Beneath These Tarpaulin Lies the Failed Fate of Man... Garib Nagar Revisited, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
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This is a new series on Garib Nagar exactly one week after the fire robbed them of their lives bearings and sense of direction.
I recount in pictures their grim fate , but also their grit and determination fighting the odds, this is not just a Garib Nagar story but a story of me and you and all of us when we get hit and try to get up at all cost..
A fire can strike a 2000 sq feet flat in Andheri and of course it started because of a faulty television set and gutted the entire place luckily it did not make the rest of the people in the building homeless..and I leave it at that.
Here at Garib Nagar the cause of the fire is an unsolved mystery, who did it ? Why?..The erstwhile Crime branch and the Mumbai Police will have to unravel.
But high stakes are involved , was it a murky deal that failed was it enmity, as a poet I shot the pain of the people bundled up in makeshift tents , no windows no doors no privacy.. its pretty tough if you are a Muslim to be on display to every passing stranger including intruding photographers.
As a Muslim man, some of the people know me I was still wary as I moved in deep to shoot all these frames , I shoot without pictorial etiquette I shoot timelessness and empty spaces recapturing the soul of the bowel movements of a metaphor.
I was saddened I had tears in my eyes as I talked to one family , and will my pictures bring succor to their lives I dont know.. I am not a journalist I am human , I live in Bandra close to these people but in a slightly more affluent surroundings that has slums too ...and Bandra west and Garb Nagar Bandra East are two poles apart literally.
I hate text only it is a poem, but I am having problems with my Internet connection thanks to the generosity of MTNL Broadband , my net is slow , I cant access Facebook Twitter and You Tube and I cant expand my Flickr page to cross blog my posts to my other sites,,So it is tough being a blogger ...
To my good luck my uploads are happening since morning late last night I aborted all uploads and hit the sack at midnight.
There are many relief camps here far too many of the Tabligis and Jamatis my intention was to shoot the affected people so I moved away from the main road of Behrampada into the tented surroundings of pain and despair.
We who sit at our homes come out with various hypothetical statements for and against the fire , dont really see the pain , the complete devastation and what can a few pictures shot and seen in a newspapers tell you, electronic media with due respect will be searching for Rubina Ali.. for them she is news she is the soul of Garib Nagar, she is a good kid caught in a sniper war of the press the fireand the deep sea.
When I shot Rubina Ali and I did not know who she was it was Danish Siddiki of Reuters a dear friend who shared this information with me I did not ask her to get up and pose for me ..and Danish was at the Garib Nagar from the start of the fire till the next morning speaks volumes of his dedication and love for the career he has opted in life,I learn from him too ..
So I shall cut short my text and take you on a very long winding journey..become my eyes and the soul of my poetry... as long as you are internet connected you need no wings.
