Saturday, March 12, 2011
Why Have The Children To Pay For The Sins of Their Forefathers...
Why Have The Children To Pay For The Sins of Their Forefathers..., originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
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Maybe the forefathers came here as migrants made Mumbai their home , they live in shanties serve as vote banks sometimes nurtured by slum lords many of them rich leaving in the nearby slums of Behrampada.. sadly fattened by a system of supply and demand.
Conspiracy..they say those who live in ivory towers, would these poor folks mostly tenants job workers , their children wives helping in the garments toy factories ekeing out a living light a torch to their homes.. would the landlord allow it..
And I am not God I am merely a poet turned photographer I let my pictures tell their story.
I am not into politics I belong to no party I am a Muslim an Indian Shia Muslim and I captured the sufferings of my collective Muslim ethos as a human being..
There are Hindus other communities at Garib Nagar but predominantly the Muslim poor..
What is the truth behind the fire God alone knows and the Fire Dept crying out about the goonda elements and they dont have a mobile picture to back their claims..an eminent journalist asked me if I had those pictures but I was not there when the fire struck..
I knew of the fire but did not go to shoot it, imagine the poet in me shooting pictures while people ran for their lives..I could not do it.
I shot the Garib Nagar slums a day after the fire for 5 hours .. posted 1215 pictures on the internet here at Flickr.com ..and the pain and the story of Garib Nagar continues I visited it yesterday and this is part of my new series..
Beneath These Tarpaulin Lies the Failed Fate of Man... Garib Nagar Revisited
Beneath These Tarpaulin Lies the Failed Fate of Man... Garib Nagar Revisited, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
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This is a new series on Garib Nagar exactly one week after the fire robbed them of their lives bearings and sense of direction.
I recount in pictures their grim fate , but also their grit and determination fighting the odds, this is not just a Garib Nagar story but a story of me and you and all of us when we get hit and try to get up at all cost..
A fire can strike a 2000 sq feet flat in Andheri and of course it started because of a faulty television set and gutted the entire place luckily it did not make the rest of the people in the building homeless..and I leave it at that.
Here at Garib Nagar the cause of the fire is an unsolved mystery, who did it ? Why?..The erstwhile Crime branch and the Mumbai Police will have to unravel.
But high stakes are involved , was it a murky deal that failed was it enmity, as a poet I shot the pain of the people bundled up in makeshift tents , no windows no doors no privacy.. its pretty tough if you are a Muslim to be on display to every passing stranger including intruding photographers.
As a Muslim man, some of the people know me I was still wary as I moved in deep to shoot all these frames , I shoot without pictorial etiquette I shoot timelessness and empty spaces recapturing the soul of the bowel movements of a metaphor.
I was saddened I had tears in my eyes as I talked to one family , and will my pictures bring succor to their lives I dont know.. I am not a journalist I am human , I live in Bandra close to these people but in a slightly more affluent surroundings that has slums too ...and Bandra west and Garb Nagar Bandra East are two poles apart literally.
I hate text only it is a poem, but I am having problems with my Internet connection thanks to the generosity of MTNL Broadband , my net is slow , I cant access Facebook Twitter and You Tube and I cant expand my Flickr page to cross blog my posts to my other sites,,So it is tough being a blogger ...
To my good luck my uploads are happening since morning late last night I aborted all uploads and hit the sack at midnight.
There are many relief camps here far too many of the Tabligis and Jamatis my intention was to shoot the affected people so I moved away from the main road of Behrampada into the tented surroundings of pain and despair.
We who sit at our homes come out with various hypothetical statements for and against the fire , dont really see the pain , the complete devastation and what can a few pictures shot and seen in a newspapers tell you, electronic media with due respect will be searching for Rubina Ali.. for them she is news she is the soul of Garib Nagar, she is a good kid caught in a sniper war of the press the fireand the deep sea.
When I shot Rubina Ali and I did not know who she was it was Danish Siddiki of Reuters a dear friend who shared this information with me I did not ask her to get up and pose for me ..and Danish was at the Garib Nagar from the start of the fire till the next morning speaks volumes of his dedication and love for the career he has opted in life,I learn from him too ..
So I shall cut short my text and take you on a very long winding journey..become my eyes and the soul of my poetry... as long as you are internet connected you need no wings.
Healing Hands And Healing Touch is What The Garib Nagar Homeless Want
Healing Hands And Healing Touch is What The Garib Nagar Homeless Want, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
175,639 items / 1,368,607 views
besides their desperate condition
their penury their pain
they have nothing else to flaunt
political survival the soul
of humanity need not taunt
cosmic sorrow broken dreams
fragmented memories
needlessly lash and haunt
Garib Nagar 7 Days After The Fire
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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.
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Shah-e-Mardan Sher-e-Yazdan Quwat-e-Parwardigar Lafata Ila Ali La Saif Ila Zulfiqar , originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1 ....
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Dargah of Hazrat Syed Ali Mira Datar Unava Gujrat , a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr. HAZRAT SYED ALI MIRA DATAR'S G...
