Posts Tagged ‘calcutta’

 Abhay pictured above

India is the seventh largest country in the world and second most populated country. Consistingof 28 different states and founding 5 major religions, India is known for its bright colors, textures and beautiful people, which is why India is a perfect place for photography. Getting off the plane in India was an event in itself. The sights, sounds and smells were overwhelming, and thankfully I had my Nikon by my side.

Wandering through the city and back alley ways, capturing every moment I could on film, my favorite memory of photography always goes back to visiting a school in Calcutta, India, sponsored by www.childrenneedlove.org. I don’t know what I expected, but when I arrived at the school I was overwhelmed by all the beautiful bright colors, the animals, and the nature.

Walking into the school’s courtyard, I heard singing. I asked, through a translator, who was singing so beautifully. She directed me over to a balcony where a 7 year old boy was standing. He was leaning over the balcony hanging clothes one-by-one after he washed them. He reached into the bucket, getting more clothes out, seeming so adamant about scrubbing each spot out of the dirty laundry.  I was fascinated with his persistency and kept snapping shots of the soap splashing on the ground.

The sun was setting when this little boy finished his laundry. He turned to approach the steps and was bracing himself on the way down.

He was blind.  

The young Indian woman began explaining to me how he lost his sight..

In India there is a festival that is held once every year called the Holi Festival.(The Festival of Colors)This festival is celebrated by Hindu’s and traditionally welcomes in the spring season by people on the streets throwing colored power on each other.You can see children and adults running to each other to trying to get someone in the face, and usually this is not a problem.
Once the people have the powder on them, their skin is stained for days.

This little boy, whom I later renamed Abhay, was welcoming the spring in like any other little child at the Holi Festival when some “bad” powder was thrown in his eyes …and that was the last time he saw color. The powder blinded him and he was left on the street alone, confused, and helpless.
In India, when you cannot work or bring in income, you become a burden.  Abhay became a burden out of his blindness and that is when Children Need Love found him. They brought him to the school they had built specifically for blind children where they teach them how to create things and live a normal life without sight. They teach them important things like Echolocation, how to wash their clothes, sweeping, mopping… etc.

I was able to follow the children around for an entire day and talk with them, watch how they live, and take pictures for the people who live in the States that send support to them. It was amazing. When I was there, no one knew of Abhay’s story, so I volunteered to write it.I took many pictures of him and wrote about how adventurous he was.

In order to protect the children, we change their names when writing their stories. That is why I changed his name to “Abhay.” It means fearless. Never before have I seen such an adventurous, strong, determined, fearless little boy as Abhay was. There were times he did fall, since he had not been blind for long, but the important thing was, he got back up and never stayed down. Being strong doesn’t mean we never feel weak. It just means we don’t give up in those weak times.

*** All pictures in this blog were taken by Danielle Valimont***