Its funny how you bump into the most amazing people in life at places where you least expect it. Who knew that a causal visit to a photo exhibition would be turn out to be an inspiration for my next blog. So without beating around the bush, I’ll directly introduce you guys to Miss Raveena Dattu Maulya! A 16 year old simpleton from the Kokana Adivasi community is gifted with the ingenious eye for photography. What started as an innocent attempt at figuring out a smart phone resulted into capturing the most mundane things in the most extraordinary way! For someone who has never even seen a camera in life, this is nothing less than a miracle. I knew that without knowing everything about her, my curiosity wouldn’t let me sleep.
Raveena belongs to a family of construction laborers and she knew her chances of ever making it big were bleak. But her mother, a state level Kho Kho champion who failed to make a living out of her passion, had an incessant desire for Raveena to be successful in life. To make this happen, her family shifted to Nashik city a few years ago. After doing a number of odd jobs, this family was employed by one of the most renowned and eminent personalities of Nashik – Mr.Vinayak Rao Patil who has been bestowed by prestigious awards like'Veer - Adhipati" in recognition of outstanding management of Agro forestry enterprises, India Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award to name a few. He is the only one in the Asian subcontinent to be honored with the “Rolex Award”. In spite of the plethora of achievements, he maintains a very simple and uncomplicated demeanor.
The daily ritual of clicking pictures from Mr.Patil’s Samsung Galaxy S3 phone proved to hone her skills beyond expectations. He would encourage her to capture abstract frames and to practice religiously. He realized she was gifted with an apt sense of photography angles, light and aperture. Soon Mr.Patil felt the need to showcase her talent to the rest of the world. He made a few phone calls and organized a grand photo exhibition known as “Phool Vechati” (Collecting Flowers) at Kusumagraj Kavya Udyaan. People (like me) were dumbfounded by the quality of work displayed by this innocent adolescent. Evidently, her work was sold out and a brand new camera was bought! A prominent color lab S.K. Color Rainbow published a book of her work for free and an even more prominent publishing house is working on a book about her!
This is definitely the beginning of the rest of her life!
This is definitely the beginning of the rest of her life!
This is a glimpse of one of her pictures sans Photoshop edits. This image is clicked by Samsung Galaxy S3 and was a big hit at the exhibition.
FYI: If you are wondering who that handsome is, he is our very own photographer Ajinkya Targe who is selflessly imparting his knowledge to this little angel. Ladies guys like this one do exist!
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Photo Credits: Ajinkya Targe
Facebook: Muse Artés
Instagram: ajseven
FYI: If you are wondering who that handsome is, he is our very own photographer Ajinkya Targe who is selflessly imparting his knowledge to this little angel. Ladies guys like this one do exist!
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Photo Credits: Ajinkya Targe
Facebook: Muse Artés
Instagram: ajseven