Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The story that came along with MONSOON


The evening was chilled up with the drizzle and I could hear the rattling of the coconut trees, I was waiting for the light to show up so that I can have my capture, but the dim light evening turned to be amazing because I had captured a story with the monsoon.

My legs where cold in the wet ground and I was about to give up and was going to turn that nob off from my camera, but she made me focus on her innocence and my shutter picked up her soul for that moment.

After I processed the photograph I was amazed to find a story inside that capture...Which made me curious to know about her, because I wanted to know what made her do the same hard work daily on the fields till the sun hits the ground.

Her name is Manimegahalai and everyone calls her Mani, she gets up before sunrise, cleans the floor with water, and sweeps the muddy floor for an even surface to make her beautiful Kolam (rangoli) with the dry rice powder and washes the dishes. This whole exercise has to be finished by her before her two little angles wake up.

As soon as her kids Devi (8yrs) and Gopi(10yrs) get up, she helps them get ready for the school and makes the breakfast for them using the dry sticks, that she carries every evening in a heap over her head barefooted from the fields. And after they leave to their school which is about a kilometer away from their hut, she bundles up the remaining food in a piece of cloth for her lunch in the fields which she eats after her day work by skipping her breakfast.

Mani has to take care of all this by her own because Mani’s husband Saravana who was a truck driver, passed away in a road accident. Seeing Mani’s daily toil, no one can say that she is weak and a helpless widow because Mani had a commitment that she will give her kids the best possible education and life.

This could be the simplest way I can describe about her life, but to be frank this is only a small part of her life.

Mani had never tasted the life’s happiest part, I wish those days will come soon for her and the pain of her bare-foot reduces.

I thank this monsoon for a special reason, cause it made me realize that every part of the world has an innocent and painful story hidden behind it....and we think We toil every day ....do We ?