Best childhood friends

This little girl playing with her best friends - stray cats and our home cat inspired me for this two piece work. This is part one of the pic, part two is called 'Lucy and her Picaroons'

The story behind the picture: The little girl's name actually is Deepika. Deepika lives here in Mumbai with her father and mother in a tiny shack in the neighbouring building's compound, where her father works 24h-day as a watchman. Despite having herself only the bare minimum she is always smiling and taking care of and playing with the many stray cats that are hanging around our area. Since most kids in the neighbourhood don't mingle much with the offspring of the "servants" Deepika actually seems to prefer the friendships with her four-legged companions. They regularly visit her - as Deepika and her friends have in common that their favourite food is fish (well, maybe Deepika's second favourite - right after chocolates). One day I saw her playing with a small paper boat in our lane, surrounded by her sleepy friends taking an afternoon nap. When I approached her and remarked that the cats obviously liked her company she gave me her huge tooth-gaped grin and corrected me: "They are my crew!". This reminded me of my own childhood - and how often animals turn out to be our patient, unbiased, always available and simply best friends. Animals don't care for your ancestry, class, income, looks - they connect to you staright from the heart.

That's when I decided to make Deepika's dream come true for one day and let her set sail with her crew of little scoundrels to find Neverland (and most likely take over - as mischivieous as all four of them are).

And after a week of painting the bakground with pastels, creating the world's largest paper boat, cutting and painting ply-wood waves and turning my living room into the seven seas of the world the moment finally came - Ahoi, Deepika!

Thank you for reminding me of how strong, beautiful and important the bond between humans and animals is.
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