In Mahabharata, Gandhari was married to a blind man, Dhritarashtra. She resolves to spend the remainder of her life as a blind woman herself, in order to share the impediment and pain of her husband. For the rest of her life, she keeps a cloth tied to her eyes and thus deprives herself of the power of sight. Here in Chennai, an exhibition gives us the opportunity to be like Gandhari and explore darkness for a brief time.
Image Credit: dialogue-in-the-dark.com
Darkness is the absence of light and our vision is of no use when we are surrounded by all but pitch darkness. It is when we try to use other sensory organs effectively and it is a very exciting way of rediscovering the world around us. This is what we experience when we visit “Dialogue in the Dark” in Express Avenue Mall, Chennai. “Dialogue in the Dark” is an experience of being in total darkness; moving around and doing things in the darkness that we do in normal life. During the one and a half an hour spent in “Dialogue in the Dark”, we learn about how visually challenged persons live their lives which is not out of choice but destined by fate.
Image Credit: thebetterindia.com
A guide initiates visitors into the darkness and leads them through various situations. You are deprived of devices which can produce light and given only a cane. The guide asks us to hold on the wall to our right. It is like walking with our eyes closed as there was nothing to see, but plenty to experience. Then we are led into a narrow, rickety bridge. When the bridge shakes people help each other in a sense of camaraderie. The tour also enlightens us on how little we explore our other senses. Identifying spices by their aroma or vegetables by feeling their surface and shape is a unique experience. We are then asked to play cricket in darkness. Many would think it would be impossible to connect the bat with the ball in such darkness. But it is when our hearing comes handy and almost all can hit the ball with the bat.
Image Credit: dialogue-in-the-dark.com
Food also is served and it is more about eating without the aid of our eyes than the food. When we finally emerge into the blinding light, we realise to our surprise that our guide was a visually challenged person. This experience at “Dialogue in the Dark” surely will change the way we see and perceive the world around us. Also, we comprehend the power of our less used sensory organs in the real world are and able to understand in full the famous quote of Shakespeare, ‘there is no darkness but ignorance’.
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