I Feel Like a Fish
To escape the caste system I thought I would need to travel as far from my village as I could. I lived in many cities. During the lockdown, forced to be home, I finally see the beauty of the place I have grown up and seek the strength of my roots in my family. My family is my fishbowl and my miracle
My grandmother is from Usilampatti, a village where they saw her only as a Dalit. She fought her way to Vadipatti, where she founded the Gandhiji Primary School.
I thought the only way for me to forget my Dalit-ness would be to leave for the city.
I moved from one city to another. My father warned me that discrimination would still follow.
The caste system holds you like a fish in a fishbowl. The lower your caste, the smaller your bowl.
: After many years, illness brought me home. There was no one to protect me but my family.
I recovered and left, to make the money I so desperately needed.
But the coronavirus brought me back home, again.
There is a fishtank in my home. Whenever I see the fish, I know I am looking at myself.
The fish can see that there is a world beyond the bowl. But a miracle is needed to leave it.
My family is my fishbowl and my miracle. And for the first time, I am making family photographs.
