The Bandra Slums

The Bandra Slums, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

He is a very tired man , his business selling vegetables is in the slumps , so he sleeps all day long, he may not live too long they say..he is suffering from various bodily ailments but its the ailment of the soul that has hit him hard..

Being a poetry spammer , positive too I could pen a few words here , but it would of be no help, his pain would still be the same , I walk through this slum twice a day, morning and again at 4 pm..so I feel I too belong to this slum , my soul lives here among the denizens , among the kids who accost me for pictures , this is a very small slum as compared to Behrampada at Bandra East.

I am not a big fan of the Dharavi slums completely over hyped by the tourist mafia, I have shot it during a Urus here , but I prefer Bandra , nothing personal...

Dharavi is not for me at all.

I can spend hours among the people rebuilding their lives after the fire at the Behrampada slums , slums are nurtured by politicians of all hue simply as a vote bank nothing else,it is also told in whispers much of the fire in the slums is started by vested interests hand in glove with the builder mafia, I am also told that many a politician has a big stake and quite a few benami houses in this scheme.. I dont know for sure its not my take..

I only shoot pain and the drama of life as poetry.

You will be surprised there is another huge sprawling slums across the bridge close to my house but I have not gone there , I had taken Glenn Losack who shot a few pictures.

So even after being manacled to Mumbai there is no dearth of picture taking.. I may not be shooting landscapes mountains waterfalls or jungle reserve but I shoot raw naked drama of mans fight to survival .. in the battlefield called the slums.