From The Tops Of The Trees

This book is an autobiographical account of the author. Four-year-old Kalia has no clue of life outside a refugee camp. One day she asks her father if there is a world outside the camp. At first, her father is lost for words. Then he gets Kalia to wear the most beautiful dress that they have and takes her up the tallest tree in the camp as her mother captures the moment in a photograph. From high up the treetop, everything below looks small. From the tops of the trees, Kalia also notices the world outside the camp, and the mountains where the sky meets the earth. Her father tells her, that one day she will journey far, to places where her father has never been.

This story above all, is about hope, hope for a better tomorrow, hope that eventually one can claim all that one’s present circumstances might deny. As a girl who grew up in one of the smallest dots on the map of India, I can relate to how Kalia felt, as if life began and ended within the confines of the tiny dot. And most of all, the author’s note touches my heart – now that Kalia has indeed travelled the world, she says, “I take pictures with my heart for my father.”