The mother of this child used to bring her every Thursday and together they begged on Bandra Hill Road .
Than one day the beggar lady disappeared , for a few month and when she returned it was a brand new baby in her arms .. she told me the older child was left behind at her hometown in Andhra..
I felt sad as this new child was her third daughter , her husband she told me once was keen on a son,, she begged because he could not make ends meet.
And it is not my job to giver her a lecture or judge her I left it at that , our society is male dominated , if there was a woman unlike the male Mullah , she could counsel her , sadly we have no such thing..if there is I am certainly not aware of it ..
In the Christian community , a woman can go to a nun and seek help instead of the male priest...but male Christian priest have no gender confusion with the people in their parish and help everyone ..
I have not seen it our side of the fence ,
We have rich philanthropists in the Muslim society and yet no one here in Bandra has build a institution like Fr Agnel ashram where Muslim poor youth can get vocational guidance and learn a trade .
Or empower the beggar Muslim lady in an institution where she can learn some trade stitching etc and her stuff bought by the community some thing on those lines ..but I am lost for words I am merely a photographer and not a social activist but I am sure you get my gist.
An I am happy at least we dont have mad fuckers who say Western Education is Bad.. God Save Us From That Curse..
So I dont merely shoot pictures of beggars to garner sympathy , or gain cookie points nor do I send my pictures for Salon Competition,, I know that the myopic Camera Club Judge would give one mocking insulting look and at the back of my beggar picture in a heavy hand inscribe 3 R ..which in camera club fucked slang means rejected by all three judges .
Fuck F Stops and Fuck Salon Photography .
