| In Amritsar, the Sikh city across the Pakistan-India border from Lahore, I visited a orphanage. 'I watched one blind boy, about eight years old, feeling his food with his fingers for a long time before slowly and deliberately scooping it up with pieces of chapati. Earlier I had photographed some of the sighted boys, who were eager and happy to pose before the camera, and I wanted to take this boy's picture too. There was melancholy in his aspect, a kind of resignation. He was the last one to start eating and the last one to finish, after which he stood up, stepped over his plate,and walked unaided into the bright square of light outside the door and down the walkway toward the classrooms. I left my camera in the bag where it belonged. To photograph him would be to announce that I could see what he couldn't--himself.'" |
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