Sunday morning, I wake up and pack my gears and I am on my way to Hasseraghatta to visit Nrityagram. Its been a long time since I wanted to capture images here. Well, it turned out to be that the dancers were on a long break and were in no shape and didn't wanted to be photographed.
On my way back home, it started raining and there goes my last chances of any photography. I had a couple of friends with me who were to shoot a drawing competition at a park in Bangalore. I wasn't interested at all, but something kept me waiting with them. The rain stopped and we reached the park and I was taken by surprise.
Well, it sure was a drawing competition held by Association of People with Disability. For a very long time I wasn't responding to anything. I was hit, until a lady asked me to help carry a wheelchair down the steps.
What shook me up was the courage, the enthusiasm and energy each child had. They just went on drawing on sheets after sheets. There was nothing that could stop them.
What I witnessed cannot be described by words, it can only be felt. I leave you with some moments that I captured at APD and these would last as memories forever.
Akash's hands don't function, he gets exhausted extremely fast, but it just didn't stop him what he likes the most; Painting! And he does it with his feet.
What I noticed here was the amount of courage every single person involved with APD had. Teachers drawing on sheets for those who couldnt draw but could color, students from Chitra Kala Parishath making paintings non stop, as much as they could and in all the buzz, excitement... you could also hear parents talking to their son and daughters, tears rolling down looking at their picture and saying "my kid did this drawing"
It takes courage to be anyone of them - be it a teacher, a student or a parent. We all dream, it only takes courage to full fill them.
From a passive existence to a meaningful life.
From days and nights of empty hours to an enriching lifestyle.
This is the aspiration of every child and adult living with disability.
