The Beggar Lady..

The Beggar Lady.., originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I saw her begging from the shops on Bazar road , face covered and carrying the agony of life, what is her story? Why does she beg?

And there are no NGOS even the more desired Muslim ones that would at least approach them fiind out the cause is it a collective cause that binds them all.

As a man I cannot talk to them I shoot their pictures I give them alms and what I give cannot change their karmic fate , and this will make the Muslims blush as most Muslims believe in Akhrat but not Karma or Dharma..I do metaphorically as a street photographer and street poet.


And the beggar lady who comes to my shop every Thursday with her child , she has three girls her husband works but they cant manage so I presume she begs.

She is going to her home town Andhra Pradesh.. I dont know her name the little one she told me has not yet been named, she is so photogenic that it is hard to believe she has a begging mother.

And so I shoot their angst , their voicelessness their faceless hopes , and document their struggle on the streets and the few are docile humble but there are many a haughty ones among beggars with sound proof attitude that would shock my poor grand mother in her grave at Talkatora Karbala in Lucknow..

I could write so much about beggars as the camera sensor not only reads light but eternal pain too as it falls on the soul of my cosmic consciousness.

But let me reiterate many a times I meet Muslim beggar ladies in hijab who follow me I dont shoot their pictures , I shoot on impulse and the poet in me has to decide before I take the shot the photographer in me is a dumb lazy son of a sea cook...

As a photographer I am nothing but point just aim and shoot and Marziya does it much better than me but here I must digress Marziya is a poet too with a divine eye that collects the pain of the street
much before it unfolds before her eyes.


Some pictures I shoot for the heck of it senseless stupid and meaningless and than all of a sudden in retrospection they become topical and base of my street poetry.. all my Jesus pictures are poems and you could be dumb and still read them and honestly without insulting your intelligence as a reader of this pedestrian blog it is better to be dumb than be wise in Mumbai in contemporary times.Wise is synonymous with pedagogue like the Tower of Babble somewhere in Mallu Land..pedantic and pompous .. this gentleman whom I refer too was a Facebook denizen a Muslim hater and a Hijra hater too... he was a termite infested encyclopedia on old books..the greatest bombast from the other side of the back waters of Kerala.

I luckily dont add people on Facebook even when it is randomly suggested but if their is a mutual friend I let down my blinkers .. why not..

And yes I confess I do PIMP my blogs on Facebook it helps my blog stats at Flickr shows about 200 referrals from Facebook to my photo stream per day...