by Leon Lu
This essay tries to capture what people on the streets of Delhi, India understand and associate with the idea of ‘equality’. Through portraits focusing on the eyes of different persons, the photographer wants to capture the intensity of experiences that cannot be otherwise expressed with words.
Everyone should be equal but the most important thing is money. They are them and we are us. They are much bigger than us.
No one is equal. Everyone is playing a different game. Someone is playing with lakhs, someone is playing with crores and some of us are just trying to make enough to eat everyday.
A poor man has no respect. If you are poor, you remain poor. If you have money, you can go wherever you want and buy whatever you like.
I’ve been selling food on the pavement for the last 40 years. The poor will always be poor, that is not going to change. You’ll always remain down. The government never helps and they never will.
They sold off our land and then we didn’t have much to do. We were farmers; now the fields have gone and the cattle have left. The government should have got us jobs but what can we do?
My father was paralyzed so I had to drop out of school to get a job. I was in the 11th grade and my brother was in the 12th grade. He finished his 12th while I’ve been working for three years.
I don’t know what to say; there is an inequality amongst the rich and the poor but that’s always been obvious. That’s normal isn’t it?
(The above quotations have been translated from Hindi by the Photographer. Any misrepresentation is regretted.)
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