The Filthiest Dirtiest Ugliest Bandra Bazar Road Market

This is perhaps the dirtiest place in Bandra Bazar Road , and the fish market is held on pillars and will soon fall on those who come here to buy fish.. total neglect apathy ,, thanks to the Bandra Municipality , the ineptitude , and lack of vision and foresight .

I mean the local representatives barring one have lived here yet they too seem to be helpless , they are busy adding beauty to where their vote banks exist , the roads were repaired but in such a shoddy manner that it is an eyesore .

The residents really dont care , if there was some will within them this situation would have never been there in the first place ..the youth of this area .. they are listless most were lackeys of the decimated Congress Party ,,,and none of the political parties not even the erstwhile BJP that gave a death blow in both the elections really care. ..

But I know the day Prime Ministe Modiji comes to visit BJP Mumbai President Advocate Ashish Shelar this place will transform into another chapter from Swach Bharat ..I can say this with moral conviction..or I will eat my words , the BJP Bhakts , volunteers even the residents will leave no stone un turned to welcome our dynamic Prime Minister .

In the meantime we suffer , with the open drains garbage dumps and chicken trucks ,that have no mercy for the residents living here ..

No ladies toilets and sadly this area was a total Congress fortress and the Congress party did nothing 15 years they vilified the ethos of this beautiful East Indian Gaothan.

Sadly those who are elected from this area hardly love this part of Bandra ,,,I came to Bandra Bazar 25 years back but I love Bandra it has given me peace hope humanity ,, so when I see Bazar Road going to the dogs it hit me hard ,, as a photographer as a poet and as senior citizen..

Dreams Lie In Dust In God We Trust

Today was my 7 day of walking .
I left my house at 5.36 I crossed Leelavati Hospital at 5 .47 and end end of Bandra Reclamation near Agasty Building at 5 .59 .
I take a U turn back to Leelavati Hospital and walk to the MET Gardens at 6.06 .

I take 10 rounds that I complete by 6.38 and I am back home by 6.48 .

And earlier when I walked at Carter Road I carried my camera and shot people , or some interesting detail of life ...those days I did not have a camera on my mobile phone and to think I had a Blackberry much later but never used it as a camera it would have been an insult to my DSLR .

My son presented me the Motorola G old version that I use and shoot pictures prolifically ,,and now I dont carry my camera on my walks , there is nothing much to shoot from my house till the end of Bandra Reclamation .. just the dump off Rand Sharda and ricksha guys defecating with deafening roars mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh .. and at 5.30 am there is huge crowd this end .. some sleep in the rickshas so the open dump or a mound is the best public toilet ,, there is no lavatory or public toilet on this stretch.

The ragpickers cum drug addicts or junkies sleep on the roads , and the Municipal Childrens playground next to MET  Gardens is a hub for drunkards and junkies , badly maintained , no lighting pitch dark and also used as gym by the locals from the adjoining slums .But I have seen the educated class living in the buildings across are happy , and this is a solid BJP Shivsena vote bank.. they dont care and dont complain.. life goes on.

And our political honchos take extra mileage using actor Sharukh Khans ramp as means of appeasing and holding on to the Christian votes .. The ramp a concrete platform where he parked his vanity van.. was demolished to give access to those who use this path to visit Mount Marys Basilica .

There is so much ugliness in and around Bandra Bazar Road , Bandra Reclamation , Chinchpokli Road that it is not see bt our local representatives .

Trees have been chopped near ONGC quarters , Bandra Reclamation but they have been dumped on the pavement the Municipality has no time to clear it I have been seeing it since the time I began walking.. and if there is a useless civic body in Bandra it is the Bandra Municipality and they dont care a flying fuck.. the greatest enemy of Bandra is the Bandra Municipality , totally insensitive , apathetic and not interested in seeing Bandra beautiful once Bandra was known as the Queen of the Suburbs ,, now it is a Queen of open gutters and bad roads .

And because of this neglect Bandra once a Congress citadel slipped out of their slithering hands .. the Hand that could barely rock the vote banks they had created in the slums.Even the slumdwellers gave them a golden handshake .

Our local representatives sadly dont love Bandra as they should ,, our MP stays in the tony surroundings of Worli.. and our MLA has a lot of city responsibilities of his party.

There should b a CEO for Bandra ..and they should privatize the Municipality .. I was going to have a photo walk with  young photographers to show them the dirtiest ugliest parts of Bandra .. and I kept it on hold in case the political representatives want to join in too,..

And there has to be a purpose to photography , it is a means  to an end shedding light on the nether regions of darkness and despair .Why cant Bandra be a model suburb... it has beauty it has culture heritage and smart kids ..

I met Michael my English walking friend he wants me to come to his school where he teaches in Worli and give a talk on photography to the young kids , photography should be a subject that should be taught from primary,,it would change the way a child thinks and sees the world.
My 3 year old grand daughter youngest street photographer of Bandra Nerjis was telling her grand ma my wife ,, Dadda meaning Granny my pictures are on Flickr ,, meaning her pictures are on Flickr ,,

The metaphorical power of the camera Shivas Third Eye.

The Muslim Beggar Child Begins Work The Moment She Is Born

I am not an activist or social worker but I shoot pictures , now it is much easier as I use the mobile phone the Motorola G..

Here I gave her some notes , and I was struck by the beautiful angelic face of her child ,the child was working too, much harder than the hapless Muslim mother .. facing the itinerant Mumbai rains heat and humidity and the filthy surroundings of the filthiest Municipal Market Bandra Bazar opp Kalidas Stores .

Imagine feeding the child and surely she cant afford diapers , so cleaning the child's bum with newspaper and the child is in a disease prone area ..despite fancy brochures on Dengue Free Bandra ..politicians are really not bothered , and this time the voter cannot be appeased by paver blocks or cosmetic changes ..the Bandra voter I think is educated even though living in the slums ..and this time the destiny of the politician will be tested without the Modi wave.

Like Bandra Bazar Road I am sure there are many areas in Kurla and Bandra East too but I talk of the area where I stay it has literally gone to the dogs.

This morning after I shot this Muslim beggar mother I met a few more ahead close to St Josephs Chapel and the Shia Mosque Bazar Road.

And I must add I sincerely believe the candidate placed by the Aam Admi Party for North Central Constituency was to break the minority votes and make winning for the BJP much easier and I hope Ms Priya Duttji  learnt something from this uncalled for defeat ...she should start doing some soul searching on her own without her cronies that surround her in her Ivory Tower.

And this win should be a greater bigger lesson for Ms Punam Mahajan who has yet to turn up and see the filth of Bandra Bazar Road luckily I dont represent Bandra newspapers that mostly glorify the Congress ..survival is the name of the game.