It's been quite a day at the office. Okay. So maybe Hyderabad, India isn't my usual work space. But it was today.
One of our morning objectives was to visit a slum and capture some compelling images illustrating what life is like for a disturbing number of India's lowest caste, the Dalit’s.
Shooting pro grade video is tough enough under optimal circumstances, much more so walking through unimaginable filth, inhaling wretched smelling air.
Then you set up the tripod, unpack the audio gear (regretting the wires trailing lazily in the human muck) and realize you've left a critical filter back in the van. Running to fetch the gear, you're suddenly aware of the many eyes peering out at you from under blue tarps and the shadows of crude huts.
There were concerns that our presence was unwelcome by some in the slum. So we got right down to work. Then it was time to shoot “B-roll”–the various “cutaway” shots that editors use to spice up a video. This is the stuff I love to shoot best.
But the moment I started shooting, my “slum guide”–a fellow believer–introduced me to a little girl who was blind. She couldn't have been more than 10 or 11. Would I please stop and pray with her? Of course, I did. We barely got off another shot of some pigs roaming the slum when a woman came up and requested prayer for the cancer that she was battling. We prayed. We were guided into another hut where we prayed for still another. It was touching…but troubling at the same time. I had come to gather images…but was called upon to give prayers.
Later that afternoon, I had the rare opportunity to interview two women who were formal Hindu temple prostitutes. When we were done…we prayed together. Same with two Indian pastors we interviewed, both of whom have been persecuted.
A lesson God seems to be teaching in all of this? Perhaps just this: the extent we are willing to be “interrupted” to share another's pain–if only in a prayer—is the measure of a day well spent.
Come to think of it, it's been a good day at the office. Praise God!