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