In Bachhwada Dhana in Madhya Pradesh
On one of our sketching trips from Riyaaz Academy* in Hoshangabad, we visited Bachhwada Dhana, a small village on the banks of the Narmada river. The village folk looked at us with curiosity. They immediately got out their charpoy in a gesture of hospitality and asked us to sit down. The village gets inundated when the river is in spate.An old man who thinks we are from the government asks us to do something about it. We try hard to explain that we are not government officials but he does not believe us. His wife gives us a cup of sweet tea and the man tells us of how, in the last spate, he lost much of his property, Won't the government help him? It is a community of farmers and fisherfolk. Some of them were great models, patiently allowing us to sketch them. Here I met Sanjana. A little girl with bright eyes and beautiful sparkling teeth. She hung around while I sketched and introduced me to her friends - Madhu, Manisha and Jannu. She quickly runs to her h...
