The Last Remains of Garib Nagar Bandra East Mumbai, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
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I was at my computer last night when I got a call from a dear friend about the fire at Bandra East Garib Nagar a colony on the railway tracks , he said a lot of photographers were at the scene of the fire and asked me to come to,
I politely refused and the reason is personal I don't shoot disasters simply as a human being it would shame me taking shots while people ran helter skelter for their lives , and it is obligatory for a press reporter to cover it as part of his profession , but for me as a photo blogger poet it would be inadmissible to my conscience..
I however went this morning at 6.30 am and shot the pictures and I was crying at the devastation , the pain the agony, I saw the homeless sitting on the graves of their homes , I saw Rubina of Slum Dog Millionaire with her family on a mound of despair...her eyes blank as ever...
I saw a man crying and I wept with him as I felt I had lost my home too and this is the most tragic wrath of the hand of God I ever shot.
Once close to my old house near Bandra Bazar there was the fire at Nargis Dutt Slums Lal Mitti Bandra Reclamation but I was too cowardly to shoot it, I shot the aftermath of the fire at Behrampada slums .. and the rebuilding but without sounding fatalistic the Muslim poor community living at grassroot level is marked for continuous disaster , so many lessons but a very late realization by the families and the authorities allowing them to build matchstick houses one top of the other , blaming the fire engines is not the remedy or the answer but the common man needs to blame someone..
I saw the fire men working and some places the fire still burns and they are working nonstop , the firemen are human and have families too.
But though there was no casualty I am told the loss is huge everything lost forever , dreams all burnt out in the gutters floating as ashes... all the cottage industries , the tailoring readymade garment workshops all wiped in a single stroke of bad luck..
I only hope and pray after seeing these pictures shot by a poet and not as a photographer people will come forward to help this mass of unfortunate humanity...
This is a set at Flickr I shot with weeping eyes..and it killed me every second every bit.. believe me.
I will not add anymore text to my pictures unless where it is needed as explanation...The Muslim Help agencies were feeding the poor and this time everyone should come to their aid as they are Pucca Indians like you and me , lets forget about their caste color or religious background for once and I plead to Balasaheb Thackeray Saab Udhavji Aditya my poet brother and Raj Thackeray Saab their single call can do more to add succor than anyone in the time of their need.
And the State and Central government this is one big huge monstrous disaster in the beloved city of our karmic hope...Mumbai
