I have been shooting lepers , once an entire group would come to Bandra wearing Gandhi caps and would be pulling a cart with another leper unable to walk.. with words Raghupati Ragav Raja Ram Pati Cha Pawan Sita Ram..
I have not seen them since a long time ,,, and there are lepers in Bandra too, one sits at Hill Road keeps touching people desperate to get alms .
Maria the leper lady wont return to Mumbai I think.. she was the iconic leper of my beggar stories .
Strangely lepers dont want to get treated happy with their deteriorating limbs finger ear lobes nose feet .
Haji Malang had a leper colony , but the rich guys bought their shelters to start commercial establishments .
And when they die beggars they leave all their money to those Municipal crooks who come to pick up their bodies ,,the beggars dont invest , nor do they buy gold , yet there are beggars who would loan money to other shop keepers etc for nominal interest .
And my pictures of beggars might help someone who will one day do a thesis on beggars it is untapped territory ,,,so many untold stories and I know a Muslim couple old people , the husband on a wheel chair and the wife taking care of him pushing him around the Holy Shrines of Hussain Tekri Jaorah.
There is another old Muslim couple , the husband is blind and the wife guides him and they beg at Bandra Bazar Road .. sometimes I want sit with them talk to them but somehow Iack that killer inquisitiveness and so I let the thought die in my mind .
And somehow I did document Muslim beggars a set at Flickr , Muslim beggars from the places I visited in India .. Delhi Hyderabad Lucknow Chennai Hussain Tekri ..
And I dont really stalk beggars but they appear from nowhere ,, blind beggars , deformed beggars , mentally challenged beggars , limbless beggars and the list is long .
This leper I shot in 2010 close too my parents house at Colaba Strand cinema and there used to be a string of beggars near the Strand Hanuman Mandir .
