They are totally hooked to gard brown sugar they sniff smoke and inject themselves .
They are denizens of a doomed destiny some of them come from good homes dont we all, but than got trapped on the way and every step pulled them in like whirlpool of no escape.
A friend of mine smoke to one of them and the gardalu as they are called in local language , now a scavenger from garbage dumps sells his stuff a bhangar joints told him, he cant give it up.
He spends over Rs 500 per day on this nasha , he steals clothes hanging out to dry , the jeans sarees bring him good money, he steals kids cycles sometime he steals their school bags too.
The one who spoke to my fiend was his childhood friend now a incorrigible druggie he told him he has never molested children but he sleeps with women who are in the trade or those hooked on gard like him.
His body is normally full of sores that dont heal and it gets worse than they go to the municipal hospital and if the disease is terminal they sleep outside the hospital but ironically in most cases they outlive death and are back on their feet back collecting saleable stuff from the garbage.
They work alone or in pairs , this place and a passage between two buildings on this lane is where they shoot poison into their systems.
The Lucky hotel signal is their adda or the dumps at Bandra reclamation a huge white gunny sack on their shoulders they go about their work stealthily silently.
If provoked they can be dangerous even the cops dont mess with the they keep a piece of blade in their mouth to resist arrest and cops dont want to get the stick for excess when the gardalu will cut himself and blame it on the beatings by the cop to the judge.
They move freely and their hallowed kingdom is the garbage this is their temple and pace of worship it sustains them.. they have no religion only the next shot the next high.
They have no siblings no parents no ancestry they have no names like you and me some call them gardalu junkie or charsi.
They live beneath the undergrowth of Mumbai life like rodents running from one dump to the other.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Drug Addict Of Bandra
A Picture Thought For Fred
140,247 items / 1,087,328 views
Uncle please take
my picture he said
to bring back memories
of the school days
of your Pune friend Fred
now settled in Texas
I bet 'he too liked to get wet
buying jeera goli kairi
picking up badams
from the street
a childhood
the games the bunking
will he ever forget
senior miller
his dad at worli
the huge hoardings
earning his daily bread
this was a lesson in humility
said his dad fred
in life dont ever
get a swollen head
see that your feet
fit the chaddar
dont over reach the bed
fred whatever you do
whatever you become
you will always be in lifes debt
remember showing
him a hoarding of nargis dutts
mother India that he was working on
this is true love of the country
you were born in
into your heart and soul
like a banyan tree 'it will spread
nodding his head our fred
his bat his ball
along with the chokra boys
of worli fred fled
Jesus The Sentinel
140,247 items / 1,087,233 views
was recently
admitted to
bhaba hospital
he caught
malaria
jaundice
typhoid
he has
not been
too well
he is on
sick leave
from his job
as a sentinel
he would have
been infected
anyway
because
of the gutter
that flows
at bandra bazar road
the filthy 'dirty smell
for years patiently
he lived on this
mound of a hell
his pain to the
municipal corp orator
he dd not tell
being a healer
his services
he did not
oversell
he gave free
medicine
for the human soul
caught in a traffic jam
of a life's pell mell
now jesus lies
on the floor
of this hospital
hoping to
recover soon
to be on time
to attend his
mothers birthday
at mount mary
a thought
that rings a bell
like you
he wants
to be there
as well
also to wish the
muslims idd mubarak
the hindus happy
ganesha festival
he told
me the the roads
before the ganeshas
leave for the visarjan
the pot holes
they level
once those
who sit at the
MCGM
do their road paving jobs
pretty well
for the sake of
Amchi Mumbai
the Mumbaikar
the common man
live let live
dont rebel
now dont ask me why jesus was admitted to the bhabha hospital and not to the to the holy family hospital at bandra a dark secret under oath I was told not to tell..but i will jesus was broke the hefty advance they demand at his community's hospital he could not shell....dressed as a Muslim with a long beard he was scared the watchman might not recognize him thinking him to be a terrorist throw him out as well..
