When Akash Tiwari was 18, he noticed that his skin started losing colour and white patches started to appear. It meant that the pigment-producing cells or melanocytes had either died or stopped producing melanin. It also meant that his condition — vitiligo — was incurable. “I soon went into depression and even attempted suicide twice. And the vitiligo eventually spread to my face,” he says. Along the way, Tiwari was given many — unsolicited — explanations about his condition. He was often told by relatives, “Yeh deviji ka shraap hai”. Such misconceptions are widespread in our metropolitan city as well. “People would think that if they had a glass of water from me, they would get the disease. I also lost out on jobs because of how I looked,” Tiwari recalls.

Posters made as part of World Vitiligo Week