Have You Ever Talked To A Muslim Beggar

I have started talking to them recently , asking them about their health , welfare ..and the two senior Muslim Beggars Khwajah Bhai and Ali Asghar feel happy ,I ask about their daughters , who take care of them when they disappear from Mumbai going back to their hometown,

Rehabilitating beggars is not part of Muslim society , just give them a few coins take their blessings , and than there are those goys who vehemently hate beggars , humans , they go to  Bandra Talao buy grain for the pigeon, leaves for the goats , flour for the ants bread loaves for the fish ..there are some who buy fancy biscuits for stray dogs at Carter Road feed crows , thee are ladies that love feeding cats ..I have nothing against them but ask them to feed a human child you will get a rebuke ..this world we live in is very biased strange and anti human..it all comes from within the ancestry of our hate ..

I am not a writer or a journo , my sense of grammar syntax unbecoming I became a photo blogger , I need a photo to blog ..my poems are visually impaired , so I added text to round them off,,

I knew a beggar child and her grandmother who lived at Lal Mitti , the child bathed her grand ma , took care of her , and the grand ma begged at JJ Colony and both lived under a truck parked at Bandra Reclamation , now that a huge condominium is coming up they are not to be seen , must have been driven off by the bouncers of the builders , and builders need local hoodlums to keep their turf intact.

And these are images I shot in Ramzan 2011 has anything changed , nothing changes , governments change , but the poor and the beggar are there on the roads ., potholed roads that dont change , attitude does not change but shooting beggars I changed I changed the expansive godly vision of my grandchildren too.. and all my blogs I have typed with that one finger which is death to hide ..the humility of my finger contains the exuberance of my street side beggar driven poetic thoughts ..

Arabs Are The Most Divided People Among Muslims

One Arab state hates the other
Arab state always a state of war,
bullet ridden bombed out scars
no unity no love for the neighbor
by far, if one state is under siege
no help no support like eunuchs
watch the mayhem from far
its the history of a race never
faithful no brotherhood on par
Muslims love killing Muslims
for that ultimate 72 vestal virgins
in paradise a just reward ..
killing Christians Jews all minorities
a new  caliphate built on the blood
of innocent babies ..worse
than  Davids bleeding  star ,,,bodies
brutalized  murdered burnt charred

Bandra Is A Safe Haven For Muslim Beggars

And you dont need to be a Muslim wear a skull cap a chequered scarf or a hijab or a head scarf and you share in the bounty of  Ramzan , and I hate to say this we have been brainwashed by society our parents to some extent , Muslims normally give generously to Muslim beggars , and this bias is inbuilt..

I once saw a huge group of Muslim beggars outside the Wodehouse Church and here the Christian gives in the name of Jesus without breaching caste color or creed .

On the day of Eid at Bandra station an entire group of tribal beggars I know very well cover themselves in hijab and share in the spirit of Ramzan Mubarak.

And perhaps if I was more educated I could have done a thesis on beggars but beggars are human they have needs wants and aspiration .. you wont be surprised if you see the yuppy beggar kids wit mobile phone hitting away on Whats Up.. Unbelievable .!

Beggars to have come a long way , I was once introduced to a very rich builder from a distant suburb, highly generous , wife  decked in glimmering gold.. and my host told me that once upon a time he begged at Mahim dargah, he became a police informer and life took a complete turn..

He is a staunch believer of the Mahim Saint Makhdhoom Shah Baba and believes the Saint made him a rich man overnight , he feeds beggars too..

So there are lots of beggar tales , how many film producers must have become beggars in the olden days lost everything ,deserted by friends family even wife left them to marry the financier I am told .


And people look down us for shooting beggars , and there are those mother fuckers among the Miyas who will taunt you for shooting beggars and not paying them I have heard much vile stuff but it did not stop me from shooting beggars and narrating the plethora of their painful existence be it through pictures.

This Was Shot On The First Day Of Ramzan 2011

I was bringing Marziya Shakir my grand daughter from her playschool , and these were tutorials , exposing her to street pain , she had inculcated the love of dogs , cats , goats as a 9 month old , but this was a serious level..the very poor downtrodden Muslim souls on the streets , faces covered with the hijab thereby saving the ignominy of being recognized as a beggar .

