It has been 5 years now that i have been permanently back to the Mother Land, Mauritius. There has been ups and downs, but all of it are experiences i have cherished and obviously learnt from. I remember one specific moment which i would love to share.
One of my passion is photography. Obviously, i am not a professional but i bought a camera (Cannon 500D), which was the basic in the range but it is one good camera to learn from. Born and bred in Mauritius but yet there were so many places which were unfamiliar to me here. So my aim, was to explore everywhere in the island.
My cousins and i, would go for road trips at least once a week. Never planned where we will be going, but we always ended up some place beautiful, especially for me as it was like being a tourist and sightseeing. Camera in hand, battery fully charged (including a spare one), chilled beers in the car booth, what more can you ask for.
One particular day when we headed toward the north of the island, we came across an an abandoned house with a garden filled trees. It was the place where, with the lights coming through the leaves of the trees, made a beautiful view. So we started clicking away.
A little boy (around 7 years old) came to us, wondering what we were doing. We took a couple of pics of him and showed it and he loved it. We continued clicking away when we noticed that the little boy called her sister (who were twins) and humbly asked us if we could take a couple of pictures of them. Little did we know that, the whole family came for us to take their photos.
Then it hit us. These people were poor, and basically never had their photo taken. Nor seen a digital camera. We had a car, a digital camera, smartphones, sunglasses and for us, it was normal. But when you come across people who do not have what you take for granted, it kind of hits you with a reality check.
So many of us nowadays, have what we think being the bare minimum. A watch, a smartphone, a TV but what we never realise how lucky we are to have have those. We buy things not because we need them, but what we feel is needed because others have it.
I printed the picture of them and dropped it at their place a couple of weeks later. They were so grateful and couldn’t believe that they had their first family portrait (including their dog).
Ken Jooseery 