We usually relate darkness to fear. A power-cut calls for hunting candles or lanterns and nowadays, mobile torches. We fear of tripping, or finding smoky floating ghosts (or friends playing pranks), shattering stuff, stepping on the pet cat and a lot more disastrous happenings. We fear the unknown. What if an hour of your life makes you embrace darkness closer than light? It happened to me..
When I browsed through the website of “Dialogue in the Dark”, I saw the line, ‘an exhibition to explore the unseen’. As I’ve been noticing this place at Inorbit Mall in Hyderabad for quite some time now, two of my friends and I decided to give it a try. My understanding was that it’s an exhibition of sorts supposedly in the dark.
Once we went there, we waited for more people to arrive and once we were a group of five, we were asked to leave our belongings in a locker, including our mobile phones. Then each of us were given a stick to navigate, and guided into a pitch dark entrance. I had butterflies in my stomach, and one of my friends was really unsure about going in.
Once we stepped in further using the stick to navigate, we heard the voice of our guide. We all introduced ourselves and he took over the tour from there. The further we moved in, we could here sounds of flowing water, chirping birds, feel the change in atmosphere and experience a lot more through our four senses. We climbed on a swaying bridge to cross a river, went on a boat ride, identified spices, picked vegetables in the market, went to a museum, played cricket and hide-and-seek, and even did a real money transaction!
One of the amazing things is that we did all this confined to the space allotted inside a mall! In that span of one hour, not even once did any of us trip and fall. The darkness was so serene and beautiful. We experienced much more in the dark than we would have doing these same things in light. The funny thing is that, when one of our friends hit the ball hard during the Cricket game, we all automatically cheered for the person without even seeing what happened! It was literally an experience of falling in love with the darkness.
After one hour, when it was time for us to come back to our world, the guide said he’d meet us outside. That’s when most of us realized that our guide was a blind man.
He took us to his world for an hour. Taught us how he perceives this world. And in a way, taught us the virtue of trust as well. Showed us the beauty of his world, and gave me one of the best experiences of life-time.
We indeed explored the unseen that day! Kudos to the team behind this beautiful attempt. Waiting to try “Dinner in the dark” next!
After one hour, when it was time for us to come back to our world, the guide said he’d meet us outside. That’s when most of us realized that our guide was a blind man.
He took us to his world for an hour. Taught us how he perceives this world. And in a way, taught us the virtue of trust as well. Showed us the beauty of his world, and gave me one of the best experiences of life-time.
We indeed explored the unseen that day! Kudos to the team behind this beautiful attempt. Waiting to try “Dinner in the dark” next!
