Maya Angelou quotes
This Muslim beggar even today sits across on the pavement opposite Eros Stores at Bandra Hill Road and the road facing her is the Bandra Police Station ,
This is the main roadway of Hill Road that leads to the shopping center ahead or if you take a U turn you go straight towards the Bandra Station .
So she is in the right spot , she moves about within this stretch and it has been over 3 years since I shot this image .
Every beggar I am sure has a past and a story the only fear is the depths of a tomorrow to come ,, what does it hold if a cop catches her she has to pay Rs 1200 a large sum , but mostly there is a understanding and in some cases protection money is paid weekly hafta.
All these years that I was located here I shot the beggars , specially the lady and her child who came on Thursdays.
When I was located at St Peter Road Bandra I shot Stanislaus School or the St Peters Church.
I was mind and soul trigger happy ..and gradually all that changed now I hardly take my camera out, mostly if I do it is to assist my grand daughters Marziya 6 and Nerjis 2 and a half to shoot the Bandra Bazar and the Muslim beggars .
Of late I try to use my Motorloa G ..and it has a different feel touch as compared to the ubiquitous DSLR .
I shoot so as to stay connected with reality and my reality is the pain that resides on the streets and in the closed eyes of a dreaming beggar child.
My eyesight due to diabetes makes it difficult and when I type with one finger I am prone to miss a word or miss a line too.
Did you see the childs tiny feet ,,comfortable at home in penury ,despite the mothers discomfort ..what is her story , if she has a child so small than obviously she has a husband , and sh has another big child I have shot him too,,
Why is she begging . where did she or her husband come to bad times ..I never ask questions getting to shoot them is tough enough , asking her her travails is beyond me ,, earlier as I am 60 I could be taken for a fatherly figure but after the Asram Bapu
rape case nobody trusts old people anymore ..and if it is Sunday this must be Bandra.
I miss shooting the Muslim ladies of Bandra .. some I see even now but I just move ahead ..I have a tomorrow but sometimes I find it is more bleak than the beggars tomorrow.. I dont know why .. age has swept me over swamping me under a debris of lost illusions of nothingness.
