Why Is Bandra Bazar Road Dying ? An Interview With Clarence Gomes

Happy Morning From Bandra ,,,Garbage Inspires My Fragmented Creativity

This is my first stop I pay my solemn tribute to the Lord Of The Flies ,, This is Gods other Temple where Man where godliness is reflected through the garbage ,,

And since the time we came to live in this part of Bandra it has always been like this or worse .. it did not matter to the residents or the people that live around this holistic spot , it did not matter to our BJP Mumbai President who lives two buildings away and this has nothing to do with progress or development ,,

But I assure you if Hon Narendra Modiji was to visit the BJP President for tea ,, would you see all this ,, tell me honestly ,,Bandra Municipality BJP volunteers would go out of their way to showcase their efforts cleaning all this hiding it beneath the red carpet ,, Modijis Swach Bharat ,

15 years of tepid lackluster Congress Rule ..it was the same , and despite the Congress civic presence it is is worse ,, this entire stretch is like acid bomb , the stench the filth , all the markets around this place are fulsome ugly dilapidated , the mutton market looks like a dungeon , the chicken market is to some extent cause of this misery , the trucks that  take over the garbage dump..see my videos you will feel what I feel ,,

The roads recently repaired by the Bandra Municipality are shoddy pathetic and repairing roads is a money spinner .. we all know it ,, but what can we do .. The Bandra Municipality has made the soul of Humanity into a eunuch .

And my grandchildren honed their skills in photography shooting this iconic garbage dump.. the ugliest place in all of Bandra ,, this place will always be like this even after I am dead and gone ,, because this is the fucked destiny of Bandra Bazar Road .We lead ,, you dont have to follow says this garbage dump..
I wish our MP who reads all the newspapers read blogs and a few tweets ,, but than she lives on the better side of Worli ,, it hardly matters to her ,,but it does matter to me as a senior citizen as a photographer poet and as a man who goes for his morning walks ,, mothers who walk their children to school from here ,, hardly anyone comes to shop in this Municipal Market .. the worst in Bandra , during the rains it reaches its lowest mark..

This was once a great part of the Gaothan and East Indian Pride but they killed it all.. the few East Indians original inhabitants live like strangers in their own area ,,

So I now get ready to go for my 8 km walk.. I bought a silicone gel insole for my Puma keds ,, I think I have flatfeet ,,

Happy Morning,,

I Shoot Simple People Simple Stories

He has been selling hankies here at the Kurla overbridge for 60 years and we became good friends,, every time I come this end to go to Nehru Nagar he greets me and I inquire about his health and he says Allah keeps him happy and fit ,, Allah Malik Hai ,, Allah is my Master .

He boasts to all the vendors hawkers of our Friendship.. and he feels proud that I am his friend ,these are the simple people I shoot , heroes of my blogs ,,besides you have to be human to be a good photographer , you should be able to feel absorb another mans pain.. photography is about being humble , down to earth .Arrogance has no place in people photography, like him I am thankful to God that I can shoot pictures and add emotions as moving text.

I asked a guy to take this shot and he was over smart he hit the video button too.. sometimes the hanky seller offers me tea , and I take it though I only drink black tea without sugar .

I think I have learnt a lot shooting these simple people I have understood their character , their goodness through their body language .

There are many stories on the street like a tree overladen with fruits ..I prefer to video shoot them let their pain reach you too ,, you and I cant change their life , but our prayers for their welfare , is what this blog is all about ,,

I was planning to buy a simple wheel chair for a crippled beggar and he said ,, dont buy it I sleep on the streets the drugaddicts will steal it from me ,, so I gave him money to send to his family for Ramzan.

One thing I know the beggars have changed my life , through their pain I understand my own pain.. I have flaws , I have apprehensions , but than seeing them I wonder where is their Fate taking them.

Will the beggar with the alms he gets become a rich man overnight , never ,he can become rich if he becomes a criminal or a politician.. rags to riches .Do politicians represent the beggars or the poor never , they represent the rich industrialists businessmen ,, I have met farmer begging with their wives and children at railway stations ,,

This certainly is not Sab Ka Sath Sab Ka Vikas ..and the beggars Acche Din died the day he was Born.

The only man outside the Temple or the Mosque who takes Gods name more than the head priest or the Mullah is the beggar ,, pleading from within Allah Ke Nam Pe De Do.. or the Hindu beggar .. Paticha Pawan Sita Ram..

Yes I Shoot Beggars who are as Indian as I am..

