Garib Nagar 7 Days After The Fire

Garib Nagar 7 Days After The Fire, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I had first decided after shooting Garib Nagar a day after the fire I would not shoot it again , simply because I cant bear the pain and shooting disasters calamities is not my genre, I am a street photographer , but after I shot a few pictures last evening on my return from town from the over bridge at Bandra Station and posted it here at Flickr..I let the matter to rest.

However this evening the poet in me rebelled and I took a rickshah headed to Bandra East and shot this picture from the Behrampada end..and decided to move in and shoot the homeless in their makeshift t tents..I was dressed in black, exactly as I had shot it last week, I moved about from one tent to the next, meeting people talking to a few and it was very depressing to say the least, I met an acquaintance Rafiq Bhai he has lost everything too

The situation here is totally dark and grim , there is aid coming here outside there are relief and medical camps , I did not venture near the terminus and shot the burnt houses under the fallen over bridge and the mosque.

From end to end on all sides it was pain sweeping the destiny of man , i finally left from the Navpada end and the most ironical poster as you enter this place from the Behrampada end near the Mosque is of Mr Raj Thackeray .. literally welcoming you to what remains of New Garib Nagar ...I will let my pictures speak for themselves this is merely the Introduction to my manual on remorse and morbidity shot as a beggar poet of Mumbai.

I shot these pictures as these people belong to Bandra where I stay , the majority of them are poor Muslim labor class and their story the world out there should know and the slum lords who reign over their future is another dark chapter in their lives.

I also pray for those affected by the Tsunami and earthquake in Japan in their time of distress pain and difficulties.