Old Lady of Chinchpokli RIP

Old Lady of Chinchpokli RIP
Originally uploaded by flickr photographerno1

On my way to work I pass the Chinchpokli Road Bandra that exits at Bandra Hill Road, on the way I passed this old lady, whose pictures I clicked as she made brooms or Jhadoos for sweeping the floor..outside the A&B hotel, she carried on with her work, she might have been about 85 years or more, she slept on the road, and this is a scary narrow road , once a drunken rich boy drove over her legs, his father paid for her hospitilization and medical care she survived..walking without crutches this brave lady ferociously freedom loving old Lady of Chinchpokli..
I saw her on 29 th Sept she was in bad shape, the people around her told me she was not able to eat since 5 days, I told them to take her to Bhabha Hospital close to this lane.. and I moved away to my shop.
This afternoon I did not see her at her usual place and was informed she died the day they took her to the hospital.She was a landmark of Bandra .
This is my obituary to a neglected soul and my model of my photography of pain..


She sat making brooms jhadoos
this wizened age old lady of Chinchpokli
grown up sons and daughters
but she slept on the roads
braving the heat the dust the rains
showers of poverty
she gave me a toothy smile
yes this pictorial Muse
of my street photography
she drank a tipple
masking the smell
with scented pan
she in her old sari
she lived life
not a burden
on gangrenous society
than on 29th sept she
called it a day
her body dead her soul
the Maker set free
the undying tale of
the Old Lady of Chinchpokli
a Bandra landmark hastly erased
by time and discounted destiny