Priceless Question

In life, when we think that we have answers to all the questions, it makes you come face to face with a situation which leaves you speechless. This realization came to me, one evening, unexpectedly, from an unexpected source.

She was sitting there at a place near the sea. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds. I said to myself this was a perfect picture opportunity, she was in red, the sky was dark with clouds…. A perfect shot. So I thought.

I started taking few shots, smiling, just to make her comfortable. To my surprise, she sat there with so much ease as if she was alone there. Rarely have I seen anybody, not react to the camera at all. Here she was, indifferent to the camera, to me, to the world. I was getting curious. It took me a while, before getting just the right portrait shot.

When I felt satisfied with my work, I walked and sat next to her and tried showing her the pictures. She did not seem interested; I told the girl that she is looking very pretty in the red dress she was wearing.

How does red look like? she asked. Before I could comprehend the question, another lady who was watching me shoot, all this while, came to us and told me that will not be able to see the picture. She couldn’t see.

How does red look like? she repeated again. I was mute for the longest time ever, and i wanted to speak. The thing was that I could just not think of any way to explain this little, five year old girl how the color red, which is missing from her life, looked like. What could I say? Think about it, try explaining this to somebody who has never seen any color in life, what color red is.
I walked away from them, but not before deleting the picture of one of the most beautiful girl I had shot. If she could not see it, it was worthless keeping it in my camera.