For 40 years he has been sitting at the same spot cleaning years at the same spot at Bandra Talao .. but his future is dark and bleak as the Municipal officials want him to go back to his hometown , once the Bandra Talao is renovated there wont be place for him to sit anymore .. He and a few of his compatriots who clean ears fora measly sum of Rs20 ,
And there are a lot of people taxi drivers hangar ons , workers poor folks who come and get their ears cleaned the wax removed .
And they go light headed and free ..and it is holistic every touch of the ear cleaner.
I have known them for many years sadly I did not make a separate set of their life documentation at Flickr .
I have never interviewed them but this imminent uprooting from their place of work has made them sad depressed and they think I am a Press guy and I might be of help to their cause .
Frankly speaking I dont know their names or where they stay in Mumbai.. but they hail from Karnataka . and most of them are Muslims here . The Hindu ear cleaners in town or near Dadar Kotwal Garden wear a short red turban,.
There are ear cleaners at VT close too a small garden next to the public toilet ,, they dont like their pictures being shot.
And I have documented them perhaps not as passionately as the Dabbawalas .
And when I am sad depressed I too come to the ear cleaners and get my ears cleaned shoot their pictures and the filthy Bandra Talo with the stink of dead fishes ..who dread to come back either as fish or men in their next rebirth.
