He approached me at Waroda road Bandra, asking me to help him , he was in bad shape , and he told me he was a migrant from Kashmir had lost everything in the floods.
I gave him some money, but I felt sad for him and others like him I have been shooting beggars from Kashmir , I shot them with their families begging from home to home , standing outside the Shia mosque ..begging at the bazar .. appealing for ration food , clothes ..most of these migrants I am told take shelter in makeshift tents near the Bandra pipeline .
They are dressed neat , and they do the rounds of the city ..during the Urus of Holy Saint Makhdhoom Shah Baba Mahim you will find their women begging in large numbers at Dargah lane .
Last year I saw a lot of them begging at Talkatora Karbala Lucknow invoking the Martyrs of Karbala pleading wailing for alms as they said they had lost everything in the floods in Kashmir.
I have met them begging in Hyderabad too..thousands of miles away from the Valley ..in midst of urban chaos ..they hardly get jobs as the public does not trust them.. a few were employed as security at the Shia cemetery in Mumbai Mazgaon but I never saw them again.
Most of the Kashmiri migrants come to beg in large numbers in Mumbai during Ramzan and Eid Ul Adha ..
Has the Kashmiri governments tried to find out what ails the poorest of poor Kashmiri.. I mean its a problem they should solve ,,why is help not reaching these people or are these people lazy dont want to work just beg.. I have never talked to them..but I feel sorry as these guys are physically fit and force their young wives daughters and little kids to beg with them too..what is the real truth I dont know .
My set here at Flickr is called Kashmiri beggars ..
