Bandra Bazar The Garbage Queen of the Suburbs

Bandra Bazar The Garbage Queen of the Suburbs, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

Indians love throwing garbage anywhere and everywhere it is inborn instinctive and part of our quintessential ethos , everybody competes with everybody in throwing garbage on the roads outside their houses and any place where garbage can be left.


The people that eat fish, will throw the fish insides and the prawn shells outside on the road , and the stench wont leave you , sanitary pads condom you name it they throw it including egg shells even baby's shit.

I knew a friend in Colaba who had a swimming pool in his building and they would throw sanitary pads in it..and I am not making this up.

So in Bandra the landmark to good living is the garbage outside your house, there is no escaping this at all.

And pictures dont lie , they tell the story of man in the most honest way.

And mind you I am not talking about slums where people live below the poverty line I talk of Bandra The Garbage Queen of the Slums.


And it makes me laugh when the local politicians supply trash bins to the buildings.. what they should supply instead of bins is some AKKAL common civic sense, simply wasting the tax payers money on bins that are stolen by the drug addicts..

So this is Bandra where I live and where everyone throws their garbage on the streets ..

Yes we are Indians and throwing garbage in the neighbors backyard is our indisputable civic right ..we share everything with our neighbors without keeping anything back.


All in all this is about the garbage situation in Bandra West.

The Slum Dog Caterers

The Slum Dog Caterers, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

This is the interior of a room in a shanty in the slums..at Bandra.

This is where the food served at spectacular weddings is cooked, even a few hotel guys get their stuff made here , and it is not cheap.

Chinese Moghlai and grilled kebabs are made by this caterers , most of the caterers in Bandra are from one single village in Uttar Pradesh.

Most of them are related and yet compete and bitch about each other.

There are a large number of caterers in Bandra spread over a large area from JJ Colony to Khoka Chawl.

The one near the Cross where the gutter overflows perennially cooks outside a little away from the flowing gutter waters.

Moid Kamru Ikbal Maksood bhai are the most popular caterers of Bandra predominantly migrants from UP.


Actually many years back they worked for the famous Bohra caterers as cooks seeing the money the Bohra caterers were charging they too went independent and by word of mouth their business spread.

Some bought their own houses in Bandra and became Pukka Mumbaikars.


I know most of them but I like Ikbal his food tastes good and he makes delicious stuff.

Most of the Muslim weddings food is supplied by these caterers , thy make a lot of money during the month of Moharam, as food is served as Niyaz in most of the places where Majlis is held be it a house or a mosque.

The other important month with a lot of significance in terms of food is Ramzan , this is the peak time for the caterers like Maksood Bhai who sell stuff for Iftar.

Birthdays other less significant feast days the caterer does have business..

Another time the caterer makes good money and loses good money is during the elections , election rally's , food is required for the slogan shouting crowds bought on hire and the political leaders managers but biryani for them.

Sometimes the political managers con the caterers of their had earned money by not paying them at all.

All in all this about the caterer's of Bandra West..

An Empty Stomach Is A Devils Workshop

An Empty Stomach Is A Devils Workshop, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

129,929 items / 954,437 views

vada pav
she eats
the rag picker
on the street
above her
head fancy
wafers
her empty
stomach greet
she is happy
with the poor mans
staple diet
the vada pav
at her feet
she is a rag picker
without conceit
proud of her unthankful
profession
she has a job
to complete
scavenging
filth and excrete
her fucked luck
she could not cheat
her life bitter and sweet
dust humidity and heat

Mother

Mother, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

the muslim
woman
back bent
her life
sincerely
in prayers
good deeds
she has spent
educated
her children
got them married
seen them settle down
their future she did
augment today
she is on her own
her own future
she does not lament
that they are happy
she is content
Mother a word
only god could invent
Motherhood
gods own
fragrance and scent
Mother
the only human being
a godliness
she represents

The Drunken Soul of Man

The Drunken Soul of Man, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

130,051 items / 954,924 views

a piece of shit on the mound
of despair he will lie there
in his drunken glory
fuck if her cares
moments of his life's drama
with all of you he shares
people pass by
kicking his ass
their own insensitivity bare
their own life is as fucked
as his they swear
only they are too ashamed
to tell you to be fair
a circle stuck in a square
it takes two hands to clap
to hands to repair
a broken fence of life
where fate has been unfair
man his birth his death
in the jaws of uncertainty
in a devils lair
fucked left right center
lifes living nightmare


dedicated
to june ruth

The Slum Kids of Bandra

The Slum Kids of Bandra, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

This was shot before the rains set in , and it has rained considerably last evening , going through this slum in Bandra would be utterly impossible.

Last night both of us my wife and I were drenched to the bone, we just managed to get a rickshah home from my work place.


My Ajmer trip is now receding away from my dreams, it looks impossible..but than we dont always get to shoot what we really want to shoot.

My life is downhill for the moment and it has been this way for quite some time.

My net is dead since last night and my son Asifs net is dead since 5 days , this is MTNL Triband at its very best, but they have been helpful on most occasions when the net services failed.


I shot the beggar hijras yesterday in the afternoon , the same lot that accosts me every time, they fell at my feet and asked for my blessings.

They respect me a lot and amazingly the first time I met them was near Naievedya AbhiAsh's house at Carter Road.

They had gone to wish the happy couple after the marriage and get some baksheesh, but the security had driven them away and I shot them instead.


So this morning I am sitting on my younger sons comp for a change..


We have guests at our house my mother in law my wife's sister and her kids.

Marziya has good company for a change and bunked school yesterday.

The only place besides home that she loves a lot is her playschool.

Life is a Garbage Bin

Life is a Garbage Bin, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

life is a garbage bin
from the womb
into the pyre
burnt forever
from outside
from within
burnt soul
burnt foreskin
life a game
you cannot win
once they let you in
crushing you balls
with a rolling pin
brainwashing
you from asshole
to eternity
with the original sin
only death
watches you
a hunter with a grin
your grave
your next
heavenly trash bin

The Drunken Soul of Man

The Drunken Soul of Man, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

the child father of man
watches the fall of
humanity
from the toad stool
into the trash can
a karmic katastrophe
unaligned
to a cosmic plan

The Drunken Soul of Man

The Drunken Soul of Man, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

amma why is he sleeping like this
does he not have a home that is his
why has he fallen into the depths
of an abyss our feet his fate kiss
amma i thing something is amiss


the drunken soul of man
wet in his piss good times gone
only pain to reminisce
karmic chaos persists
as i shoot people passing him by
life as it is comatose consciousness
of society has done this
they wont let him die nor allow
him to exist the story
of mans fall from grace
unscripted sorrow with a twist
he could take a shorter route
emotionalize his pain
cut his wrist
disappear into the mist

The Drunken Soul of Man

The Drunken Soul of Man, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

130,051 items / 954,924 views

mans sudden fall from grace
his memories time seamlessly
will erase everything forgotten
even his rotten face
when his destiny from
his soulless existence
will part ways as he lies
on the floor disgraced
dreams women he
once chased
by each one
he was betrayed
as they kiss him
with their feet
moving away in haste
everything he possessed
he lost in a game of chance
his life a total waste
only a drop of poison
that he yearns to taste
the drunk soul of man
on a browser of experience
copy and paste