Mumbai The Magic Land
140,247 items / 1,087,163 views
from the ashes
of chawls old bungalows
slums shanties
open lands
towers of babels
vertically it expands
for every built up
square feet
a value for money
it demands
respect
reverence
it commands
once it was colaba
wodehouse road
now it is sharukh khans
bungalow at band stand
or galaxy where
salman khan lives
crowds of die hard fans
forgotten are areas
like null bazar
famous for pots and pans
peela house foras road
shuklaji street kamatipura
famous for one night stands
mumbai the magic land
a dream held in the
palm of every hand
the filthiest dirtiest city
malaria dengue
swine flu typhoid jaundice
a soul strangulated
by its own hands
bollywood film city
mehboob studio
filmistan the pride
of filmi hindustan
our film fare awards
as famous
as what you get
at the oscars
or at Cannes
our heroes
our heroines
our item girls
their filmy
shenanigans
the queen of the soap
opera mumbai potholes
the gift of a broken hand
iftar parties at
islam gymkhana
kaisar bagh
only for the rich and famous
the poor beg outside deadpan
peace hope humanity
hindus muslims christians
in this indian heartland
why bloggers cant be a part
of media a thought
i could never ever
understand and
i would rather live
here in mumbai
in bankruptcy
than get my
muti colored ass
fucked
in foreign lands
do gaz zameen ke neeche
in my own motherland
Mumbai The Magic Land
140,247 items / 1,087,163 views
from the ashes
of chawls old bungalows
slums shanties
open lands
towers of babels
vertically it expands
for every built up
square feet
a value for money
it demands
respect
reverence
it commands
once it was colaba
wodehouse road
now it is sharukh khans
bungalow at band stand
or galaxy where
salman khan lives
crowds of die hard fans
forgotten are areas
like null bazar
famous for pots and pans
peela house foras road
shuklaji street kamatipura
famous for one night stands
mumbai the magic land
a dream held in the
palm of every hand
the filthiest dirtiest city
malaria dengue
swine flu typhoid jaundice
a soul strangulated
by its own hands
bollywood film city
mehboob studio
filmistan the pride
of filmi hindustan
our film fare awards
as famous
as what you get
at the oscars
or at Cannes
our heroes
our heroines
our item girls
their filmy
shenanigans
the queen of the soap
opera mumbai potholes
the gift of a broken hand
iftar parties at
islam gymkhana
kaisar bagh
only for the rich and famous
the poor beg outside deadpan
peace hope humanity
hindus muslims christians
in this indian heartland
why bloggers cant be a part
of media a thought
i could never ever
understand and
i would rather live
here in mumbai
in bankruptcy
than get my
muti colored ass
fucked
in foreign lands
do gaz zameen ke neeche
in my own motherland
Marziya Shakir Kisses The Hands of the Shakha Pramukh Bandra
Marziya Shakir Kisses The Hands of the Shakha Pramukh Bandra, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
She has been seeing Mr Sudesh Dubey the Shiv Sena Shakha Pramukh , since she was a toddler hanging on my waist as I shot his Ganesh pandal on SV Rad Bandra .
As I was bringing her from school she spotted him and a he smiled in recognition she went up to him outside the Bandra Post office and kissed his hands he was totally take aback surprised at her gesture and her respect for him.
Marziya surprises me too now days and I am not making this up her chant is I am Salman Khan..this from a two and a half year old child.
After she kissed his hands I gave her my camera she paced the strap around her neck and shot this powerful politician of Bandra who is well known in this area for helping the poor and the needy.
The Dying Race of the Boot Polish Boys of Bandra Hill Road
The Dying Race of the Boot Polish Boys of Bandra Hill Road, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
140,245 items / 1,086,848 views
Business is very bad
a it rains heavily non stop
soggy shoes
waterlogged boots
that need no polish
business has flopped
such is their fate
they keep getting flogged
their pain their human suffering
of urchins who now beg for survival
their dying hopes i have blogged
it is raining non stop and the homeless who live on the road search for corners nooks and crannies the sky walk any safe place as shelter for their water logged dreams inundated by the fury viciousness of the mumbai rains
if you go out now camera in hand you could shoot pain but i am too tired after my iftar i just crashed without my dinner and woke up a few minutes back.
my computer cannot be repaired so i work on my sons spare laptop
The Portrait of a Poet in a Mirror
140,198 items / 1,086,083 views
hidden
in the dark doomed
soul of a mirror
lies this poets ghost
a mystic poet
the only one
on the west coat
bollywoods
most wanted
is his boast
blogging
the soul of colored
humanity with
fetid comments
his ass they roast
his poems one day
might also be published
by bombay dost
crossword penguin
as your host
prolifically
uploading his misery
post to post
lifting his leg
squirting
a poem
on the
lamppost
to nitin karani
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Shah-e-Mardan Sher-e-Yazdan Quwat-e-Parwardigar Lafata Ila Ali La Saif Ila Zulfiqar , originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1 ....
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Dargah of Hazrat Syed Ali Mira Datar Unava Gujrat , a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr. HAZRAT SYED ALI MIRA DATAR'S G...
