Mumbai

Mumbai's infectious. Once you start living in Mumbai, working in Mumbai, I don't think you can live anywhere else.
Yash Chopra

Life Is Junk...Says This Old Monk

Only from the heart Can you touch the sky. rumi

The Day In The Life Of Bandra Municipal Conservancy Staff

One of the richest corporations with huge money resources funds is the stingiest agency bent on breaking the back of Mumbai , it does not supply gloves , masks or safety shoes to its employees or their contract workers ..I have shot their videos working in the muck , prone to diseases , but even our laidback municipal local representatives are not bothered ,, and those who fight any election in Mumbai or elsewhere the main criteria is to make money gain wealth assets in their spouses name or benami.. public welfare is never the main option, empty hollow rhetoric masterful oratory and than the skeletons start falling out from the termite infested cupboard.. I have seen nobody really cares for the public , the only one time they do is when they come with a rubber stamp smile and folded hands ,,
Once they win the seat , it is trying hard to get a position in the cabinet or head some lucrative position ..you all know the whole story ..Mumbai is dying because of the apathy of leaders who come hick tons and are hell bent on making Mumbai a hick town too.. The Congress NCP or The BJP Shivsena combine , nobody really really cares for Mumbai.. Mumbai is well for drawing out wealth and than leave it high and dry till the next government comes ,,
I say bu id temples build Statues in the Sea , build a Memorial forHon Bala Saheb Thackeray he deserves it his followers and everyone wants his memory to live on but also at the same time along with the coastal road , build better roads more ladies toilets and at Bandra Reclamation the hub of migrants people shit every morning on a Mound off Rang Sharda ,, I am not a journalistic pro.. but I shoot pictures the only testimony of my pain seeing my beloved city going to the dogs because of the insensitivity of our silent leaders ,, one thing that our last PM bequeathed to the ruling Junta is More Silence ,,
Thank Man Moun Singh jI
ps ..the gloves and the masks they are using is bought by their own money ..lol

Nargis Dutt Nagar Ramzan Time

Perhaps the most filthiest ugliest slums in Bandra mostly populated with Muslims and once a Congress Party vote bank , and an insult to the memory of actor Nargis Dutt is the Nargis Dutt Nagar slums and if Ms Priya Dutt wanted she could have made this slum memorable and a role model but it has gone from bad to worse ... known for all the wrong reasons .. there maybe good people in this sprawling Muslim vote bank slums but , it is haven for those on the wrong side of the law too.. and it extends from one end towards the encroached Bandra Reclamation grounds known as the Lal Mitti sllums even the pavements have been encroached with makeshift shanties ..

This is the worst slum human dwellings in Bandra West ,, the slumdwellers have built additional floors and the rents are steep over Rs 10000 a month most of the tenants are the migrant rickshawalas living 15 in a room..there is no public toilet here so the Grounds ahead are used for defecation ,,, and further ahead is a mound facing Rang Sharda where all the poor folks shit their remorse .

No political party worth its salt has done anything to improve the sanitaion or social conditions of this slum.. political sycophants have been gifted rooms in these slums for their support to the party .

Media Press come here only when there is a Fire otherwise nobody would even write an obituary to this slum,

As a street photographer I shoot this slums when I pass by in a bus ,, I have never gone in these slums but it disheartens me once it was called Chota Bhendi Bazar now it is worse than the poorest slums of Mumbra .

Even in Ramzan the holiest month in the Muslim calendar , there is no cleanliness , there is no public will among the Muslims of this area to get it cleaned all busy with their Rozas and Tarabis ,,

Now that the BJP is in power the demolition bulldozers are seen regularly illegal floors extensions knocked out , but after the lull they are back again , and the Muslims here who may have voted the Congress out of power are now caught between the deep sea and the Devil. Muslims are totally alienated polarized ..more than before ,, and these are my evaluations I maybe wrong I dont know the ground reality but this is prime real estate if all the slums are removed , relocated this place would be the most expensive place in Bandra , so the politician builder nexus wait for the CRZ to be scrapped and make loads of money... most of the politicians have real estate benami companies ,,,finger in ever lucrative pie .. even the main social activists that once had a common plank have now joined political parties that sponsor or patronize them I was told this by an ex corporator and vast chunks of public property balwadis have been gifted to lackeys as I am not a political blog , I hardly delve on subjects beyond the scope of my photography, I document Mumbai Slumbai.

Bandra will soon be only for the rich super rich , as all the slums will disappear , towers are already coming up in slum lands , at Bandra Reclamation .. and Pereira Wadi is still lying in limbo neither here neither there ,,

And on every birthday of Ms Nargis Duttt I wonder if the Nargis Dutt Nagar slum dwellers remember her or try make her birthday memorable with well cleaned streets and surroundings .

And for once I hope Ms Priya Dutt reads this in her luxury room in her Ivory Tower and it is this negligence , this apathy , this lack of humanity sensitivity that decimated the Congress from Bandra ,, and the loss of her seat.

