Dating Mumbai City With Different Lens

To know about anything we need to spend time with it. Yes I recalled it bit late and I started date with what I hate and hesitated till now. My initial experiences in the city made me feel discomfort and disappointment which turned into hindrance to like this city. So, on 24^th April morning I spend time to show through camera lenses that why I should not hate this city.

I noticed here that people don’t wait for help from anyone (central, state governments, NGO’s, other organizations and individuals), instead they come up with solutions (temporary and permanent). Living conditions, all time crowded places irrespective to reasons and time, transportation especially local trains, different types of livelihood, cultural diversity made me to rethink and respond to situations which helped me to be strong enough to live life with life.

To earn money to feed ourselves and family; Age, sex, place, will never be a constraint. The small little kid learning from her mother how to knit flowers while all her family members (all men) were still asleep and another photo shows group of very young boys enjoying knitting flowers. A woman with disability sitting on a chair with her assistive device in front of Bandra beach (Bandstand) selling flowers. A boy in ladies coach selling things in local train and many more. All these pictures in the city gives me energy when I’m low, irritated and worried about finances.

A person sitting with cow, grass and cow feed nearby temples for instance almost one in each street in Dadar (where I’m working currently) will earn his/her daily income by the end of the day. Passengers will pay them 10 rupees to take little grass to feed the cow and take blessings. This is not to offend any religion and people but it is just my observation, which helped me to think differently because I saw only those cows in the cow shed and fetching milk for income. And here it is livelihood with belief.

Other few ways of earning in Mumbai city made me to change my perspective and helping to view it from different lens. My feeling towards the city changed from hating to like and on the way to love it.

Now I remembered a quote by Muhammad Yunus from the book – Banker To The Poor, “I also learned that things are never as complicated as we imagine them to be. It is only our arrogance which seeks to find complicated answers to simple problems”.