Most of these Muslim mother child came from far flung suburbs like Mumbra and strange even those days I never talked to them just  documented their life , gave them money or rather made Marziya hand over my money to them.

Marziya used to feed beggars on her birthday before this so she was aware of their life style..and these are all part of my Ramzan blogs from 2007 till 2014.

Now Marziya and I hardly go out , but I am sure she will remember all this and all this has given her a tender heart , she is sensitive to pain and feels it now.


So street photography in many ways became her text book at an early age , a camera is not a bag of heavy books on the already bent back of a child ,,I always felt if you taught a child photography even with a point and shoot camera  took her for an excursion she would learn much faster.

Moods Of Marziya Shakir

Marziya Shakir my first grand daughter was born at Holy Family Hospital 24 November 2007 .. I saw her on the second day at the hospital as there were complications at birth .her umbilical cord had choked her neck I am told .

So from that second day I began shooting her pictures , till the day she came home , I could not resist shooting her , every nuance every mood every detail .. I had never shot any of my kids simply because I was locked up like a genie in a bottle I was an alcoholic and children s birth or growth made no difference to me

But after giving up booze smoking and with the birth of Marziya life changed I found God had given me a second chance at parenting , and I exposed her to the streets , animals , beggars Appu , Moharam, every aspect of life and street life ,,

She was my lucky mascot , if she fell sick life became unendurable , and so from this grand daughter I began evolving , I documented her birthdays , her school life , her moods , and as she started growing , I cut down photographing her , her parents too did not want her exposed on the net.

Than came Nerjis and I shot her less , and Nerjis became the new chapter of my life , and than Zinnia and the pictures are a step to learning as I showed them their lifes album that I had collected for them ..Nerjis will want to see her first birthday or her mundan , and its all there a click away.

Zinnia my third grand child is prettiest and wittiest and though not influenced by my camera can shoot pictures assisted by me .

But all in all Marziya was the lucky talisman of our family she gave us the strength during bad times , good times , and now she is 6 very religious goes for her Koran lessons with her grand ma , and has become reserved ,, she takes care of her sisters .. and has a powerful bond with my wife.

So I always tell friends shoot their kids , so the kids can see moments , bought back to life ,, I could not bring my children s moments back to life but I have bought my grandchildren s moments as a storyboard of nostalgia.

God bestowed me the chance to be a grandfather .. I think I was plumb lucky.

(16 photos)

Teaching Photography To A Child

If you see Nerjis watching the photographer shoot us , you can understand her dilemma ,but the person who shot us was a passer by educated , perhaps not comfortable with the DSLR ..

And this was shot a long time back , when I whisked her away without informing her parents to Juhu Beach and I can only take her within the boundary of Bandra Bazar , no further ..

Now she is 3 year old with sophisticated camera etiquette not taught in camera manuals , first she places the camera strap around her neck, she than holds the camera sits down ladylike and takes her shot , she than checks the monitor , perhaps she is aping me in some ways .

She spots a picture and I let her shoot it , first it was tame stuff ,beggars , kids , than she shot St Peters Church the crosses at the Bazar , the Ganpati Pandals , the Ram Mandir ,,I let her love become a passion...from the day she was born I blessed her with the camera .

She is intuitive ,but more than taking pictures I taught her humility through the beggars and the poor kids in the slums ..I buy toys I ask her to give it to the poor kids , and I nurtured her as a little plant and I see her bloom each day..

So one thing is certain she will never become a Bigot , we have many around us ,she wont be a racist , and when she shot a Hijra for the first time I explained to her the meaning of respect for all.

So obviously with such human groundings I dont think she will ever join a camera club , and she meets the best international photographers who come home ,she knows Flickr Facebook , and most of all she knows the Internet ,,

Dada picture Internet par dal diya ,, these are her words ,, when she sees her images on my photostream.

I learnt photography very late in life ,,now through her I am unlearning everything all over again ..and it is No Fuck F Stops .

Home Is Where The Heart Is

its a home
airy roof
huge windows
 ..brick less doors
when it rains
they stay indoors
humility as its
core as they
snore
they get
wet shiver
tremble
as it pours
but this home
paver floor
on the tree top
is their store
home sweet
home when
the winds roar
thank you god
for what you
have bestowed
for this natural
public abode
on good old
bandra hill road