Photography by Ronald L. Harmon

Gopalapuram, India, 2004

            It was late in the afternoon.  A myriad of sounds surrounded me. On a dusty brown playground, shrieks of young boys caught up in a Cricket game filled the air with excitement. The high pitched warble of birds created a delicate timbre to the scene. Human shrieks, the piercing twitter from birds, and a yapping arpeggio of a dog in the distance created a symphony of sound enhancing the quiet of the country surroundings.

            This was the schoolyard where Madhu Jamallamudi, a young man I had mentored for the past few years, attended grade school. In the States, he and I became such good friends that I decided it would be a good idea for me to visit India. Of course, visiting his family and school were two things that were high on the agenda.

            In his remote village, Gopalapuram, I learned that I was the first white person the natives had seen in their entire lives. As we entered the schoolyard, the boys of this all-boy school saw me with my camera and out of curiosity, started to follow me around. I knew that these youngsters would comprise a great photograph if I could get something that was fresh and spontaneous. So, through a translator, I asked them to group together so I could take a number of frames. This image is one of my favorites and I especially like the cute little fellow peeking around his friend in the lower right, because to me he looks like what I think Madhu might have looked like as a young boy.

ISO 100, F2.3, 1/60 Sec, Available light out doors