In this post and the next one, I am going to reveal some dark secrets of the village life. Just to make it clear, I am not talking metaphorically. These quite literally will be dark secrets. These photographs have been taken in areas which still struggle for modern energy. The only sources of light that these people have are kerosene and torches. In this post the stories consist of photographs in sets of two, one taken as the the eye sees it and the other after turning the flash on the camera on so as to reveal what the eye can't see.
When I visited these villages, the only thing that was obvious and evident was the curtain of darkness that coved them. As far as my eye could see the landscape was pitch black with a few orange lights here and there, lights from kerosene lamps. In some parts I could see streaks of white light moving around. I was told that these were people going about with torches. I had a torch of my own. At places I would turn it on to find my way. But every time I turned my torch on, I saw things that you wouldn't be able to see otherwise. I saw the dark secrets of these villages. What did I see? Let me show you what I saw, one by one, frame by frame.
Darkness under the lamp
I am sitting with a few
dalit women talking to them about the status of electricity in their colony. Suddenly I hear voices from the right. I turn my head to look. All, I can see is a kerosene lamp lit in a room at some distance. The voices keep coming from the darkness under the lamp. I am baffled and scared. My guide turns his torch towards the voice. There are people. The people who were invisible to me until now as they are I think to the government. The invisible people of this village. This is when I use the flash on my camera and the whole landscape is revealed.
