The Mumbai I Shoot Is Very Different From The Mumbai You Live In

And all these areas are clusters of hope ..the children playing outside the symbolic wooden frame shops hardly know the hardships of their father , the mother burdened by perhaps 4 or 6 kids ..My mother may god rest her soul was blessed with seven..my father started of a  tailor in his struggling days a migrant from Lucknow ,, his first home where I lived was a shanty in Kurla next to a Hindu crematorium.. I was born in Lucknow and came with my mother to Bombay as it was called when she was 15 year old.. at these slums which were actually known as Bakhar or wood and carpenter workshops.

My mother sometimes with tears in her eyes would narrate those days , the fear , the leaking tin roof , the dead bodies that she was scared to see even from far and it this fear of graves that never left her ,.. she now lies buried next to my dad at Rehmatabad Shia cemetery side by side as husband and wife on a long journey once again without the bothersome litter .

So in short though our father pulled us out of the slums , the slums never left her or me cosmically ,, My mother and our small family from Kurla slums came to the only tony area those days Wodehouse Road early 50s ,, Khatau Bhuvan the servants quarters of late Nawanb Kashmiri thespian actor remembered because in order to do a role of an old man he had his teeth removed a contemporary of Mr Dilip Kumar Jayant Mukri Begum Akthar and others of our golden age cinema ..

From Wodehouse Road when the new landlord took over the palatial Nawabs house and he wanted our rooms we had three facing the main Wodehouse Road , he  gave us his house at Breach Candy Neelam Apts .. and finally from Breach Candy we landed at Strand Cinema Colaba .. Mohini Mansions where the rest of the Shakirs were born.. total  7.

Near Strand Cinema were the famous Sundar Nagri slums and the homes of fisherfolks and my Koli friends .. so the slums really never left me like a poetic thought and those days if you visited Sundar Nagri .. you would end up smelling of fish all day.

Our first house me and my wife was Danpada , the Koli village , you cant call t the slums as they have ore gold than the REserve Bank of India .. cheek and jowl and here sadly the smell was of Jambul the local hooch instead of fish that knocked you out much before the day began.. Our dreams were shattered after the 93 Riots we were forced to realize we were nothing but Muslims period ,, however I have stopped cursing VP Naik and Mr Sharad Pawar and the Congress and moved on in life .. and my 60000 Hindu blogs are a testimony it was not Hindus that ruined our lives but crooked politicians who divided polarized compartmentalized the Soul of Mother India .

After the riots thanks to Mr Nitin Manmohan my ex boss I lived at Chand Society Juhu , 11 rd Juhu JVPD next to Mr Dannyjis house in a bungalow in transit till the riot fever died down.

We sold our Danpada house for peanuts and finally came to live at Bandra Bazar Road not a slum but a Gaothan called De Monte Street ..and finally Bandra Reclamation ,, this time we have slums all over , and the funny thing about slums every time they are demolished more slums come up, Finally they are bought by political influenced builders and now Bravo no slums towers will come up,, and not far from my house with the blessings of the political biradri we will be having the most expensive condos on a road close to our house .

And to make the new owners congenial to the surroundings all the slums will become Slum rehabilitated the poor will become middle class .. and the middle class is always fucked from asshole to eternity ,, the very rich and the very poor always have the last laugh while heading to the bank.

So forgive the autobiography part as digression , but not intentional this is the story of my slum photography .

I have shot most of the slums in Bandra disaster prone the Behrampada Fire The Garib Nagar Fire .. and the apathy and dirt filth of the dirtiest slum in Bandra Nargis Dutt Slums ,,  leave aside erstwhile Advocate Ashish Shelar even God cannot save it ,,

Than comes the thought why with a beautiful religion called Islam ,, why are Muslim slums dirty and not garbage free , the answer is habit and the Muniicipality authorities have always treated poor Muslims as second class citizens ..
My writing finger is tired I have shot the Compound Shastri Nagar Slums Bandra second dirtiest place , all predominantly Muslim and most of the mess is thanks to 15 years of a garbage ridden coalition ,,

So though a traditional Congress voter en masee we voted for BJP and Progress and Development ,,, as this gets published online we are still waiting for Progress Development and the furtive elusive Acche Dine and for God sake please dont ask me why bloggers are not promoted  by Media it could seriously affect the circulation of thei rags that add to Garbage Porn.

For bloggers this is Original Content milked from  the udders of my fucked brain.