Young and bright

The people of the Earth stood waiting
Watching as the ships came by one by one
Setting fire to the sky as they landed and
Carried to the world
Children of the Sun
Children of the Sun... sang the Australian rock star Billy Thorpe in his full-throated voice, painting a mesmerisingly vivid fantasy about the purity of children.

In their delightful book of images and poems titled Children of the Sun, Dubai-based photographer Paul Thuysbaert and poet Piyu Majumdar take this idea a step further and talk about the unique blessings the children of Dubai, and in fact the region, enjoy simply because they live here. What makes Children of the Sun, published by Jerboa Books and being released today so special is that it is a book about this region, written and photographed by expatriates living here, published by a Dubai-based publisher and meant for the people living in the region who can instantly identify with the emotions captured in the pages.

Children in this region are privileged to be growing up in a melting pot of cultures and sensibilities. They can play in the sand, ride on camels, mix with different nationalities and have a wide variety of experiences that not many children growing up in other parts of the world can claim to enjoy.

The collection of 34 eloquent poems written by Majumdar, an assistant teacher from the American School of Dubai, coupled with the amazing pictures taken by Thuysbaert make this book a lyrical and visual delight. For instance, this one on children with pets:

What a Racket!!!— revised

My next door neighbour has a rooster in his yard
He struts and pecks and chases other birds
All day long his voice can be heard
Cock -a- doodle, cock-a-doodle
Cock-a-doodle-doo!

My next door neighbour has a pair of cats that fight
Snarling, spitting, hissing till daylight
All night long you can hear them on the roof
Yowl! Yowl! Howl! Howl!

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My neighbour's dog is a little fluffy tike
He races and chases poor paper boys on bikes
All day long, his shrill bark goes on and on
Woof! Woof! Yip! Yip!
Yowl! Yowl! Howl! Howl!
Cock-a-doodle! Cock-a-Doodle!
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My next door neighbour has a goat with pointy horns
He chomps through flowers, plants and shrubs
And bushes with sharp thorns
He'll eat your mat, he'll eat your hat
And bleat all day while he does that
Maa! Maa! Baa! Baa!
Yip! Yip! Yelp! Yelp!
Yowl! Yowl! Howl! Howl!
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Mum came home from the hospital today
She brought with her our baby
And she says it's going to stay.
Now we don't hear our neighbours any more
For nothing is as loud as our baby's awful roar——
Bawl! Bawl! Waa! Waa!
Yowl! Yowl! Howl! Howl!
Woof! Woof! Yip! Yip!
Maa! Maa! Baa! Baa!
Cock-a-doodle! Cock-a-doodle! Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Dubai is special and unique in many ways. One can visit the wadis, pick up a shawarma from a sidewalk, take a leisurely walk through the meandering lanes of Satwa where you can spot a laundryman, a cobbler... images that can form a rich tapestry of memories for a child growing up here. Majumdar's ditty sums up the sights of Satwa:

Satwa Sights

There's a bearded man in a little shop
He'll fix your shoes and glue the soles
If you need an extra front door key
You can get it cut at the shop next door
A watchstrap or a battery?
Ahmad, near-by, is the man to see
You'll find them all sat side by side in a crooked street in Satwa
Plastic buckets, cheap handbags
Vegetables and frozen fish
Cotton, rayon, silk and lace
In every colour you could wish
Photocopy? Post a letter?
Need a pill to make you better
T.V. bust? Do you need new tires?
Hammer, nails or rolls of wire?
You'll find someone who'll sort you out in that crooked street in Satwa
They say you can get anything
From an elephant to a shiny pin
(And I have bought some funny things!)
In that crooked street in Satwa!

With Thuysbaert busy with his commercial assignments and Majumdar tied up with her school commitments, the duo got time only on weekends to take a bunch of children (from the American School of Dubai) around the emirates, to photograph them in various settings.
"I have a strong sense of rhythm and I have used a varied rhyme scheme. Sometimes the poems would come to me spontaneously, on other days I had to struggle," says Majumdar, who has a degree in English literature.

But the visual extravaganzas which the region offered made her write so many poems that Jerboa Books decided to come out with two volumes of The Children of the Sun. The first is being released today and the other will be released sometime in October this year.

The duo agree that for both of them, this entire exercise was a spelndid journey into the world around them.

– Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary is Senior Feature Writer, Friday