The Pandoras Box of Pain Garib Nagar

The Pandoras Box of Pain Garib Nagar, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I dont shoot disasters but I shoot human pain , as it unfolds itself on the streets , I shoot pain as it is my inheritance of my Shia faith, I shoot Moharam , I shoot Bakra Eid simply to catch the inevitability and eventuality of death in the eyes of the sacrificial goat,

I shoot and document the poetry of human life and fate as it affects religiosity per se.

But I keep away from disasters as a photographer I am a coward I cant run after human life trying to save themselves from a calamity with a camera in my hands , I am a poet first before I am a photographer and both are human mind you.

So I did not shoot the raging fire in the night when it struck the soul of Garib Nagar , I had the time but not the inclination , and the following day dressed in black without my usual bedecked persona as member to a funereal party I came I shot and I wept , at the hand of god , his wrath fire and brimstone it seemed totally biblical reliving the words of a Presbyterian priest..

I shot but I did not need to poetize pain , it was poetizing me from within.. I was offered a cup of tea by a family that had lost everything, I refused at first but than took it I was in bad shape I had lost something too ... I dont know what but I am sure you understand.


I did not shoot Garib Nagar for any other reason but I shot it with a greater passion over a 1000 pictures in five hours traversing across the destruction , my feet burnt though I wore slippers.. my soul stirred and when I did stop shooting I knew it was over for me I could never walk back to Garib Nagar again.

I did try to cut away from the Navpada end I had come with a rail ticket to enter from the Bandra West station end and I had forgotten to buy a return ticket , and when I thought of cutting out from Navpada Gate No 18, my feet pulled me back in..and finally I took a rickshah from Bandra Court Behrampada and reached home totally drained and my uploads at Flickr continue since than non stop

This is my story of Garib Nagar in brief.. I was going to Linking Road last evening by a rickshah and the ricksha guy who was from an area close to Garib Nagar and he had his interpretation on the cause of the fire he said no authority could ever get rid of the settlers from Garib Nagar even if they paid out in crores someone must have given a few paltry lacs to a guy to get this deed done and he waited for my reply i had none..


I was shot an effect without a cause.