Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Bandra Slums

He is a very tired man , his business selling vegetables is in the slumps , so he sleeps all day long, he may not live too long they say..he is suffering from various bodily ailments but its the ailment of the soul that has hit him hard..

Being a poetry spammer , positive too I could pen a few words here , but it would of be no help, his pain would still be the same , I walk through this slum twice a day, morning and again at 4 pm..so I feel I too belong to this slum , my soul lives here among the denizens , among the kids who accost me for pictures , this is a very small slum as compared to Behrampada at Bandra East.

I am not a big fan of the Dharavi slums completely over hyped by the tourist mafia, I have shot it during a Urus here , but I prefer Bandra , nothing personal...

Dharavi is not for me at all.

I can spend hours among the people rebuilding their lives after the fire at the Behrampada slums , slums are nurtured by politicians of all hue simply as a vote bank nothing else,it is also told in whispers much of the fire in the slums is started by vested interests hand in glove with the builder mafia, I am also told that many a politician has a big stake and quite a few benami houses in this scheme.. I dont know for sure its not my take..

I only shoot pain and the drama of life as poetry.

You will be surprised there is another huge sprawling slums across the bridge close to my house but I have not gone there , I had taken Glenn Losack who shot a few pictures.

So even after being manacled to Mumbai there is no dearth of picture taking.. I may not be shooting landscapes mountains waterfalls or jungle reserve but I shoot raw naked drama of mans fight to survival .. in the battlefield called the slums.

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The Diamonds On the Street

begging
begging
begging
hurting feet
scorching
sun and heat
bandra hill road
their beat
a pain
a few coins
wont delete
life
incomplete
their fucked fate
they cant cheat
roads where
their destiny
a new misfortune
on their soul excretes

to romeo

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The Slums of Hope

there
is light at the end
of the tunnel
an encouraging
thought
with all my depressing
poems
i could not blot
in a net my foot
got caught
a better future
to their cursed lot
a picture with
love with kindness
with humility
without
tweaking
i lovingly shot
smiles
in return
as a gift
i got

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The Life Source

in the slums
pay the mafia
or water
supply closed
booster pumps
for the slum dog
millionaires
no one knows
on the heap
of a garbage
humanity grows
parched dreams
rationed water flows
the slums a gold mine
for the builder mafia
politically patronized
slum rehabilitation
scheme on a
jarring note
what you get
is what you vote
roti kapda makan
a slogan
on an empty note
gharibi hatao
gharibon
ko bhagao
the rich man wrote
the slum dweller
the ultimate
sacrificial goat

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The Making of a Mumbaikar

through
the doors
of his shanty
in the slums
a gutter like
river flows
when
it rains heavily
his house
overflows
mumbai
the city
of dreams
the city of woes
once he becomes
a mumbaikar
back to his
roots
he never goes
it was mumbai
that entrapped
him from his
mothers womb
chapter closed

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Temptation


Temptation, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

he would love
to put his teeth
into it all
but he knows
it would
be his
downfall
so he patiently
waits for the
pieces
that will fall
teeth and jowl
sometimes
silence
is better
than a growl
seeing him
the butcher
lets out a howl

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Salman Rizvi Farewell

123,486 items / 851,544 views

photo courtesy razi rizvi mumbai azadari

This picture was taken during a safar juloos near Zainabia by Razi Rizvi a Shia blogger Moharam 2008, and this evening I was informed by my wife that Salman Rizvi Saab had passed away., he was suffering from an ailment and as I am not close to his family or his friend circle I dont have any exact details...

I spoke to Razi Bhai and he confirmed his death..

Salman Rizvi bhai and I became friendly after this juloos and we met off and on , the last I met him was last year when he was buying iftari for his office folks during Ramzan.

We chatted for sometime and we never met again at all, when he was seriously ill I did blog about him..

So I offer my condolences to his family, I hope God gives them the strength to bear this irreparable untimely loss.

May his Soul Rest In Peace ..

Farewell we will certainly miss your presence at Juloos time..

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