I had known Maria since the time I lived at 21 De Monte Street an extension of Bandra Bazar Road where we stayed for about 11 years .
But I was not into beggar photography at all I was caught between fine art and photojournalism.
But when an ace American photographer Dr Glenn Losack MD from Manhattan New York saw my Moharam matam bleeding pictures he befriended me and came down to shoot Ashura in Mumbai with me .
He shot leper affected people beggars lunatic asylum patients and he was also an eminent psychiatrist and photographer .
He saw Maria the leper lady and shot her extensively including her grandchildren son daughter of Mary also a beggar and Marias daughter .
So this was my tryst with shooting Maria the leper lady a photo set on my Flickr timeline ..
Dr Glenn was hoping to get Maria treated but Maria just wanted money her plaint was if she is healed who will give her money.
I took over helping Maria once Glenn left than my granddaughter Marziya and Nerjis began shooting her .both were very small..Marziy was about 3 year old and Nerjis was about a few months old.
I wanted both my granddaughter to see pain feel pain and understand the cryptic meaning of Charity .
Both Marziya and Nerjis gave her their pocket money ,,time passed and just before the onset of monsoon Maria would leve Mumbai as her soft parts of her body began to fall off ,
But an amazing part of Maria she has sockets for eyes ..she was smart as the drug addicts stole her money or ran away with her beggars tin..
She would tie this tin to the stump of her leg and hide the notes beneath another bowl within the begging tin.
Once Glenn left she would pester me when will he come yes sh had fallen in love with my American friend and almost all women fell in love with Glenn,,
Years passed and Maria who had disappeared returned back to Bandra this time sitting on a wheelbarrow like a queen..and her companion was Kadappa a leper who was connected to Sharda leper mother .
Kadappa was a shrewd man he told me he was Marias brother but I did not bother I would buy breakfast for both of them every morning while returning from tennis ..
Maria they say was a Hindu she saw light and converted to Hinduism along with her daughter Mary and there was a nun Sister Cristobal from the Order of Mother St Theresa who had a small space opposite Bhabha Hospital who bathed beggars gave them food medicine etc
I mentioned to her about Maria but than St Cristobal was inflicted by a terminal disease shifted to UK.
Maria and Kadappa have both disappeared and last few week when I met them it was Mary pushing the wheelbarrow ,
Now even Mary has disappeared but Mary was trying to become a Muslim and begged as a Muslim outside the Boran street Sunni Jamatkhana .
In all these two leper stories of Maria and Sharda I terribly miss Shardas son Arjun..
Marias video is on You Tube ,,
But sadly nobody not een media came forward to help her Media comes only when a nondescript photographers video goes viral on You Tube ,,
All my beggar stories ar on You Tube ..only the Muslim beggars are part of a playlist ..
The other part of Marias story is though she could not see she knew I was around was it my footsteps or was it sense of smell. God knows .
