Today was my 7 day of walking .
I left my house at 5.36 I crossed Leelavati Hospital at 5 .47 and end end of Bandra Reclamation near Agasty Building at 5 .59 .
I take a U turn back to Leelavati Hospital and walk to the MET Gardens at 6.06 .
I take 10 rounds that I complete by 6.38 and I am back home by 6.48 .
And earlier when I walked at Carter Road I carried my camera and shot people , or some interesting detail of life ...those days I did not have a camera on my mobile phone and to think I had a Blackberry much later but never used it as a camera it would have been an insult to my DSLR .
My son presented me the Motorola G old version that I use and shoot pictures prolifically ,,and now I dont carry my camera on my walks , there is nothing much to shoot from my house till the end of Bandra Reclamation .. just the dump off Rand Sharda and ricksha guys defecating with deafening roars mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh .. and at 5.30 am there is huge crowd this end .. some sleep in the rickshas so the open dump or a mound is the best public toilet ,, there is no lavatory or public toilet on this stretch.
The ragpickers cum drug addicts or junkies sleep on the roads , and the Municipal Childrens playground next to MET Gardens is a hub for drunkards and junkies , badly maintained , no lighting pitch dark and also used as gym by the locals from the adjoining slums .But I have seen the educated class living in the buildings across are happy , and this is a solid BJP Shivsena vote bank.. they dont care and dont complain.. life goes on.
And our political honchos take extra mileage using actor Sharukh Khans ramp as means of appeasing and holding on to the Christian votes .. The ramp a concrete platform where he parked his vanity van.. was demolished to give access to those who use this path to visit Mount Marys Basilica .
There is so much ugliness in and around Bandra Bazar Road , Bandra Reclamation , Chinchpokli Road that it is not see bt our local representatives .
Trees have been chopped near ONGC quarters , Bandra Reclamation but they have been dumped on the pavement the Municipality has no time to clear it I have been seeing it since the time I began walking.. and if there is a useless civic body in Bandra it is the Bandra Municipality and they dont care a flying fuck.. the greatest enemy of Bandra is the Bandra Municipality , totally insensitive , apathetic and not interested in seeing Bandra beautiful once Bandra was known as the Queen of the Suburbs ,, now it is a Queen of open gutters and bad roads .
And because of this neglect Bandra once a Congress citadel slipped out of their slithering hands .. the Hand that could barely rock the vote banks they had created in the slums.Even the slumdwellers gave them a golden handshake .
Our local representatives sadly dont love Bandra as they should ,, our MP stays in the tony surroundings of Worli.. and our MLA has a lot of city responsibilities of his party.
There should b a CEO for Bandra ..and they should privatize the Municipality .. I was going to have a photo walk with young photographers to show them the dirtiest ugliest parts of Bandra .. and I kept it on hold in case the political representatives want to join in too,..
And there has to be a purpose to photography , it is a means to an end shedding light on the nether regions of darkness and despair .Why cant Bandra be a model suburb... it has beauty it has culture heritage and smart kids ..
I met Michael my English walking friend he wants me to come to his school where he teaches in Worli and give a talk on photography to the young kids , photography should be a subject that should be taught from primary,,it would change the way a child thinks and sees the world.
My 3 year old grand daughter youngest street photographer of Bandra Nerjis was telling her grand ma my wife ,, Dadda meaning Granny my pictures are on Flickr ,, meaning her pictures are on Flickr ,,
The metaphorical power of the camera Shivas Third Eye.
