Monday, October 1, 2007

St Josephs Convent ..

old posts from my homesite
www.photographerno1.com
This is the extra land that was taken by the municipality from St Josephs Convent that has shops come up on it with municipal licence too .. I dont know the details but this the way things happen in an urban landscape , peoople do their job and other people come and usurp the land in collusion of course..
I am not a social crusader we all have to wake up and show our solidarity , every raised hand against corruption counts.. and people should sign in their protest..
I was given my press card by Clarence Gomes of Bandra Samachar and this is the Bandra Samachar .. that Clarence would like all you guys to know..and help in this Cause that affects the future of our generation next,

The Hafta Syndrome

The roadside hawkers pay a clandestine premium to various agencies of the civic department to set up illegal stalls and hefty sums are paid to the man at the bottom and the money is pushed upwards.. everybody knows it but every body pretends that it is a figment of a fecund mind..
The bribe and corruption is what the British Raj gave us and we wallow in it it is like the dermis under the layer of our thick outer skin.. calloused and insensitive to pain..
The hawker mafia takes communal overtones and the majority of the hawkers are Muslims at Linking Road and at Bandra Hill Road and they have support of their respective political parties and they are immune to social norms.. and some of the hawkers are rude foul mouthed and anyway Bandra is becoming another Manish Market and Musafir Khana .. what with muscle power and money power..
And the authorities wake up when the water has risen beyond redemption..
And how could multi plex like Globus been allowed to be build knowing that it would create traffic snarls and bottleneck.. and Bay City and Trios and so many to name just a few.. they have affected movement even if they have their legality in order..
today churches and schools and fire temples have to pay for bad planning and bad governance..and administration..

The Great Bandra Hell Road

Old Posts from my homesite
www.photographerno1.com

Says the Municipality .. we are in a culling process no sportsmen for the Gen Next we want the future kids to all become Politicians .. the best healers of a country, politicians dont need sports grounds at all..
Politicians start from grass root level talk swadeshi , vande matram , the best slogans , and take the country forward.. imagine a world without politicians .. it would become a morgue.. that is becomes one later after politics is not part of this blog curriculum..And politics has become the main force that strengthen the caving walls of religions , education and hospitals.

Every minister has his own Educational Institution is coincidental to this article .
Politicians play game , mind games dirty games and we dont need sports grounds.. and honestly where there are sports grounds they become havens of political jamboree..every party wants to show its political strength.. Politics is about freedom fighting , going to jail taking caning from cops and later on shunting the same cops to Naxalbari regions.. they come back in empty caskets .. body yet to be found..

So Fr Larwrie has to do a rethink the municipality is also a political arena.. it calls the shot at grassroot level...Youth wings that kill professors in cold blood, blacken the faces of their not too favorite teachers.. attempt to rape case on celibate principals..How can you not groom more wilier and more crooked politicians.. imagine a few years from now the best politicians all from St Stanislaus school.. What happened to those green grounds and the sprinklers and the cavorting of the crows... that is now a road the great Bandra Hell Road..and what about St Peters Road it is a flyover connecting Bandra Reclamation.. via Waroda Road Veronica road and Chapel Road..
And what happened to Mehboob Studios .. it is the new college of Municipal H ward Politics..and Patel stores has become Poor Stale Stores .. Good Luck restaurant .. there luck ran out...

St Stanislaus School and Fr Lawrie Ferrao

Old Blogs from my homesite
www.photographerno1.com

Fr Lawrie Ferrao the Jesuit Principal of St Stanislaus is a fighter of a just cause , he is a straight forward , no beating around the bush man, excuse the american pun it was unintended, he is a disciplinarian but also inculcates talent and is an ardent supporter of sports.

St Stanislaus has produced some fine Olympians hockey players , generals and ministers and those that dont study here but come within shooting distance of this institution become great photographers.

I studied at Holy Name High School but such is my love for this school that it has become an accepted fact of life that people think and believe I am an ex Stanislaus , though I must confess here when we shifted to Bandra in the 80 my kids failed their admission test here.. and had to be happy with St Theresas boys school, though I have whispered into Fr Lawries ears to be a bit lenient when my unborn grandson enters the portals of this great school.. and honestly I think the convent school made me a better Muslim than a Muslim school would have ever done with a kid with my range of a mind..

