Young Ambitions

While on our way to Avongrove tea estate, in Darjeeling, we met the Pradhan brothers, aged 7 and 9, on their way to school. They live on the tea garden and go to school there. Their mother works as a plucker and their father, like so many in the region, is in the Indian Army.

What do you want to be when you grow up? we ask. Army, they reply in unison.

These boys, like so many others we chatted with around here, spoke of wanting to grow up and join the Army. No one said anything about wanting to work in the tea gardens.

Photograph by Gautam Virprashad.

Originally published on Still Steeping, the Teabox blog, on June 26, 2015. Lightly edited for clarity in October 2026.