He is the same beggar I had shot a few days back and given him money and Advocate Ashish Shelar our MLA had seen me with him and given him Rs100 ,,So I tried to wonder what he was thinking ,,And he is new to our Bandra Bazar area and he stands at this corner ..begging silently without opening his mouth , his one hand stretched out ,
And they come to Bandra West with a cosmic hope , and there are a lot of folks who give without letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing.
The two senior most beggars of Bandra Bazar Road are Khwajah Bhai and Jaffar Bhai.. and both are well known and beg with humility dignity and grace .
And I would rather shoot beggars , than go a hundred miles away to shoot caves or the Vasai Fort ruins ,, I would never think of going to places that I visited last week as a tourist guide but I did it without gain or profit merely as Indians we follow a tradition Devo Atithi Bhava that means Guest is God and Hospitality is akin to Godliness ..I kept my work aside I placed my time before everything else .
So I prefer shooting beggars I prefer shooting Garbage the best garbage sites are obviously in Bandra West.. there may be garbage sites in other parts of Mumbai but our Garbage has photogenic quality , you can read it as a wordless poem or as fine Street Art.. Make In India is incomplete if you dont come and see our iconic pictorial garbage dumps , and even if you did not have a camera use your mind as the cosmic lens and imbibe the beauty of Garbage , after sometime the stench the filth will feel like aroma fragrance of the Attars of Arabia .
Shooting the Marathi Manoos , the conservancy staff of the Municipality as they sweat and dont smell of Garbage living in garbage all day , they are hardworking men , they use their hands to pick up the garbage , yes they dont have gloves , they wear slippers and many have hurt themselves on rusty nails glass shards pointed broken bottles or food cans .. they abuse they and their favorite rant is Municipality Chi Aiiechi Gho.. and it is a friendly colloquial abusive term.. like Mother Fuck I think.
I am known to most of them as the video shooting man , and they welcome me as I make their cause and their hardwork world famous.
I shoot and videograph the ear cleaners of Bandra Talao and I have not gone and shot them for a long time , they miss me the most Raju Nabi and Kassim Bhai .. and the pigeon feed seller ..and there are guys who love to enter my frame to be seen by their loved ones on You Tube .
And I am merely shooting the ear cleaners these humble souls who will be jobless like the beef butchers after the Bandra Talao is renovated they will be forcibly evicted by the Bandra Municipality and the cops for cleaning ears here ,, and they have been cleaning ears for last 40 years .
And I shoot videos on my Motorola G badly overworked , as I have shot over 5000 images on this phone ,, I would like to buy a new phone but I am broke to put it poetically broke in heart body and mind.
And Maria the leper lady has returned but her place at Bandra Boran Road has been usurped by her daughter Mary these are two converts to Christianity I think would have been happy as Hindus ..and no Hindu person has come to take them back home strange are the ways of Ghar Wapsi..and than if you have motormouths that promote raping dead Muslims there is hardly any hope left in going back home ,, Ghar Wapsi.
And Ghar Ghar Islam has gone deafeningly silent and with leaders like the Shahi Imam God save Islam in India .
I prefer being a religion less photographer of the street I become a true Muslim during Moharam I cut my head shed my blood and I become one with Hussain..
Everyday Is Ashura Everyplace Karbala .
And I keep away from Shias too that is why I lock up my Facebook I dont want to be part of those who bully others and one hand talk about oppressors in the same breath.
I chose the path of the Malang without going into their rites or rituals simply to follow the path of Ali that is light from Najaf moving its divinity at Karbala .
I still dont know whether I will go to Ajmer Sharif this year I take everyday as it comes ,, and hope tomorrow will be slightly better than today.
