This was shot a long time back , at Mount Mary steps during the Mount Mary Fair Bandra , the back steps and these kids were the same kids that normally begged at the Turner Road Traffic Signal and were forced to beg here at the iconic Bandra Fair ,, I was told each kid could make about Rs 3000 in a single day from morning to night as the crowds keep on coming and the flow does not stop and the Christian devotees give generously unlike the Muslims who give a few coins to their beggars , the Christians give notes , hard currency..and once the kids came to Mount Mary the Turner Road Signal would wear a deserted look..
Now the kids beggars and even the hijras have been removed from the signal because of the affluent jewelry shops all around the signal..and the owners well connected politically so the cops have stopped begging on this signal pushing the kids towards Linking Road Pamposh signals.
All these kids their dirty filthy families once many years back stayed on a Mound off Rang Sharda Hotel Bandra Reclamation , they would drink fight abuse , they were finally evicted from here now the Mound is used as an open toilet by the Migrant Rickshawalas.
And I miss these beggars kids I documented for many years knew almost everyone .. today they must be grown ups , the girls mothers with kids ,, I see some of them and they come to show me their kids and ask me to bless them..these kids in arms , must be the youngest child laborers in the world not even a month old drugged with cough syrup , hung on the shoulders of older kids they are forced to beg by their parents and here I am sure there is a beggar mafia at work.. the comely girls disappear much before they reach puberty ,, most of them have incestuous relationships , even the drunk father will sleep with his daughter to get a child that will handsomely add to their income .
And these are my Beggar Blogs ,,Bandra Blogs ,, memories within memories and stories of the street ..
