Life Through a Filtered Lens

Waiting for the metro in 42 Degrees, makes you want to grab onto anything possible to hold you up.

I wish I could have catalogued the responses I received each time I told someone I would be going to India for the summer. Most people saw the opportunity I was about to capture, and figured I was just off on another adventure. Others struggled to suppress the negative connotations they associate with this crazy country, managing to find something positive that was completely transparent. It was almost entertaining at times watching people sit their in disbelief, perplexed by the very idea of it. As an individual who frequently lacks the ability to filter her words, I have to appreciate the brutal honesty of some people and their no bull-shit approach.

“You know they shit in the streets there, eh?”

“To work in a sweat shop?”

And my personal favourite,

“Don’t get raped.”

I can’t help but recognize the underlying concern of that last one. If your friend told you they were getting married, would you follow that up with.. “You know that means you have to have sex with ONLY her for the rest of your life, right?” I think your mother taught you better than that!

Over the past few weeks I have come to realize that what Russel Peters makes his living telling jokes about, how CNN has persuaded you to feel, or what Slumdog Millionaire taught you about poverty; There is an element of truth in everything. Our ability to utilize our experiences to separate distortion is simply the first step, choosing how to perceive the world around us is where the real challenge begins.

Life is all about perception. Each moment in our eyes is captured through the same lens; But like Instagram, we have the ability to choose the filter we want to remember the picture by.

The hard truth is, my unfiltered life in India is filled with the utmost extremes. Each morning I sit on my balcony and drink my tea, which is accompanied by the men who live in the community centre showering in the street and using tree branches as toothbrushes. My blistering hot walk to the overcrowded metro is scattered with beggars, where children physically tug on your shirt and follow you with hopeful eyes. 42 Degree weather is a shock to every pore in your body, where the heat is so exhausting at times it makes you want to pray for snow. The overwhelming curiosity of people is something to make you feel anything but comfortable in your own skin. Last week, someone was stabbed in market down the street from my apartment.

Those are the facts. Undistorted, irrefutable, and unfiltered.

The reality is, we can choose to live our life in fear or love. So often we choose the path of fear, frequently disguised as practicality. Like any creative endeavour, the choice to do what we love does not come without a cloak of uncertainty; I truly believe how we view our experiences is a reflection of how we want to see the world.

Every morning I watch the city of Delhi come alive. My commute is just another step on the journey to my dream job. As I sit designing couture gowns for the likes of Bollywood, the sweat dripping down every crevasse of my body is the last thing on my mind. The entrepreneurial spirit of everyone from the fruit vendor to the street side tailor is something to be admired, teaching me to be selective while I perfect the art of negotiation. The market down the street from me is filled with street food worthy of Anthony Bourdain’s palette, with mango’s that taste like candy and butter chicken that gives your tastebuds a swift kick in the head.

The food, the people, the culture; it is all a beautiful disaster of unexplained correlation.

The truth of what we do in life is always black & white, but you have the ability to colour your experience based on your perception. Choose your filter, make it a reality, and watch the world unfold into a beautiful place.