I watched Born Into Brothels a couple nights ago, and it made me think really hard about my life, my privelege, and all the opportunity that I’ve been afforded and always just taken for granted. It’s a documentary telling the stories of children of sex workers in the red light district of northern Calcutta. The filmmaker gives the children point and shoot cameras to document their lives.

They the children are incredibly stigmatized in Calcutta, even having difficulties being accepted to schools because their mothers are criminals. They live in crowded, dirty apartments, where the adults scream curses at each other and at the children, but they’re amazingly resilient and positive. Most of the girls know on some level that they too will eventually become sex workers, an admission that’s very hard to hear coming from a 10-yar old’s mouth.

Two parts especially moved me and brought tears to my eyes. The first was the realization that some of the children could be HIV+. It blew my stigma about who or what an HIV+ person is out of the water. Just the idea that these kids could be living with the virus, totally unknowingly, was really emotionally difficult. The other event involved a child named Avijit, who really had an innate gift with a camera. He took some really stunning photographs, and spoke incredibly maturely for such a young child.

Avijit had said that at some point he had wanted “to be a doctor,” and it really hit home. All the opportunity that I’ve had, and that Avijit will never have. When I think about complaining about not wanting to study for the boards, or my frustration with biochemistry, I have to remember that at least it’s available to me. At least, when I was Avijit’s age and said, I want to be a doctor, I got to have my dream come true.

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