Everybody might have heard that love is blind, but a photographer in India recently witnessed and immortalized a blind love in India.
“It was a different kind of love, a love that had no room for physical appearance. In fact, it was beyond that.” These are the words of Niraj Gera, an award-winning Indian photographer.
In his recent photo series “Sacred Love,” he has depicted a story of a visually challenged Indian couple in his thirteen pictures.
Gera told the media, “I was in Delhi’s Connaught Place last July when I saw a beautiful couple, both were walking with hands in hands, all-smiling.”
A man was leading them to Connaught Place metro station. Gera told that he offered the couple into leading them to the station.
During the walk, Gera asked them if they would like to tell him about their story, and they nodded.
Deepak said that both of them had a smartphone app that is meant for the blind people who get feedback from it through voice.
How they met!
In June 2018, Deepak received a notification on Facebook that suggested Arti’s name as a suggestion for friendship. Both of them had much in common, and that perhaps led Deepak to send a friend request.
It took Arti two weeks to respond. She said she didn’t know him, and that was the obvious reason to think about whether to accept it or not. But at last, she did.
Soon the messages began to exchange on Facebook before the matter ‘escalated’ to the exchange of phone numbers.
Deepak told that the first time he spoke to her by phone on July 31, and the discussion prolonged for 90 minutes.
Soon the phone calls became more frequent before one day Arti asked if Deepak had any girlfriend.
The reply was followed by a laugh, and the answer was, “No. The room is empty.”
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After that, it did not take long for Arti to express her feelings. It was on August 10.
Arti further told, “We were talking by phone when a friend of mine threw a gauntlet to me to say him, ‘I love you,’ so I did.”
Deepak said that he was dumbstruck to hear this, and for a while, couldn’t be able to say a word. “I felt it was supposed to be my line. How could she pick my lines? But then I said to her the same.”
First meeting
Two months later, Deepak went to Arti’s hostel for the first meeting that also became the prelude to their regular meetings. They were becoming closer and closer.
Deepak said that so far, their love story had been kept from his family as he said he belonged to a very conservative people.
“My father advises me to keep away from love and to focus on the study and career instead. He thinks all the time of life is left for love after achieving success.”
Arti said that all of her family except her father knew about her love.
When the interviewer asked the couple, what would happen if their secret love is conveyed to their families through the media?
Deepak said, “I want this to happen.”
While, Arti said that when their relatives would see the positive side of this relation on media, it might be easier for them to accept this.
Both Arti and Deepak are searching for a job so they can begin their lives together.
Arti said that “As soon as we get a job we’ll get engaged. But sometimes I fear that we will grow old before we get married.”
(Story courtesy BBC Urdu)
