in the shadows helplessly, watching a little boy take shape slowly in the pattern...a little boy with a blue umbrella...walking in the rain,by the riverside...
Does little Fatima, copying the pattern from a chequered design book have a blue umbrella? does she ever get to walk by the Nile?