Chasing a balloon

While traveling around India, one kind of gets numb to the ever-present poverty and squalor. You just kinda get accustomed to the begging, the scams, and the desperation. Everyone seems hungry. But every once in awhile you're touched by something that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

I was in Bombay taking in the Gateway of India, an impressive monument that serves as the city symbol. The plaza in front of the Gateway was filled with hundreds of school kids on a field trip, all very excited to be there.



In the plaza there were also an army of balloon sellers like this one wanting to sell bowling pin shaped balloons. Don't ask me why they're particularly popular with Indian kids, they just are.



Anyways, not more than 10 feet away from the smartly dressed school kids on a field trip, there was this little girl who also was selling balloons. She couldn't have been more than 8, probably the same age as the kids on the field trip and the same age as the Indian kids whose parents were buying the balloons for.



Her family probably probably needed her to make ends meet, she probably has no choice in the matter. Her clothes were completely dirty, she was walking around barefoot, and the contrast with the school kids sitting next to her couldn't have been more obvious. So what did she do? She started playing with her balloons like any kid her age would, one got away and she had to chase it.



Just watching all of this unfold makes me so glad to be born in the country that I was and makes me feel really privileged to be able to travel around. Definitely puts the haggling over the equivalent of 25 cents in perspective at times.