CAPTION: It's almost noon when I enter the house and Ahmed’s in his room, supposedly working on his homework. I pop in his room to check and find him sitting on the couch watching some cartoon on his Ipad. I ask him why he wasn’t working. He frowns and lazily gets off the couch. Ipad held in one hand, he slowly moves towards the bed where a book lies open. He folds his arms on the open book and rests his head on top of them, first carefully placing the Ipad next to his book. It still plays the cartoon he had been preoccupied with. “The whole city is locked down. Everyone’s stuck in their house. Even school is postponed, with exams and everything. I mean summer vacations came two months early! Aur yeh dekho, we still have homework … Anyway, I’m going to act like I enjoy studying. I will smile now, okay?” He smiles a big fake smile and I’m forced to capture it. “Write that I enjoy studying, theek hai?” he says goofily and turns his attention to the Ipad, meanwhile, I click another picture.
“You know, I got your screen in the shot,” I say with a smirk. 

CAPTION: After having lunch, Ahmed and I stand outside his room. He holds the cat up and talks to him. It continues for a while and I wait for them to settle down. It’s become almost impossible for me to take a picture of them together now. “So, tell me about him?” I ask Ahmed. He smiles as he looks at Sheru. “This is Sheru, my pet cat. I named him that, you know?” he tells me proudly. “He’s the second one, I had another cat. Matlab meri nahi thi woh. Mei khana deta tha ussei, aur nehlata tha. She was a stray cat. Her name was Afshan. My cousin Hafsah named her. She taught me how to take care of them. I was very rude to them before, just like other kids who throw rocks at them and whatnot.” He pauses to set Sheru down and continues. “Afshan died. I cried a lot. Then decided I wanted another cat. Keep it with me in the house this time. It took a long time to convince Ammi, Baba and Dadi though. Once Sheru was here, he convinced everybody himself to let him stay. My day doesn’t start without him n-” Ahmed stops and runs after Sheru as he tries to sneak into the dining room which was recently swept. “It’s a lot of work, thak jata houn mein.” He finishes out of breath as he escorts Sheru out of the room

CAPTION: It's late in the evening when I go looking for Ahmed. I find him in the dining room, sitting on the dining table with his Legos neatly spread out in front of him. I move the evil Lego figurine in front of my camera lens and ask him to extend his hand out to grab it for my picture. “Why? I never reach for the evil. It’s my least favorite. See, even the shark dislikes it!” he says as he pretends to attack the evil figurine from behind and laughs.

“CAPTION: I’m into planting a lot, did you know? Ahmed says as he leads me out to the garden. It’s later in the evening, and the sunlight’s forgiving. The garden smells of fresh flowers. He rambles on about always wanting to learn planting and that he’s waiting for a time when he doesn’t forget what he learns. “We don’t even have a watering can ….” he finally says loudly, making a face as he moves towards the plants. “Our gardener uses a bucket!” He tells me about two weeks ago when, out of boredom in the lockdown, he searched up a DIY version for it on YouTube. “Look at what I made.” He brings the big water bottle out from behind a giant plant pot, a big proud smile stretched wide across his face. “You remove the lid from the bottle and water will flow. Turn the lid shut and it’ll stop. The air pressure built inside will keep it from flowing,” he explains as he hands me the bottle to examine. I hold it in my hand almost slanted and some water rushes out of the straw. “Aah, yes. There is some leakage. Just move the straw upward. It’ll stop flowing immediately. There’s still going to be some leakage, of course, through the hole holding the straw. Need to perfect that now.” He sits down, takes the bottle from me and shows me how to use it. 

“CAPTION: Should we show my room next?’ Ahmed asks me as we enter his room once dinner’s over. “This is my Dadi. We share a room together. It’s strange, haina? Usually people share a room with their siblings. Anyway, it works for us. She needs someone to take care of her … And I can’t sleep alone.” He says the last bit slightly embarrassed, almost like he didn’t like to admit aloud that he was scared of sleeping alone. “She has trouble sleeping at night so she sits in her chair and watches The Kapil Sharma Show to pass time. I watch it with her sometimes. It’s funny and lame. How can you be both, wesay?” he continues as he gathers up his books that sit in a neat pile on the corner of the bed. He looks at Dadi and whispers to me, “Don’t worry, she doesn’t fall asleep on the chair. She moves to the bed once she’s sleepy and falls asleep watching the TV show. I stay up and wait for her to sleep so I can turn the Ipad off and go to sleep myself.” He finishes his sentence and flings himself on the bed. 

CAPTION: I thought you had slept?’ I say to Ahmed as we carefully climb up the stairs to the roof. The lights on the staircase remain turned off and he doesn’t dare turn them on. He holds a Ludo board and a small box in his hand. He replies to me almost shyly, “Yess but sometimes, Sara (his sister) and I sneak off to here at night when we’re tired of being locked in the house with Ammi Baba.” I ask him if he hung out with Sara a lot. “We don’t hang out together during the day. She’s in her room mostly, working or talking to her friends... I peak in her room every once in an hour.” “So, why do you not go in and talk?” I ask him. “We don’t talk, not even here. Just play and listen to songs, until one of us gets tired. That’s when we finally head down to sleep” The door to the rooftop is left open and we see Sara. She sits on the floor under the light, typing on her phone, with the speaker set next to her over a small piece of cardboard. Ahmed stops a foot away and finishes his sentence, joining her soon after.