A man salutes the fluttering Tricolour and the sun shines bright in a drawing by Class V student Sheikh Rohail at a sit-and-draw in central Calcutta’s Bedford Lane.

Over 1,000 children participated in the drawing competition on New Year’s Day in the neighbourhood with a significant Muslim presence, where conversations at home and outside of late have been mostly about citizenship rights.

Class VII student Ahana Nandi’s drawing was of a Christian, a Muslim and a young Sikh working together to save trees and save lives.

“I wanted to draw this and so I did,” Rohail said. Class VII student Ahana Nandi’s drawing was of a Christian, a Muslim and a young Sikh working together to save trees and save lives. “People from all communities have to work together to save the earth,” said Ahana, who hails from a Hindu family.

Accompanying Ahana was her mother who said that since childhood, her daughter had been taught about the “diversity in our culture”. “It is not anything new. In her school, there are children from all religions and communities and they eat, play and stay together. We have taught her that we have to respect everyone as human beings, religion comes later,” said mother Piyali Nandi, a schoolteacher. Ahana’s painting was adjudged the best in her group.