I hope Ms Poonan Mahajan reads this too I have yet to see her pat the head of a slum dweller ,,,or even make a special appearance in our area ...,,the Muslims thank their stars that Advocate Ashish Shelar our MLA is approachable how else would the poor contact Ms Poonam Mahajan who lives at Worli...and her standing from our constituency was merely a formality and the surge of a soon to be forgotten Modi Wave.. parachutes to have to come down to earth sometime or other...

I dont belong to any political party and do not have benami rooms in the slums of Bandra ... but I live in a building that is worse than the calamitous conditions of a slum..

Happy Morning Happy Sunday

The Beggar Lady With Two Faces Ajmer Sharif

In my short life as a photographer , I have shot hordes of beggars , but this lady killed my insides the first time I saw her while climbing the mountains barefeet to meet Malang Baba Wahid ,, I took a hasty shot of her , she was in a group that lives in makeshift tents at the mountain foothills ,,
And this was in the dargah lane ,here at Ajmer I think in humility I am the only one shooting the captive souls in wicker baskets , because I cannot afford to buy these souls I shoot them ..I can not sit compose my shots of beggars ,, with the crowds moving in it would be a stampede .and till date no Rajasthani cop has ever provoked me dressed as I am they think I am some crazy Sufi Bawa ,,and than being barefeet I look like a beggar with a stolen camera round my neck.. In Mumbai they would have locked me up as a suspect ,, beaten the shit out of me to tell them where I stole the camera from ,so I wear a press card ,, Internet Photographer No1 and as I dont have a car the cops cant catch me and give me breath inhaler test...
Well back to my beggar lady with two faces , after I shot her a few years back I never saw her again..the only beggar and Ibeg with him at Dhai Djinn Ka Jhopda , waits for me eagerly if I sit next to him , people give us both about 700 to 1000 bucks all crumpled Rs 100 notes .. this time I gave him my only beggars bowl too, he said it was lucky and he added he could never afford a beggars bowl, this beggars bowl, was given to me by a bawa ..I carried on my shoulders for a short distance at Haji Malang ,, I did not want to take it , but he said Keep it we are beggars ,,,under the shut eyes of the Lord..
So life has been a great adventure without going to the Niagara Falls , or Ladakh and all those tempting places in Switzerland ,, but I would die of thirst of life if was to shoot a landscape without beggars ,,I Co exist with beggars , I maybe a slight notch above the beggar on the street , but the day I die I will be looking worse than a beggar with nothing on me ,, just a jute gunnybag.. and the road leading to a Hospital to rest my bodyparts to be given to beggars I shot to inherit their humility and their simplicity .
And this is a blank post at Flickr I realize I blog better on Facebook .. because I know the faces of those who read me , and even those who read me with their eyes closed ,, yes my picture tells the rest of my untold story.

Ramzan Aya Musalman Bhikariyon Ke Dil Main Arman Laya

For those of my Friends who dont understand the description of my title in Urdu ..it simply means succinctly that when Ramzan comes it brings hope in the hearts of Beggars .. and here in Mumbai a Muslim beggar is a Muslim beggar , we certainly dont ask them are you Shia or are you Sunni.. this is the beauty of culture etiquette in Indian Islam which we call Adab Tehzeeb.
..Islam is certainly not the same from one continent to the other ..
I will explain that later , and it has nothing to do with my being a Shia I am proud to be an Indian and I am humble as a Shia the Shia was born with Humility inherited from Hussain and Pride was the only essence that crushed Yazid ,, we remember him always but only as accursed , when hear of Shia s killed during Ramazan.
And you cant blame Saudi Arabia for getting ivolved with the Yemen conflict , they had to enter the arena simply to use their American bought weapons that would be obsolete , and honestly , Saudi dont have the balls to fight Israel,, so this was the best opportunity to kill Shias .. and this is the Imperialistic Hegemony backed by America or any other world power I am not into politics and this is not a political blog this is just my assumption..the ISIS monster was created by the Saudis and one day soon it will land in their backyard too.. having used most of the weapons in Yemen.. they will have nothing to fight the ISIS .. and than America will send them ground troops and help the Salafis ,,.
I am ashamed of being called a Muslim , simply because the Muslims today are not the Muslims of yore ,, Imagine killing persecuting Shias and other minorities foreigners in the Holy Month Of Ramzan .. Yes Muslims love killing Muslims during Ramzan like gluttons , bloodthirsty animals ,,I call myself an Indian and India is my Karma and my Dharma ,,
I identify with the Shias only through Hussain..and my Shiasm is my personal prerogative ,we may be Shias but than if you are from Pakistan our mindset will certainly not be the same at all.. my roots my branches and fruits are all purely Indian..Even my Karbala is Indian.. so this is what I wanted to say ,, we condemn oppressors , we condemn Terrorism , Oppression , but those who strongly support Salafi Islam are happy seeing us killed murdered ,,this is the way of the World and everyday is Karbala it still bleeds in every Shias heart .. and he celebrates Ashura each time you plant a bomb in his Mosque and bleed the pages of the Holy Koran..
A poem would be too frivolous way of remembering an act of dastardly cowardice ,,
ALLAHUMMA LANATA QATALATA YA HUSSAIN AS WA AULAD IL HUSSAIN AS WA ASHAB IL HUSSAIN