Two of my favourite little people

Mookesh and Sumni are two of favourite friends here. They are little, and dirty, and sometimes have cow poo on their feet and snot running down their noses, but I love them all the same.

Their father looks after our cows and buffalo, and their mother, Laila, does the washing up, sweeping and digging holes when required. They live next to our house near where the cattle live.

Mookesh is 8 and he tried going to school but didn't like it so won't go anymore. He spends his days running around the house with his sister, perhaps clearing leaves or helping some of my cousins in their building work. Sumni is 2 years old and enjoys playing with stones and chewing on her flip flops. She calls me Didi, meaning big sister. Mookesh often raises his hands to me in Nameste and shouts hello across the courtyard.

The family is from a different caste to my Rajput family, and it's not really acceptable to them that I play with the children, although my family often makes dresses for Sumni out of odd scraps of material. I'm trying to walk the middle ground and be friends with everyone, just seeing little Sumni's smiling face in the evening makes up for any hot, long day in the office.