shankarsarkar's photostream

I am a dreamer or sense maker and sense checker or reality checker. Maybe I am the combination of all. But it is definite that I come from another sphere of life absolutely deferent sphere of life which is not considered in the society as normal. Here lies the challenge. A challenge in my life I come from a society which called ‘underprivileged’ because I do stay in one of the ‘popular red light area’ in Kolkata. I do live in a family where sex work was practiced but I still think that we are so isolated and why the area is called ‘red light’ not ‘white light’. Sometimes I think and wonder if there no darkness in those area where there are no red lights.

I was born in a village of central India but brought up in a red light area which I used to think totally wrong in it. I used to blame my fate as I did not get those things and opportunity what the other ‘normal’ children get. I am a drop out from school and have no formal education. One may laugh or wonder how come a drop out from living red light area is daring to write in English? Yes my dear friends it’s also challenge because I am now a dreamer and the dreamer can take up the challenges.

But it was not so easy life to become a dreamer. Due to financial problem and crisis in the family as my mother could not support my formal education and schooling I had to drop out from the school. There is also another problem I did not like the school atmosphere where I was treated as an outsider to the school and the teacher as well as the class-mate used to misbehave with me. So after studying five I was forced to leave the school but with a dream to do something to change my life. But that time I did not know the way out. Times were passing by aimlessly, joylessly and without doing anything. One day we kids at area in the northern part of Kolkata (close to Sinagachi, the largest red light district in Asia) heard trough a NGO working among the sex workers that a guy named Suvendu Chatterjee would be visiting our area to meeting us for teaching photography.

It began with a project run by the same Suvendu Chatterjee of imparting knowledge of photography to underprivileged children from different parts of Kolkata. The project ended after three years, but I had, by that time, set my heart and soul in the pursuit of photography. I thereafter joined Drik India a media organization based in Kolkata, directed by the same Suvendu Chatterjee. Today my life revolves around photography, my passion and profession. I am presently working at Drik India as an in-house photographer as well as a photo-developer, scanning, retouching photographs and maintaining the photo library.