`The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India’ is a non-fiction narrative that gives a strong and hopeful voice to India’s most vulnerable citizens. Shelley Seale’s book follows the lives of just such children as those brought to life in the movie Slumdog Millionaire. The Weight of Silence depicts Seale’s journey into orphanages and through the streets and slums of India where millions of innocent children live without families. During her three years of w… More >>
The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India
Shelley Seale opens the door to the real India and the children who so touched her heart in The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India. It is a factual, well researched account of the orphans in India and their lives; of those who live to help them, and those who don’t. Truly a walk inside the amazing collage of heartwrenching stories, plus blinding beauty and joys. . .that they call home.
Rating: 5 / 5
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (9/09)
Although most readers know there are abandoned children and poverty all over the world, it really won’t hit home until they read this true and heartbreaking story by author Shelley Seale.
We also know that each country and the US only want to show what works and how well each are doing to care for their people. The author is not discounting India’s attempt to show the better part of their country; she is showing that there are still many areas that have poverty, people without places to live and the basics that each of us take for granted on a daily basis.
The children of these deprived areas die of many diseases that in the US are treated on a daily basis. They scrounge for food in garbage and dumps. There are no bathrooms- they use the streets. Many children end up in orphanages hoping just to stay alive and maybe one day be returned to their families.
Ms. Seale takes us on a journey through the country, poverty-stricken villages and orphanages. She meets with the caregivers and children and sees the despair and desire to be loved and given the same opportunity as everyone else.
This isn’t a love and flower story – it is one of facts and personal observation. After reading this journey, I thought about all the requests for money that you see on TV for children in other countries and how I thought they all were a scam. There are many very dedicated, true to their mission charities. At the end of each chapter, Ms. Seale provides footnotes and in the back of the book she provides a list of organizations that are legitimate. Throughout the book she provides pictures from the thousands she has taken. Once you read “The Weight of Silence” by Shelley Seale and realize the true impact, you will hopefully change your mind and do a random act of kindness by helping these children.
Rating: 5 / 5
All of us like to think that we care about those less fortunate, that we’re aware of what is happening in the world beyond our view. By traveling to India and writing this readable and gripping book, Shelley Seale has actually done something about it. In the process, she has inspired me and I hope she will inspire you.
Shelley Seale dove deep into the realities of life for the poorest of the poor children in India. Her prose vividly brings to life the love she gave those children– and the love she received back many times over. She describes in unstinting detail the rough lives and limited futures faced by many of these children, but she brings home the idea that while you can’t help everyone, you certainly can help one. Or two. And imagine what can come of those lives, if those children are helped?
I have traveled to India, Africa and poor areas of Asia, and I am deep into creating my own philanthropy-oriented business venture. After reading The Weight of Silence, I am doubly inspired to help spread the word that we Americans, who live in such a rich and comfortable country, have an obligation to do what we can to help even one child. Who knows– this child could be the one to go on and discover a cure for HIV/AIDS? Or be the sane and stable face at the negotiating table in the India/US nuclear negotiations 25 years from now? Seale’s story highlights that each and every life has value and that every effort to improve the quality of those lives is worthwhile.
So get inspired! Buy a copy of this book, tell all your friends, and between all of us we can make a real difference.
Rating: 5 / 5
I initially came upon this book while researching a trip that my adult daughter and I are planning to India. I had been trying to read everything I could get my hands on in addition to just guide books and came across The Weight Of Silence. I, like many others, saw Slumdog Millionaire and was heartbroken by the stories of the children in the film and interested to learn more about this culture and its people. Shelley’s book did an excellent job of telling their stories. I cried several times while reading this book, not something I’m prone to do. My initial excitement about planning my trip to India evolved into an entirely different prospective and mission. I now wanted to go and DO something about these children not just visit the Taj Mahal and be a tourist. The book is well documented, the statistics are completely mind-boggling. I had to actually put it down several times before I finished it for a couple of days so I could fully digest what I had read and get my mind around it. In the end, my daughter and I decided to sponsor a 12 year old girl from India with our limited resources hoping to make some small drop into this sea of sadness. I too, like the other reviewer, liked the way Shelley started out the sections with quotes and this quote in particular really stuck with me as well. “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one” from Mother Teresa. Buy this book, read it, pass it along to friends and family, you will never forget the beautiful children of India. Kudos to Shelley for her hard and fine work.
Rating: 5 / 5
As an adoptive mother of a 7-year old girl newly arrived (Oct. 2008) from Mumbai, I eagerly ordered this book when I first heard about it a few weeks ago. This is a beautifully written book and and important book. Naturally, I saw my daughter in many of the stories told, but maybe more importantly, I found myself inspired by this book to find a way to do more for these children. I am comforted by the words of Mother Teresa quoted in this book “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one,” but there must be a way to do more.
The author, as artist, paints a vision of the beauty and the desperation of these children. I understand the resilience of the children described as I watch my daughter enjoy her life to the fullest (despite early poverty; the violent death of her mother; a devastating train accident resulting in a head injury and the loss of her right leg, and 3 years spent in an orphanage). My heart breaks as I read of the lives of the children (and adults) decimated by HIV.
Importantly, to me, this book addresses our obligations as humans to care for and protect the most vulnerable among us and is, at the same time, free from any particular religious agenda.
I’m appreciative of the gift given to me by Ms. Seale in the writing of this book.
Rating: 5 / 5