Filter Coffee # 191

Guest Edition - On a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Before introducing the guest, let me share a few comments on FC 190.

• Lynn Weiss from DC: “Children so love April Fool's Day! My grandson just loves playing pranks on me. Several years ago, he reset my cell phone so that every time I typed yes, it turned to no. When replying in text, I had to reply affirmatively until he reversed the settings! Oh, what pranks they can pull and all the hearty laughs we can have.”

• Tarun Kunzru: “The Universal 'horse shoe nail of mankind' is the ‘ego’. We tend to feed it and inflate it, only winning the battle (short-term illusion) and losing the war (real happiness). When we say a small thing made a big difference, is it a small thing? Or is it ‘a stitch in time that saves nine’?”

• M Shankar: “Mark Twain had this to say regarding 1st April: ‘It's the day on which we are reminded of what we are on the other 364 days’. For those who feel a bit bogged down by his statement, ‘Just cheer up, guys/gals. We are in a leap year. So that makes all of us wise, at least for a day’.”

Dear Readers, I have, in the past, invited you to write on a subject of your choice for posting as a ‘guest edition’. A couple of guest columns have appeared. Please see:  🔗https://mrprasanna.substack.com/p/filter-coffee-152 & 🔗https://mrprasanna.substack.com/p/filter-coffee-162

I am now presenting to you another guest edition. The guest-writer is my dear friend Ashvini Ranjan who has frequently commented on many editions of FC. Ashvini is an avid photographer and his black & white photographs were recently on display at the gallery in The Bangalore International Centre. I had the opportunity to view his fascinating photographs and two of them stood out and touched a chord. They were testimony to the fact that photographers know that images can bring stories to life and build powerful connections through a lens. A picture can tell a story and convey emotion, mood, and an underlying message. So, please read on and enjoy the narrative. Over to Ashvini:

📷 A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

The exhibition of my black and white photographs at Bangalore International Center last week was my third such display. The last one being in December 2023 at my home town Mysore. I was not surprised when people stopped to stare at the above photographs. Especially the one with the man in shackles. For the viewer, it seemed to convey bondage, curtailment of freedom, pain etc. The other of the young woman’s feet, adorned with a silver chain, anklet and toe rings, conveyed a sense of celebration, joy and happiness.  I had intentionally placed them adjacent to one another to show the contrast. 

The viewers in Mysore too had similar emotions. Some expressed disbelief and shock seeing the man in shackles, while others expressed sadness and empathy.  One even thought that the image was AI-generated! What my ten-year-old grandson said on seeing the picture for the first time said it all. He said, “Thatha, this is insane”.   I was happy that this youngster showed empathy for the pain and suffering of another human. 

Among the many questions that were asked on seeing the picture, viewers commonly inquired why the man was wearing the shackles, and where the photo was captured. Instead of repeating the story over and over again to each visitor, I decided to gather all the visitors for a walkthrough of the gallery of sixty-three pictures. A collection of over ten years. I had many interesting little anecdotes to share to make the viewing interesting.  Among the many visitors was my good friend and classmate from Mysore.

At the end of the little tour, Pras, who has had me hooked on to his ‘Filter Coffee’ for the last 189 weeks and his very accomplished wife Geetha, asked me if I would share the story about the man in shackles with the FC readers.  I thought it was an honour to serve the ‘cuppa’ with a little flavour change.  A change is always welcome to appreciate better the original ‘brew’!

My wife and I started Pratham Mysore, an NGO back in 2002. This was our post-retirement activity to educate rural children in the villages around Mysore. I had started my career path as a teacher, and had changed tracks in search of greener pastures for better monetary rewards. But my love for teaching had not diminished. By starting the NGO, I was returning to my first love and this time the ‘buck’ did not matter! What started as one school in 2002 has now grown to more than 1200 schools with over 2 lakh children in the program. This involved frequent travels into the hinterland of Karnataka. We also established a vast volunteer network to oversee the various programs.

It was during one such visit, I saw this man in shackles cross my path. Both my wife and were taken aback at this unusual sight. Initially, we thought it could be a prank. But on a closer examination, it did not appear so. But why the shackles, we both wondered! I, being an amateur photographer, saw an opportunity to take a picture. Though he took short strides on account of the fetters, the man was moving briskly. The zoom lens on my camera, helped me capture the photo. But the fading light and the moving subject denied me of a sharp image. The man disappeared into the narrow lanes of the village. I decided against pursuing him, leaving my wife alone in the car. As we drove back, I noted the name of the village, just in case I decided to revisit or send one of our volunteers to investigate.

During the two-hour drive back home, I recalled all that I had read and heard as a teenager about shackles to restrict people when slavery existed. Enslaved people were often shackled during transportation on ships, as well as during their forced labour on plantations and mines. Dungeons and prisons shackled prisoners to prevent them from escaping. Prisoners would be shackled by their wrists or ankles, and sometimes both, limiting their movement. In short, it was used as a form of captivity or punishment for a crime committed or to establish authority over the weak. Movies like The Great Escape, The Shawshank Redemption and Escape from Alcatraz are still vivid memories. Before retiring for the day, I called our chief program coordinator and shared my rather strange experience and requested him to find out if shackles were still used in the villages.

The photo that I had captured was not one of my best technically. But given the many limitations such as fading light, available time and the moving image etc, I had done reasonably well. The technicians in the studio where I have my photographs printed were intrigued and could not believe that such cruel practices still existed. In the meanwhile, I received the much-awaited information through WhatsApp. The message read as follows:

“Dear sir, the shackles that you saw are true. It is used on mentally challenged persons abandoned by their families. The village temples take it upon themselves to feed and take care of such people. The shackles are used to prevent the mentally challenged from wandering away and going without timely nourishment. It is the shackles that keep them alive sir”

And so ended the message and my misgivings about shackles. The practice is not inhuman but for reasons more humane!

Dear Readers, hope you enjoyed reading Ashvini’s post. Please send in your comments. Before I part, I would like to quote Martin Luther King, who said: 

There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and down-right ignorance.

Until next week, take good care of yourself and spare a moment to pray for rain! Ciao.