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My world of photography is a pond where I live swim and survive shooting the denizens that live around me , my pictures are a tribute to these great souls in sheer humility and gratitude.
And those who are part of my pictures wont even see their pictures unless someone shows it to them on the Internet ,,,and really they would not even bother about such stray thoughts.
I dont give copies of the pictures I shoot I dont go to a photo studio at all, I dont even make copies of my grand daughter Marziyas pictures I shoot as simple as that.
I would want to give out copies but it is a back breaking tedious task, consider me lazy ..I shoot pictures impulsively , pushed by a inner force , I passed him he smiled I came back and shot him.
I call him Chahcha I dont know his name my pictures are as nameless as myself..I am simply known as a photographer by the kids they are my vote bank, stalking me to be shot and the kids I shoot have become more notoriously famous than me.
My hardcore fans are the kids of Bandra Chinchpokli road.
Back to Chacha , Chacha sells fabric that is sourced from the power looms of Bhiwandi cloth for the uncommon common street man, he sells trouser lengths and shirt pieces , I have bought fabric from him , for my dhoti pants but a very long time back, Chacha sits outside a coal shop on a charpoy while his clothes hang on a nearby wall and on the raised floor .
He sells because people like him , he is polite soft spoken and does not hardsell , you like it you take it, how much he earns I have never asked him , I am very bad as a journo, I cant write stories like them , I dont need to connive stories like them , I hate text I use it as and where applicable my comfort level is poetry, I poetize the pictures I shoot as and when inspired.
And as I live in this area my pictures are repetitiously revolving against this background, unless I go to town or Dadar or any outstation for work.
I could shoot other areas but I am not interested I am happy in the little pond where I live , I learn and hone my craft as a visual aid, I am without envy happy with my camera my two lenses and a singe flash I never use.
And I love to blog, blog about people whom you may never see physically , people who are the heroes of my pictures stores and strugglers of their lives eking a living without being a burden on society , this thought excludes beggars I shoot , beggars are a demand created by guilt laden society ...or the hijras the untouchables sprouting as weeds on the dead soul of humanity.
I mostly shoot from moving cabs or rickshas I shoot alone or with my grand daughter Marziya 3 year old accomplished street photographer too in her own league.
Marziya is an impulsive photographer and my model, a very thought provoking model .
She wakes up we go down to buy the newspaper , she leaves my hand walks up to the paper guy and pays him asking for HT ..yes we dont subscribe to Mumbai Mirror or Times of India at all.. sometimes we buy DNA or Midday.. sometimes only.
And yesterday I bought her a toy tortoise that has been part of her happiness and joy.. she calls him Bingo..the tortoise has a baby tortoise perched on its back, Marziya on getting the gift asked me to take her picture with Bingo..
So this is a blog it is a cure for the emptiness of my soul, a blog is a straight arrow that more often goes off tangent but connects in more ways than one.. and you dont need to be a Master in English to blog your thoughts and recreate them as a web log of raw human emotions.
Bad grammar and blogs sometimes part of the river of life on the internet because I shoot life in its barrenness ..my faults are forgiven I am sure I never liked Wren and Martin in school, my savior was Dondo my French text book in school.
And I think French people and Indians are karmically conjoined..