And I think what can we learn at Kangaroo and Billabong that we cant learn better in school that add to our all round growth.. and today education is all about money in college the snooty Cathedral and Campoin kid at St Xaviers might me sharing meals with the Jamadars son.. or is that saying too much...
So back to the issue .. the municipality wants to extend and broaden the Hill Road which because of hawkers and illegal encroachment is also known as Hell Road.. and so the school has to give away portions of their sports ground and the school bordering wall and St Peters Church loses portions of its graveyard where I spun some great East Indian yarns in my earlier posts.. And Fr Lawrie is spearheading this campaign.. I stand by him and wish him luck...

because my unborn grandson would want me to fight for the rights of his future school

St Andrews Church and Fr Stephen Nazareth

Old Blogs from my homesite
www.photographerno1.com

Once as a child I had run away from my house at Colaba as my dad had beaten me severely for having robbed green plantains from a neigbors garden , I walked all the way to Churchgate travelled ticketless and from Bandra station I arrived at the doorsteps of the St Andrews Church, as a priest who was at my school Holy Name High School had been transferred to this parish and he was a Singing priest Fr Stephen Nazareth, who was someone we all liked and revered..
Fr Nazareth heard my side of the story gave me 10 bucks and told me to go home .. and I think it was that 10 bucks that may have changed my life.
I met Fr Stephen Nazareth a few years back at the RC Church where he lives and he is about 90years old.. and he remembered me but did not ask me to return the 10 bucks..
And this is my relationship with Christianity as such.. and I am involuantrily writing all this as though my hand is being guided by a God..who lives behind stained glass windows that also weep when it rains heavily in Bombay in the hearts of all human beings..
And it is time someone told the Municipality to lay off ..
It was Fr Stephen Nazareth who wrote in my autograph book

The world is full of darkness
so we must shine
you in your corner
I in mine..

Thank You Father.

Bandra the Queen of the Suburbs Dead

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 .

Who is the Real Courtney Kane?

The sleuths the poet managers
The hanger on poets the pedestrian poets
The pompous piss ass racist poets
Medley of assorted pinhead poets
All are going insane
Who the fuck is the real
Courtney Kane
Carter says its Jim Hogg
Hogging the limelight of pain
Poetry heartlessly minus a brain
Is it Lamont another scream?
But poetically he is far too vain
Is it Howling Dervesh Ayn
He is far to funny and
Is teaching Sufism
To prepubescent girls in Spain
So now who is Courtney Kane
Greg Collins no it can’t be him
Surfing poetry is all he can train
The only person I think
Is Elysabeth Faslund
The Viking Goddess
She fits with her
Poetic analogues
The Miasma of a Mirage
Called Courtney Kane
Someone whispered it is perhaps
Ted Sheridan but than I saw
The heart wounds and the bloodstain
All caused by the poison dagger of Courtney Kane
Someone very literate very conniving
Machiavellian is assumingly Courtney Kane
Trade Martin tells me it is none
But Jefferson Carter the true and blue Courtney Kane
Liberal pussy I am not schmuck
Hillary Clintons key words for
The forthcoming campaign
So please can the actual Courtney Kane stand up
At Poem Hunter Forum for she is certainly no plain Jane

Old Lady of Chinchpokli RIP

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

The Impersonator


The Impersonator
Originally uploaded by flickr photographerno1
photo courtesy google images,

JEFFERSON CARTER MALE,63, UNITED STATES (9/30/2007 12: 59: 00 PM)

PHers, Jim Hogg admits he's Courtney Kane (see below) . She's his idea of someone who doesn't much indulge in personal abuse or use swear words! (Check out a history of her spiteful, vicious, ugly, cruel and profane comments.) I pray his coy sense of noxious humor isn't typical of his compatriots'.

You know, Hogg, in our dealings here I've treated you with respect. Right now, I can't express how repulsive I find you. You're cowardly, infantile, and quite possibly a fu**king sociopath (oops, please forgive that fu**k word; I know how it affronts your delicate sensibilities, you trouble-making piece of shit.) I truly hope you leave this forum for other sites you can disrespect and harm. So, once more,
Hogg, you are the subhuman equivalent of fresh dogshit, the worst kind of sanctimonious phony. May you, your repulsive Underbitch of a persona, and your inept poems take a flying fu**k at a rolling doughnut. JC

[..you guys are not very nice to a lady who just happens to be a little blunt and can't spell too well.... she doesn't like Ted's or your poetry -...and says so.. and gets abused for it.

..I try to be direct, but I don't swear and don't go in for that much personal abuse - unlike you lot! Jeesus

what is wrong with you guys]
Courtesy Poemhunter Jefferson Carter

Cowardice to the core
A male poet pretending to be a whore
all at great discount
at Poet Hunter forum Store
a face hidden in a mask
eveywhere you go
cant take such shocks no more

firoze shakir

The Curse of the Teapoi

photo courtesy
www.tee-shirt-fantasy.com/imagesLg/Viking-Ship.jpg

Elysabeth Faslund
Viking Goddess
is far too coy..
on board a Viking ship ahoy
I was once her protege
me Bim Bombay Indian Boy
Allen James Saywell
steam that escaped
a teapot
the curse of the Tea Poi

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