Orange balloons and a dahi handi in the sky, palm trees swaying,
a little girl selling orange roses scowls, an elephant crosses a signal at rush hour,
a girl sells plastic airplanes, a young man sells peacock feathers,
an old man shuffles by smelling of liniment, a sleeping drunkard in a pink shirt,
Nothing but fragments that mean nothing much against the noise, the noise, the noise of the traffic and the crowd that pushes against my eyes.
The fragments don’t seem to be enough to compensate for my life that is being sucked away by the city.
And then I see the city with other eyes. I speak of it, and in my voice, I can hear the love which comes from knowing so many corners of it so well, and I feel the wonder once again of how many corners I don’t know yet.
I love the combination of stills with what you’ve written. And since most of my life is spent in auto-rickshaw (the moments, the moments), this post is a personal favourite
Purnima, me too. Sometimes, I want to start screaming the minute I sit in a rickshaw, and I find it entering yet another traffic jam.
I loved this Banno . You go down the same streets maybe and every once in a while you discover something new .
Eveslungs, yes, there are a lot of streets I go down all the time, but luckily my work in documentary always takes me some place new too quite often.
I kind of want to be a rickshaw wali, except I’d get eaten alive by the traffic
But my own little autorickshaw to decorate and drive around in? BLISS.
Ooh, it would be useful for getting around city streets here!!!! If I were allowed to drive it on the streets, which I wouldn’t be unless I did a lot of work getting it up to code.
How I love the idea of being Basanti with my own Dhanno
and someday we should go together to some unexplored part of the city. game?
and this is why i love the city too. with its familiar, sometimes surreal, sometimes wildly unreal nooks scattered across.
Yes, we should really. I want to go back to walking around the city. I still do it in South Mumbai, but seems next to impossible in these parts.
I love those images you’ve captured… poetic photography.
Nice pictures. You always amaze me with your ability to find the uncommon among the most mundane, routine stuff..
Thanks, dustedoff, Violet.
Banno next time in Bombay can I come along too ?
Eveslungs, do, do.