Blind Beggar Kurla Station Overbridge

This bridge connects Kurla West to Kurla East and I take this bridge that houses a commercial shopping mall of hawkers at the top..to go to Nehru Nagar to meet my friends who are in the Tropical Fish Trade

I was seeing this beggar for the first time .. I spoke to him , he is totally blind I gave him money too , the Dalit lady who begs on the bridge steps was missing instead there was a blind beggar Muslim lady I gave her money too .. but an inner sense tells me there is a guy who brings the ladies to beg here I had spotted him once , he may be the local goon and all this not very far from the Kurla West Station Police Chowky ,,and why should all this matter to our cops , this is not a law and order problem..

Even if a cop sees someone making nuisance invariably he will just walk away pretending he has not seen it ,, In Mumbai the local goons that allow beggars to beg at prime spots get protection money money that is moved further up to those in high places ,, there was a lady dwarf beggar Muslim but I have not seen her for a long time ,,

Shooting beggars is like shooting nature , the beggars are trampled flowers , parched cactus , limbless trees , rootless plants ..and in my  short life as a photographer i have short different species of beggars ,..perhaps because I am a Muslim and this Muslim bit is not about religion but my spiritual culture that makes shoot Muslim beggars over 4500 images of Muslim beggars shot in India .. the cities I visited during religious feasts or pilgrimage .

It hurts me to see their lot , as staunch Muslims build Mosques Madrsas but no hope for the Muslim Untouchables , no rehabilitation , no institution where they could learn a trade and earn later in life.

Beggar ladies girls could be groomed taught Arabic and could in return teach poor Muslim children in the slums , there would be less rape of 5 year girls by horny Muslim sexual perverts who pose as Arabic teachers and those men who rape instead of arresting them they should  arrest the Heads and Trustees of the Madrsas too all equally to blame for bad outsourcing .. I had tweeted this to Hon Mr Tawde our Education Minister with foresight and vision and also wanted to know why Sunni Ulemas keep silent , why are pre pubescent Muslim girls being taught by  Muslim male Arabic Koranic teachers ,.

This is well maintained in Shia culture , girls are only taught by ladies , my granddaughter now 7 i has been learning Arabic at the Shia Mosque , religious scriptures and performs the Namaz with my wife before going to school, so in short even parents elders must add to the childs spiritual growth.. it kills me when I  read  this child abuse be it any religion .. it kills me as a human being most of all as a father of a girl and three girl grandkids .

So back to my Muslim beggar anthology of textless pain ..little girls forced to beg,,, newborn babies forced to beg , used abused as they grow older forced to marry old beggars and it is a life of pain in the lowest poor hierarchy of Muslim society.. and pictures dont lie..

Muslim kids burnt , beaten , so that they get more money through sheer sympathy and the Muslim Beggar Season...or Urus will start when the Ramzan Moon is sighted ,,

And all over Muslim areas you will see Muslim beggars ,, lame cripple crawling on all fours , deformed distorted contorted , and I am happy now people realize I help beggars and I dont sell beggar pictures as people presumed when I took up the camera to shoot them.. I hope some sadistic rich man does buy all my beggar pictures I will give the entire money I get to the poor irrespective of caste color or creed to the Indian poor ,,

I would not take a single cent from that money...

The Muslim Beggar Kurla Overbridge

You Are The First Person Asking Me Why I Beg

This is a video I shot yesterday on the Kurla overbridge I have not uploaded it .. as I was tired carrying a huge bag I had come from Ghatkopar by Ricksha and was going to Kurla East to meet my friends Asif Patel and Mohomed Sajjad , flowerhorn kings of Kurla East.

I spotted him sitting in a corner , I took this shot , than something hit me very hard , I gave him money sat next to him, I was dressed in my malang attire , turban rings etc..

I took out my mobile phone , and asked him to tell me his story , why he was begging , he had tears in his eyes , he is from Madhya Pradesh, he had one daughter a son in law,..his own house life was nice till his son in law died tragically -prolonged sickness , his daughter could not bear her husbands death , she would cry , and soon realized she too was sick with cancer ..she died , he  had mortgaged his house for her medicine etc..

His wife takes care of their grandkids and he comes to Mumbai to beg.. his only wish is that he pays of the mortgage , he will go back to his hometown and never return to Mumbai, the best season for begging is Ramzan so he is waiting for the Holy Month Of Hope and Piety , when even Muslim misers give a coin or two.

Its only during Bakra Eid they give a lot only to buy goats for atrocious amounts .. and they do charity giving the skins of the goats to the Masjid ,, If I say more it would be shooting words in the Air ,,

Last year my wife and I decided we will not do the Kurbani give the entire money to charity ,, perhaps a heretic thought but we are happy with it and for the goat too.

So this is a roadside story I shot accidentally , perhaps God wanted me to share his pain , his story with all of you..

The best part is starting a story and knowing when to end it .. this story ends with this picture and begins with my video.

