He Is One Butcher of Bandra Who Will Never Forget Me, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
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Many years back I worked for a reputed fashion store at Bandra ,I was a good worker with all my uncut flaws and because I stayed at Colaba my good boss gave me family accommodation at Bandra very close to actor Mr Mithun Chakrovartys house.
I loved dogs Alsatians I had two of them Sasha and Asper .., Asper was a German thoroughbred and Sasha was a mixed breed Alsatian..
My food for them came from Nasir bhai the famous butcher of JJ Colony Bandra and I spent a bomb on them those days early 80s and I paid the butchers bill which was sometimes more than my salary too , till the Big Boss where I worked had a humble change of heart and raised my salary.
My dogs when I moved out of the job and the company spacious flat I gave away to Mr Hitendra Thakur or Appa Saab as he is fondly called by the residents of Virar.
Appa Saab is brother of Mr Bhai Thakur.
I gave away my huge fish tanks too to Appa Saab.
We moved away to Khar Danda a sleeping fishing village till lighting struck in the form of the 93 riots and changed the course of our peaceful lives completely.
And being human I still curse Late PM Narsimha Rao for not being able to take care of the Indian citizens both Hindus and Muslims who lost everything in life like us and I also blame the Maharashrtra than CM who smoked his cigar while our beloved city burnt and Mr Sharad Pawar who watched the mayhem..
So Babri Mosque for me is more a curse than a blessing, it is a Mosque that changed the destiny of a Nation dividng one body into two hateful parts and personally I think all the land in Ayodhya should be handed over to the Hindu brethren as a gesture of Humanity , let them build a temple to Peace and there should be no Mosque on the disputed site at all.
I reiterate this is the poet in me and being a Shia adherent our views are quite different from the majority members of the Muslim community is not part of this blog.
A Mosque that shamed the nation drove a nation to insanity is nothing but the worst reminder of a black day of our nation.
On the other hand demolishing the Mosque taking law in the hands and instigating people to riot is a criminal act that should never be pardoned for the souls of those who lost their lives unnecessarily.
This is my honest view , I saw the face of the sword the arson and than I saw the face of my little daughter when the rioters came to our house and we were saved by the Hindus of our area where we lived at Danpada Khar Danda.
I have moved away from the riots and my Flickr photo stream is the testimony of my Faith in my motherland India and a thread of the bulk of my pictures I call Hope and Hindutva a Message of Peace Hope and Humanity.
For the Sikhs and the Muslims its not easy to get rid of the scars etched on the porcelain flesh of our broken souls..some heal some live on for ever..
And this Butcher knows the story of my life my love for my dogs and no outstanding bills of the meat he gave my dogs everyday till they were with me.
And it is a strange story I recently visited Appa Saab Mr Hitendra Thakur at his office at Virar after almost 18 years or more he met me in humility but failed to recognize me he did not remember or know what had had happened to the dogs I had given him..
So every month when I go to pay my Internet bills at MTNL Office Bandra , I cut across through JJ Colony Bandra meet Nasir bhai and take his pictures and remember the tales of my past and my Dogs that Nasir bhai fed with his meat ..no left overs but prime meat at prime rates.
This was a blog without text I posted it yesterday and this morning words flowed from a broken water pot ..
