No One Can Change Your Life Only You Can

hi everyone

thank you so much for this opportunity

and i would like to start my speech with

the story

my childhood story while growing up i

had this

stammering problem and and and i

couldn’t even

speak a single word properly i used to

stemmer in

every word and every line i had this

fear that teachers will call me and tell

me to

stand and read in front of everyone and

everybody will laugh on me

so for some years i didn’t even talk in

my school

i was filled with anger with pain

i got bullied by kids but i realized

somehow that you know only i can do

something about it

and believe me no one can change change

your life only you can

you need to take that step i decided to

fight back

not with my words i couldn’t read

because i felt people will laugh

so i started photographing i started

shooting

i didn’t have words to express myself

but

i had photograph photographs to express

myself

and that’s where the journey started and

that’s where that anger that pain

converted into a gift i realized my

other senses

are more stronger so i decided to study

photography from south africa and now

imagine a boy

who is so underconfident who can hardly

talk

he went to a new country to become a

photographer

and in that in that journey i worked so

hard

so hard on learning each and every

aspect of photography

and life that i started selling cameras

as a as a salesman in a in a camera shop

just to learn uh myself just to make

myself more

confident at at at

at every stage of my life that i

challenged myself i never stopped i used

to skip

lunch to save that seven rands ran the

south south african currency

to save that money and buy myself a new

camera

it was a fight with my own self not to

prove

anybody to prove myself and that’s where

the journey started

and now i’ve traveled to 25 countries

received more than 30 international

awards more than

five national and international

exhibitions so

everyone now now everyone just tells me

that i’m so lucky in life

i’m so lucky and i tell them all the

time

that you can be lucky once twice

authorized

i’m blessed i’m blessed with all the

positivity and

big dreams in my life big dreams that

that that makes me unstoppable you know

after traveling to so many countries

cities

villages i’ve realized that there is so

much

that i can do there is so much i can

offer than just taking

a photograph i started traveling

to unexplored and tribal places and i

learned so much about life about nature

and i had a real experience i couldn’t

speak their language but i shared i

started reading

their expressions these communities are

struggling to hold

their traditional setup you know rather

than

giving them a helping hand we see them

as

isolated we see them as uh

you know who who are underdeveloped

and but but for me they are very much a

part of us

as indians in our indian community they

are the ones who have been

holding on to age old traditions and

narrating stories

since centuries about our culture about

a belief

history customs if asked i would not

hesitate to call them

the righteous the righteous projection

of god

for me they are the god so that’s how

i choose to call them the last avatar as

as they are the only keepers of true

indian culture

you know they are the right reflection

of our heritage

we need not to develop them but rather

learn from them

that’s what i learned you know they have

sustained themselves

and survived without being dependent on

any modern amenities or technologies

you know each of their cultural element

if studied in depth has a rational

thought associated with it and that is

what i’m learning

that is what i’m you know the the whole

the whole world has stopped now even in

the spend

pandemic where everybody choose to be at

home

and be with their family whereas i took

a risk

and choose to come and live in lazark i

wanted to learn more

about their culture about life about

nature

living leaving your family behind is not

easy

trust me on this you will miss them each

and every second of your life

but but i have i have always believed

that everybody has a mission in life

and one needs to complete it and one is

to take that uh

opportunity to come complete it your

life should bring a change in others

life it should

lead to an inspiration you know and i

realize it

at a at a very early age that i can

change this world

you know how but how with my photography

that i challenged myself i challenged my

fears

and that’s what i tell you guys live

fight

be with your fears that’s it thank you

so much

everyone my name is ahmad chautani and

i’m a responsible travel photographer

thank you