After Several Blogs And A Video The Open Gutter Was Finally Repaired

first posted at Facebook

 It was repaired in the evening ,and for 5 days and nights , the people who jay walk , with their phones stuck to their ears fell inside .. my building watchman told me 3 people fell in the night , before it was repaired and a BMW tyre got stuck in the open sewer ,and this was outside our building where our erstwhile MLA Advocate Ashish Shelar stays ,,need I say further .. but I must add when the common man suffers there is no one to come to his aid at all.

And Bandra Bazar road is a total mess chaos because of the Bandra Municipality and our Congress corporator who has no time to make life better for us and we have to to bear him for another two years ..I am a disillusioned ex Congress traditional voter I will vote for the Devil but never for the Congress and I am not a run of the mill Muslim , I am street educated and as a photographer the camera honestly showed me the crass all around ,, I am not an activist, I am not a part of any ALM group , I am not part of any political party I have no evil agenda ..at the age of 62 as a senior citizen I feel the pain of my dying surroundings ,,

A few days back , I was returning home through the backlanes of Bandra from the Bandra Reclamation transit camps near Gen Kumar Vaidya Marg. and I was shocked to see the guy who sells bangles at De Monte Street and lives in a building close by filling water from a roadside tap..he house ladies carrying the water to drink on their heads and in bottles ,, I asked him what happened , he said their building had no water supply for a week, I did not shoot the picture out of respect as he suffers from Albinism.

Honestly how much can the ordinary man take , 15 years it was the Congress NCP that was in power but they did nothing ,, only colorful brochures of Dengue Free Bandra , lots of talk but no returns .Even the residents in our area have lost their Voice , they seem to live like Zombies , lifeless clueless .. We have no Ms Aftab Siddiqui, or other brave activist like those at Khar and Pali Hill.. vociferous who get the work done ,,Sadly our local newspapers are still eulogizing this lost party trying to bring it back fro political wilderness ,,

Our MP Ms Poonam Mahajan sadly does not have much love for this part of the poor mans Bandra ,, I dont know why I was a great hardcore fan of her father late Mr Pramod Mahajan a great visionary and helper of the poor. I voted for BJP in both the elections so I hope to see some progress some development and a wee bit of Acche Din. I dont know about Sab Ka Sath Sab Ka Vikas ,, I am still confused like the beggars I shoot , the homeless , the hopeless .

And this is my first blog of the day I am posting directly at Facebook.. I could never use my Facebook copy pasting GIFS and other peoples pictures I believe in Original Content , simple pictures .. that tell the story of the dying spirit of Man.

My pictures are not fine Art , nor panoramic landscapes , I have no landscape in Bandra Bazar to shoot , running rivers overflowing streams I will shoot when my gutters start overflowing with gurgling filth..I certainly wont rush to Worli Seaface or Marine Drive to shoot lusty youth and women cavorting their non libidinous bodies in the rains ,,

But yes I will shoot the blind beggar wet to the bones shivering and give him money and an umbrella , I will be buying a whole lot from Chor Bazar and distributing it to them , and old sarees for the Hijras who beg at Pali Road junction all of them my friends ,, wellwishers , ,,

So this is life I had a very hectic day last evening , the Jeans washing for a client of mine was done and the guys who did it did not ask a cent from me I had given Rs 500 as advance they returned that back to me only because they love my friend Anil Hirani who had sent me to them..Anil Hirani was owner of Nostradamus Bandra Hill Road.

This is the other side of Love and Hope in Mumbai. I now will move my ass to walk my 8 KM At MET grounds Bandra ..

The video of the beggar I shot at Kurla overbridge ,, was the saddest story I shot the old Muslim beggar told me if God helped him he would give up begging forever , his house is mortgaged in MP , and that he will never ever come back to Mumbai..

I wondered where would I go if I left Mumbai.. ..not the wilds or Mountains of India ,, 62 years spent in Mumbai I have yet to see Snow ,,, lol.

Happy Morning ,,,to all you early birds ,,if you want to walk with me give me a Buzz ,, entertained by Col Sahbiz Singh Judge his encounter stories, Prakash Gadiya who distributes Rs 10 to the MET watchmen , Mr Milind Pitle Santosh Singh and Subhash Singh , his story I will tell you some other time ,,

But I must mention about Mr Pawar who coaches kids adults at MET Badminton Courts , he is well known in Bollywood circles , and his godfather he tells me is Mr Mohan Kumar Sab,, father of my friends Rohit Kumar And Gautam Kumar .

He respects me a lot , and inquires about my health ..there is a child prodigy he teaches a Chedda boy who plays with the adults ,, I will interview him one day.. both father and son play at the courts and a Marathi family in advertising , they play for long hours here , they come from Ville Parle ,,

There are lots of stories but I must move now ..


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