This is one of Steve McCurry’s most cherished photographs.
While walking through the streets of Vrindavan, he met this elderly woman, then about eighty-five years old.
The two quickly became friends, and after a few encounters, she invited him to her home for tea and shared her life story.
McCurry described her as a woman of remarkable intelligence and vitality.
Despite her frail physical condition—clearly visible in the image—she loved life deeply, always cheerful and full of humor.
Hospitable, generous, and witty, she was, in McCurry’s words, “an exceptional human being.”