I shot this a day before our Independence day on 14 August 2010 ..almost 5 years back and you will find another lot of street urchins begging at this famous Bandra Hill Road traffic signal which if you head straight goes to Bandra Station , a left from the main road you head to Linking Road or SV road and the distant suburbs a right takes you to Mahim Dadar and beyond ,, so this is a very strategic signal and it is known as Late Mohomed Rafi Chowk .. Mohomed Rafi was a legendary Bollywod singer ..the corner is named after him.
I pass this signal almost every day and I will go there now after some time to buy bloodworms for the Flowerhorns ..the Aquarium shops are on the left side of this signal. I walk it from home and walk back too via Demonte Street and Bandra Bazar.
On this signal occasionally you will find a drunk hijra lying near a restaurant and other odd species of human life of late there is a robust beggar carrying a sick child of 10 on his shoulders he begs in the evening I have shot him ,,than there are a few Muslim kids girls head covered with their siblings I presume .
On our Independence day you will find kids selling flags and other national emblems ,,,and beggars will never leave Mumbai the city of their far fetched dreams.. beggars who make good money watch movies and are besotted with Indian filmstars some start aping the in mannerism and style too.
As I dont carry my DSLR these days I shoot some of them on my mobile phone ,,and the complain they want to be shot by my big camera they say .. and I am stumped.
And I would rather shoot all than than the publicity prone Kala Ghoda Festival which pampers to the rich and the mighty of South Mumbai.. it has nothing for beggars or poor homeless kids art wont feed these kids or rehabilitate them the rich only feed stray dogs and cats ,,, it would be humiliating the humility of my camera shooting pompous snotty kids and their antics at the Kala Ghoda festival publicly pimped prostituted bt Hindustan Times ,, I subscribe to Hindustan Times , ever since I gave up the Times Of India after the goal like results of the Ayodhya verdict the shittiest editorial insulting the dead of India bot Hindus and Muslims.
And I once studied at Elphinstone College near Kala Ghoda so I have some great memories I was a Colaba refugee but now a full fledged Bandraite.
And these poor kids enslaved to parents who may not really be their biological parents , perhaps kidnapped when young are truly the lost children of God ,, a God who now has been hijacked completely by the rich of Mumbai.. and God in Mumbai has become highly commercial he needs gold , diamonds rich Pashmina shawls he is gifted cars washing machine and the trustees of God are laughing all the way to the Bank,.
