I Have A Cosmic Connection With Banganga

My childhood has been spent at Wodehouse Road Colaba , and it was once when I was very young my Dad bought me here to the Shoe House at Hanging Gardens .That was it.

I discovered Banganga as a photographer late in my 40s and the most memorable outing at Banganga was with late Prof BW Jatkar. and I fell in love with this beautiful Tank.

I came to know about Pitru Paksha  through the pictures of a friend Ranjit Shashank my PSI Club senior member and mentor I decided I would shoot it too.. and thus began my tryst with Banganga and Pitru Paksha.

And it became a ritual to shoot the Banganga Pitru Paksha every year ,  barefeet and from there come to Napean Sea Road Maheshwari House take the blessings of my Guru Mr KG Maheshwari House. And these subsequent Pitru Paksha I have not met my Guru for many years now .that is the only sadness while coming to  Teen Batti as this area is called .

And strange it may sound after shooting the barbers , the beggars , my first shot before entering the Tank is of this Pandit Maharaj.

He is a very nice kindly soul , but till date I never asked him his name nor does he know that I am a Muslim.. he treats me as a Hindu and I accept his feelings with humility and due respect... and than I move towards the Tank , all the ladies  men who sell the Puja articles know me , greet me ..this time all of them wanted to know why I did not come on 23 Sept  the main day of Pitru Paksha ..I told them I did not know about it ,, but I made it today that is 24 Sept ,, The rituals were ending at at about 9 Am,

I was lucky to shoot them and share them with all of you.

Pitru Paksha Banganga 2014 ,,

Since last evening I was trying to find out the exact timing of the Pitru Paksha rituals , I called up a few people but got no response than I finally called my dear friend Prashant Singh from my camera club PSI  Mumbai,,

He told me that it was 23 September and 24 September till 9 am.

So after feeding Marziyas Java finches her Flowerhorns Blackghosts ,,I showered  took a rick to Bandra station and a train to Grant Road Station a share a cab to Banganga .

I  had about an hour and a half and there wasnt much crowd so I decided to shoot the religious tonsure and barbers after shooting the rituals of Pind Dan on the steps of the Banganga Tank.

I met my good friend Danish Siddiqui from Reuters and another Kashmiri photographer friend ,, there were two photographers from Bangla Desh students actually.. and photographer enthusiast Brij Lakhani with his dad.

Everyone knows me as I have been shooting the Pitru Paksha for almost 10 years now.

I took a bus on my return and a from Charni Road reached Bandra , I shot the Pitru Paksha barefeet..

I walked home via Bandra Slaughter house shooting the Bandra streets .. hijras and more ,,

This documentary of Pitru Paksha is part of my Hindu blogs .. Hope And Hindutva Message of Universal peace a set at Flickr of over 58000 blogs ,,

You can call this anything but Love Jehad I love my cultural inheritance and showcase it as the unique unity in diversity of my country , my motherland.