Forbes Listed Photographer Vicky Roy (Part 1)

World renowned photographer Vicky Roy is the first featured personality in this series of Cactus Blooms. Vicky Roy ran away from home at a very young age and came to Delhi. While living a rough life on the railway platform there, he came in touch with a trust called ‘Salaam Baalak Trust’ and since then he started learning his life lessons. Realizing what one likes and what one’s skills are, one can achieve success. Accordingly, Vicky Roy studied photography and literally conquered the world with the help of this skill. Through the strength of his art, he featured in the ‘Forbes 30 Under 30 in Asia’ list and at the same time, his rise to the list of powerful people in the world began. However, he did not forget his past. He used the fame he got to help the underprivileged. Let’s read his story from this article.

Picking up empty water bottles lying on the Delhi’s railway platforms and from the streets nearby and stuffing them into sacks…filling them with cold water and then selling them for five rupees in the general bogies of trains; one bully boy and one hoodlum on each platform…… The racketeer would curse all the street kids with foul language despite having worked hard the whole day, but the only relief would be that the kids would get some meal at the end of the day to fill their stomachs with. And just in case these children retaliated against all the torture, they would be attacked with the small pickpocket’s knife, sometimes on the face, and at times on the neck. Seeing all this happening around him, Vicky would get startled and scared.

Tired of all this, he got a job at a stall next to the rickshaw stand at Ajmeri Gate in Delhi. The routine was to wake up at five in the morning and work till midnight – usually washing and cleaning dishes till late in the night. There were abuses here too, but at least… a full meal was given. Working in water continuously would lead to injuries on the hands and legs with blood coming out of it every now and then. The journey of little Vicky’s life started from here, and today Vicky Roy has taken a huge leap in the field of photography. He has won a place in Forbes Asia 2016 “Thirty Under Thirty”.

The extraordinary story of Vicky Roy, his inherent obsession with photography, his photography skills, what the world-famous photographer Vicky Roy at the peak of his success is doing; we got to know directly from the Horse’s mouth and more. I had two long telephonic conversations with him while writing this article. It was all because of the efforts of the “Salaam Baalak Trust”, which took care of him, his education and strongly supported him in his formative years. After knowing his story, I was stunned beyond words. His life’s story cannot be told in one article with a word limit to it. If this extraordinary success story is to be properly conveyed to the readers, it must be presented in five to six parts.

This is the story of Vicky Roy, an artist who is one of the best and famous photographers of the world.

Vicky was born in 1987 in Purulia, a village in West Bengal. His father’s daily income was meagre. So young Vicky was sent to his grandfather and maternal uncle living in Purulia, in West Bengal. Vicky was only two-and-a-half years old then. His grandfather and maternal uncle were employed in Bokaro Steel Plant. The grandfather had the financial ability to pay for his grandson’s upbringing and education. Vicky’s schooling started. But there was no permission to go anywhere other than school. After coming home, he would have to do household chores daily. Even for the small things, he would be abused frequently.

Tired of all this and to fulfil his instinctive desire to travel and see new places, one day he stole 900 rupees from his uncle’s pocket. He ran away from there and directly reached the local railway station. He was 11 then. A Delhi train was at the platform, he sat in it. At the Delhi station, seeing the terrible crowd on the platform, he was scared and started crying. But there was no going back. So, he decided to stay on and started doing odd jobs at the station. He would pick up empty water bottles from the garbage, fill them with water from the cooler and sell it for five rupees. This went on for five to six months. Yet, there would be times when he hardly got a full meal. Besides, the bullies at the station would harass him. As for the police, they would first round up these boys no matter where the theft happened. To save themselves from police harassment, these children would sleep in the garbage and scrap godown heaps at night to avoid the nightly police chases.

In all this commotion and struggle, Vicky’s desire to see Delhi, the city he lived in, could not be fulfilled. Though he was in Delhi for a long time now, he had not even seen the Red Fort. That’s when he decided to get out this mess. He landed a job at a food stall at the nearby Ajmeri Gate. He thought, at least now he would get a full meal and not starve. In winters while washing and cleaning utensils he would develop cracks on his hands and legs leading to frequent bleeding. Yet, Vicky continued to work.

It had been a year since Vicky had come to Delhi. One day a young boy came to the food stall. After watching Vicky for a long time, he called Vicky and asked why are you working here? Intelligent that Vicky was, he instantly said how can I go to school? I work here day and night. The youngster who had come to the stall was an activist working with Meera Nair’s ‘Salaam Baalak Trust’.

To save Vicky from this helpless tormented life, it was as if God had descended on Earth. He took young Vicky to ‘Salaam Baalak Trust’s centre. Different activities were taught, and training was given at this centre to make the older children self-reliant. One day Vicky saw a boy from the centre going to school. He demanded to the centre in-charge that he too wanted to go to school. But the school-going children were lodged at another centre. Following his demand, Vicky was sent to “Apna Ghar” centre. Vicky, who ran away from home after passing the fifth standard finally started school after one and a half years. For the first few years he was getting more than eighty percent marks. However, in Class 10th he scored 48 per cent only.

The in-charge of the centre suggested Vicky should join some vocational training after Class 12^th, such as TV repairing, sewing etc. and simultaneously complete his graduation from some Open University. But, when Vicky first came to the centre, a photography contest was organized for the children of the centre. The best photos were selected and exhibited in Delhi, Sri Lanka and few other countries. The children too were to be accompanied to these countries along with the exhibition. It was then that Vicky realized he is interested in photography and it allows to travel too. Till that time Vicky had a simple Kodak camera, given by shelter home. He quickly told the incharge, “Sir, Muje photography karni hain” (Sir, I want to do photography).

To be continued…

Pratod Karnik

Author is an Artist and Advertising Professional

Photo credit: All photographs in this article are clicked by Vicky Roy while reminiscing his childhood days.