Bandra the Queen of the Suburbs Dead

Bandra the Queen of the Suburbs Dead
Originally uploaded by flickr photographerno1

These are my old Blogs from my homesite
www.photographerno1.com

Yesterday morning Samiya my daughter was asleep and had been in fever all night a fever that continues unabated and is of a viral nature and all test show malarial dengue chikungunya negativity, I could not bear her pain so I thought I would go to Carter Road for my walk on the way I saw this poster at St Andrews Church, paid of the rickshah guy and shot a series of pictures of a calamity that hits all of us , minorities so to speak.

Urban development is essential and important, but not when it hurts human sentiments of ethnicity of a religious culture..and the city fathers should have foreseen all this to appease builders illegal encroachments were allowed allegedly a lot of money changed hands and there is a boom in real estate in Bandra .
The St Josephs Convent to gave up its land and found the municipality has allowed shops to come up on this land. I have shot pictures to prove their point.

The Christians of Bandra are a peace loving community and most of us would not be speaking English had it not been for them, and the Jesuits, specially that we can speak and write better in a language which is not at all our mother tongue..

So this calamity of broadening a road does not guarantee the end of traffic snarls or bottle necks and yet for the sake of development churches and schools and the fire temple have to be brow beaten where as new shopping centers like Trios sit on the road at Hell Road , and more shopping centers are coming up.. its disheartening to say the least , there have been signature campaigns and mass protests that I have not covered because of my daughters deteriorating health..
I do not feel like posting pictures but I am doing this simply because Bandra has given me much.. and though this is my adopted home , I am a Colaba Strand Cinema boy..
I have grown roots here my sons Asif and Saif studied at St Theresas Boy School Bandra and my daughter Samiya at Apostolic Carmel Bandra.
I have friends in the Catholic community Clarence Gomes the conscience of Bandra Bazar Road,
Fr Gerard Fr Jaun St Peters Church, Fr Lawrie of St Stanislaus who is spearheading this campaign as their grounds that have given much to the country in terms of national sportsman will be losing much of their sports grounds..

I met the High Priest Mr Dinyar Vazifdar of the Tata Fire Temple and he too feels sad , so many alternatives , but they don t want to spend money or build fly overs or other such means and thus spare the heritage sites that our children’s children will admire and thank us for keeping it alive for them..
I have also put my signature to this protest and the pity is political parties will try politicize this heart burning issue..
It is also alleged some politicians are part of the builder mafia.. and have made crores of rupees, every old building has extra storeys rising from its old body, rampant disregard to existing infrastructure and quality of life.. slums have become political offices.. grab and get encroach is the sad story of Bandra the Queen of the Suburbs..
Bandra the spirit is Alive but the suburb is already Dead..
After I shot the St Andrews Church I aborted my walk at Carter Road .. Samiya was burning my thoughts, I came in this state shot St Peters Church and finally the Tata Agiary Fire Temple rushed home and we decided to shift Samiya to Holy Family Hospital.. It was my wedding Anniversary my 29 th one that we spent in tears and in silently praying for Samiyas recovery..
And Samiya does mean a lot to us.. our cherubic chiprpy girl child who calls me freakazoid and what not..
I miss her laughter and her tears drain both Afshaan and me and her brothers..
We are indeed in the worst moment of our lives..
Today she goes for an abdominal scan..
I am at my shop .