"The Confident Gaze" by Shekhar Deshpande

In Shekhars essay regarding the National Geographic, I find that he makes alot of claims towards the way people in India live and towards the pictures themselves. I've noticed that people don't read the magazine, people really look at the magazine because it's eye capturing and whats on the cover is so intensifying that people are drawn to look at the pictures. Shekhar states in certain quotes that people don't necessarily think about what it's really like in India but more of what the pictures look like is what it's really like. When Shekhar states that "Human suffering becomes worth a good image" he means that when people look at the image they feel better about themselves because they personally are not going through the suffereing themselves. I believe this is true because not everybody is out there to help people in India who are suffering, alot of people are selfish and only think about themselves, and when seeing pictures where in India people have it worse people feel better about themselves because they're not going through it. Also, when Shekhar states "What attracts a common reader is that the magazine provides a balance of images of both, once irreconcilable aspects of life in other cultures." He means that people are drawn other cultures, especially pictures of them and are curious of what it would be like to live in other cultures that we're not personally familiar with because it provides a sense of curiousity but at the same time feeling out of place but kind of mysterious at the same time. Shekhar believes that people avoid things that make them sad because in reality nobody wants to read about sappy stories and watch sappy movies or look at pictures that are going to make you sad. So the National Geographic provides a sense of security for those who are looking at the pictures, but in reality the people in India don't have it easy. Kids have lost parents due to wars and are left with nothing living in orphanages, kids are sad and living in poverty. National Geographic points out that "poverty is beautiful" and "worth the photograph."