God Creates Situations For Me To Shoot Pictures .., a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
I was at home all day , being a state holiday, we celebrate the birthday of our state Maharashtra .. and Mumbai is its capital the city in which I stay , my homeland the land of my Karma, we call it Karam Bhoomi..
My dad late Mohomed Shakir came to Bombay as it was called than in 1940 and witnessed the ship blast at the docks , he would repeat the stories to us ..he was a Lucknowi born and called himself a Moghul Pathan..but had a Sunni ancestry , his mother Khurshed Baji was a hardcore Shia and his father Bashir Hussain converted to Shiasm..
My dad married the daughter of Daroga Nabbab Saab direct descendant of poet Mir Anis.. so the entire stream that flowed turned Shias on our side ..
My mother Shamim Shakir followed my dad to Bombay in the 50s I was born in Lucknow and came with her to this city and initially lived in the slums of Kurla Bakhar carpentry workshops..a tin roofed structure close to a Hindu burning grounds or makeshift crematorium..
Than my Dad moved my family to Colaba Wodehouse Road Khatau Bhuvan as tenants of actor Nawab Kashmiri, he had passed away but his mother in law the daughter in law of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah liked my dad and my mothers lineage gave us the servants quarters to stay..
Nawab Saabs daughter had me educated in a Baptist school run by European teacher 1955 ..I did my primary education at Private European School and later she shifted me to Holy Name High School Fort the very school patronized by the American President Barack Obama and his dancing First Lady Michelle Obama.
My parents later shifted for a short while to Neelam at Breach Candy and finally to Mohini Mansions Strand Cinema in 1963 ..
Uttar Pradesh was the state my dad and mom came from , and transplanted their roots in Maharashtra .. and we are pucca Mumbaikars and Maharashtrians too.
Since childhood days we had a lady Marathi bai we called Aiee Mother and she was our mother by default, we spoke Marathi and aceppted her as our own.. she was our extended family she had a son Bhaskar.
She die and Bhaskar died too when we moved away from Khatau Bhuvan now Jony Castle the same place where the pioneer of Indian Rock Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest stayed .. he died young unsung.
Both my parents are buried in Mumbai soil and the soil that has become our soil too, so Maharashtra day is special for us too, and I celebrate it by shooting the Maharashtra Day event , accidentally , I was going to town for some urgent work and noticed this pandal at Dadar Phool Gully I got off the cab and shot several frames to share with all of you online..
God helps me shoot pictures and keep the vibrant spirit of Peace of my beloved city alive.
Both my Photography Gurus late BWJatkar and Mr Shreekant Malushte kept the flame of Marathi Asmita alive in me.
And I wish all of you a Very Happy Maharashtra Day 2012
