Emotionless? Or something else?

      ...I saw girl sitting in the drawing stall and she had a constant grin; I asked her if she knew English and she enthusiastically said yes. Her name was Anu. She showed me her drawing and came stood beside me, waiting. I asked her  about her family and the grade in which she was currently studying. She animatedly told me about her mother and father and that she had no siblings; where her parents worked and that she studied in the sixth grade and she liked school more than home because she had many friends at school. Maybe she had reached her threshold because she closed herself off before I could ask anymore. There was the  grin again and she walked away...
      ...I also tried making some conversation with a little boy, Ganesha, but every time I asked him a question, he would simply stare at me with a vacant expression.
Feeling slightly dejected that my attempts were not going anywhere, I went to immerse myself in a game of throwball with the girls. There was a girl standing next to me, Vijaylakshmi, who was what one would call super-active. Every time she successfully caught the ball, one could see the excitement playing in her eyes. She knew tid-bits of English and it was enough for a simple conversation. She told me that her father is unemployed and her mother works in a store and her brother passed away. What struck me was the indifferent manner in which she spoke of everything. And I then realised that this was the manner in which so many of the children spoke; there was no emotion.
There are so many conversations remaining and it is going to take time but if the children are ready to talk a little today, they will gradually open up. 











-- Parvathy Nair