After selling balloons, I go home and write ABCD: Six-year old Mohammad Sameer

What time do you start?
My eldest brother Shadab drops me at the mall at 5 pm with 15-20 big balloons and about 100 small ones. I stay here until I sell all of them. If I don’t manage to sell all of them, my father will break my bones. My elder brothers, Haider Ali and Saad, stand near the side entrance, while I stand near the front entrance.

Do you like playing with balloons?
No. But I like the Donald Duck balloon I sell. I watch that one on TV.

Have you ever been inside the mall?
Once, with my brothers. We roamed around, climbed the stairs to the top and came out. I didn’t have money to buy anything.

Which school do you go to? Who do you want to be when you grow up?
I study in Saraswati school. I want to be in the military: go to the mountains, use machine guns, and go “gad-gad-gad”. Everyone on TV does it.

What does your father do?
We are from Barabanki. Papa fixes punctures of bicycle tyres at Dainik Jagran chowraha. Mummy is a domestic help. We’re six brothers and a sister — Shadab, Nasreen, Sohail, Arbaaz, Saad, Haider and me.

When do you do homework and when do you play?
When I return home, I write ABCD. Sometimes, I play after school in the park near my home.

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