My Depressing Vitiligo Story

Hope you guys help me to make people aware of this depressing side of the society and these challenges we face in India and feature this on your website and Facebook My awareness campaign on vitiligo ! I was diagnosed with Vitiligo when I was 9 years old and it has been a nightmare ever since . Humans have reached the moon and back but we will don't know what causes vitiligo and there is no guaranteed cure for this either. In a society which worships appearances, we, the people with vitiligo are stared upon in the most disgusted way as if it was our fault to look like this. Vitiligo can happen to anybody and at any age. It is more visible on darker skin though. People with vitiligo go through a lot of depression and high anxiety levels. People with vitiligo go through suicidal tendencies in general and are mostly awkward and embarrassed by how they look with no fault of theirs. I wanted to create my own identity through my skills and i still try my level best in sports and fashion and entrepreneurship but hey for the strangers I'm the guy who has white patches. You gave me this identity which was negative. You made me hate myself. I was called many names in school and in general - Spotty & Dalmatian being the most common. In Hindi I was called 'Chitkabra' & 'Safed Chitte'. To top all this even my own teachers once called me a chameleon and I was just in 5th grade while the whole class laughed. So basically you all made me hate myself and a dog breed for no reason and made me so cautious that I never stood next to a person who has vitiligo. It made me uncomfortable because of you. I was also learning about life as I was just 9 years old. Fortunately or unfortunately I had to learn more than the rest. You know, I have always prayed for one thing - that nobody should ever get vitiligo and nobody should suffer the way I did coz it's poisonous. I have a heart enough to never hurt someone when they are helpless and would rather be the helping hand. I know the millions of poisonous feelings which I hide behind that smile. I can't even express my stress level from an early age of life where my age kids were playing with toys, I was infront of the mirror crying and asked god 'why me' ? It took me a long long time to figure this whole out. People ask me this all the time about how do I have the confidence to take on the world when they are trying to suppress you. You are pretty much by yourself in this vitiligo journey coz nobody will ever understand what this mind has gone through, even the people you love can only hug you or just be there by your side but you still know that you are freakn alone. It made me understand that I just have one life and it has given me a unique challenge and I will embrace it. I always wanted to be in the fashion world and be a model but in a country like India we are still busy trying to look fairer. We haven't even overcome such narrow mindedness that I can't even imagine going to a studio and actually getting picked up in this shallow world. I was called names all my life. But hey I thank you all to give me this kind of an experience in life that it has made me so strong that I do what I do and there is no stopping. Shivaji Choudhary Founder of Be Hatke & Vitiligo India (Instagram) Instagram @shivaji_12in & @vitiligoindia

Vitiligo Diaries

I was called a Dalmatian as a child.