If I Did Not See This I Would Not Shoot It

If I Did Not See This I Would Not Shoot It, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

I dont stalk my subjects , but they become my subjects when their fate throws itself face front on my camera , I give them money the least I can do I will pay for the picture I take of pain ..and this is not a commercial twist the poor Muslim beggars tale.

I respect her choice as a beggar , doing what is perhaps the only thing she can do, she does it with her face covered without hurting those who are responsible for her present situation , if I was a girl photographer I could have sat next to her on the street talked to her found out what blow in life bough her down tree trunk branches and all..

But god did not make me a woman, I am happy with what god made me or gave me .. he gave me foresight he gave me a mind that penetrates the pain in another persons soul..I dont take notes at all, never needed to I fill in life's bank spaces with my Sufi fortitude that I have inherited from the malangs the bawas I sat with.

Honestly I am tired writing a poem about her fall from grace she is where she is it is Islamic society that has fallen a nautch or too .. as it has no means of resurrecting their souls , it needs funds only to build new mosques and madrsaasas.. I write this with reference to what I see as a street photographer and to the subject on hand I dont speak for the rest of poor Muslim beggars all over India.

And so I shot a few frames I told her to go to the Sunni mosque in Bandra and speak to the Mullah or the trustee ..or to go to the Bandra Shia Khoja mosque.. she just said Bhai who has time to hear my story..No I did not have time either and if I sat next to her to hear her story I would be humiliating her fate further ..I moved away

I am a photo blogger I shoot pictures I have no cure I am not a doctor..I am not a social activist...I dont belong to any NGO , never was a group man I am a loner recluse and I poetize pain so you see it as real as I shot it.,..

And honestly I wont wait outside a Parsi Temple at Dadar for hours to shoot cherubic twins coming to their first Nowroze in a pram ..

I would rather shoot pain on the street veiled , and now for Gods sake dont ask me when the poor Muslim beggars daughter celebrated her first Idd Ul Fitr..

I am speechless as a photographer as a poet as a blogger and as a Muslim too.