Abandoned Faces - Widows of Vrindavan
Vrindavan - The historic city at the bank of Yamuna river in Uttar Pradesh in India is sacred place of lord Krishna. It is believed that lord Krishna spent his childhood here. This ancient historic city is very famous amongst Krishna’s devotees and captivates thousands of tourist across the globe during festival of colours - Holi festival in India. While there are so many colourful stories to speak about, there are equally forgotten and darkened paths inside small allies of Vrindavan. ’Abandoned faces - Widows of Vrindavan’ is my instinctive work about dark, unethical & forgotten side of humanity, which is filled with a strong ray of hope in following days.
How many widows are there in Vrindavan?
According to wikipedia, there are almost 20,000 widows in Vrindavan alone. According to another source The Diplomat, claims 22,000 widows in Vridavan in their 2016 article. While the city of Vrindavan enchants ‘Radhe Radhe’ all year long, these faces at this spiritual site goes easily unnoticed in small allies of the city. These are absolute abandoned faces of humankind in the same society !
City of Widows
Due to extensive number of these widows in Vrindavan, ironically the city is also named as ‘City of Widows’. While widows in India are no longer forced to throw themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands, their life after their husbands death is still a question to be answered here in some states of India especially west Bengal, Assam, Odisha. Many of these widows of India are forced to move out or thrown away from their own houses by their children, families or the society who considers them as inauspicious or considers them as actual reason for their husbands death. Such abandoned widows of India, seeks peace in life, here in Vrindavan.
Why many Widows of India settled in Vrindavan ?
No one knows how the tradition started but Vrindavan is the place where these widows believe that they can attain absolute salvation and enrich the experience of after life nearer to lord Krishna after death of their husband. While some choose to be here by choice, many of these are stranded by own people.
Life of Widows in Vrindavan
Experiences of widows here says, “dark sorrows keeps on walking along side here in Vrindavan and they consider it as part of their sin and journey towards after life”. For little penny of survival, these abandoned faces are forced to provide domestic helps, sing devotional songs inside temple or to beg at times inside small allies of this spiritual city. While meal in a day is a puzzle to explore every morning, nights brings out loneliness to fill up more and more darkness here in Vrindavan.
After Supreme court’s order, many ashrams, NGOs and private bodies started to offer shelter and meal for these women now a days. Society started to accept them as part of the community and there is a ray of hope and a walk towards light for these widows. While the emotional survival is still there, the struggle is little simplified for few now.
Future of Widows in Vrindavan
Social gatherings and festival celebrations like holi festival in Vrindavan arranged especially for widows are taking leap here in the city. During holi festival, tourist from different parts of the world come and visit these widows, hear their stories and spend some time with them to reduce their emotional burdens. These widows are called as “Maa(mother)” by everyone now. Widows are allowed to celebrate festivals like any other person in the community and they are getting accepted by the society slowly. Smiles on their faces are returning and the light is taking shape on their lives.
Though people around the globe started accepting few of these widows as a part of main stream community, it is a right time to rise above all and educate people across the country to avoid piling up of these abandoned faces of humanity.
Death is inevitable yet along side of someone beloved is the real salvation. Hopefully hereafter, this little ray of light and prayers in solitudes brings out true spirit of humanity in the history mankind and journey of these faces towards after death becomes as enchanting as ‘radhe radhe’ !
Editing images in adobe lightroom is skill of art. One can master it only when technical side of it is well understood. In this blog we will try to understand the power of photo editing using adobe lightroom, with an example of one of my holi images.