3 min readChandigarhMar 28, 2009 12:38 AM IST
First published on: Mar 28, 2009 at 12:38 AM IST
Indu Bala Singh’s camera captures the life of Gudiya,disabled but confident,courageous and graceful at 25
Every day,she packs her wares in small plastic boxes,loads them on to a rickshaw and wheels in at a corner of the LIC building near Jagat Cinema in Sector 17. The rickshaw-puller spreads a bedsheet,unloads her stuff,and helps her out in setting up her makeshift shop. Disabled since birth,25-year-old Gudiya struggles out of the rickshaw and seats herself on her board on wheels. With an air of confidence and a smile on her face,she takes her stick,aligns the boxes and gets ready for yet another day of business,selling trinkets,fancy rubber bands and other girly stuff.
“Her severely damaged legs may have left her physically challenged,but her spirit is alive,and infectious,” says Indu Bala Singh,a lecturer at GCG-11,zooming in her camera on Gudiya’s face. She is making a documentary titled Gudiya on her life.
“It was my husband who saw her,selling her stuff and chatting away. So impressed was he with her zest for life that he handed me the subject for my next documentary,” says Indu,who calls Gudiya a “born actress”. Shot over a period of one week with the assistance of her students,this GCG-11 production captures a life less ordinary,“one that’s conducted with such grace and can put any one of us to shame,” says Indu. What’s inspiring in Gudiya is that in spite of her disability and being an orphan — she lived in the Mother Teresa Home for years — she educated herself,speaks fluent English,is bringing up two adopted sisters and dreams of owning a cosmetics shop. “I want to be in a position to give,” she says,brimming with pride.
“It was her best friend,Parveen,who encouraged her to run this little shop. Ask her about marriage,and she says she can’t — ‘I’m disabled,I have no money,no background,how can I?,” says Indu,whose documentary is set to travel to the We Care Film Festival on the Disabled and to other cities of the country.
Life has not been fair to Gudiya,but her faith in God is intact. “I never miss a day at the church,for we need to thank Him for what we have and what we don’t,” sums up Gudiya.
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