"I am not a Mumbaikar. But then no one would be more Mumbaikar than me. I know this city from the scratch and not from the high rises. From where humans look like ants and no one ever understand it looking at it from the distance. And I would say that, Its not Mumbai...it's still the same Bomaby or बम्बई as we knew it since our childhood. Changing it's name never change the soul of it." - He says while he kept looking at my face and train.
This is Rakesh from Gonda. A district in UP. He has been raised in Mumbai and started helping his father from a very tender age. He used to woke up early in the Morning and worked till late night. Time changes but he still works the same way, he used to do in his childhood but a lot have been changed since then. He no more work in Mumbai but have shifted to Khopoli, a small town in Maharashtra and close to Khandala. He has started selling fruits(Though, he still sell other stuffs at stations but his family rums a fruit shop in Khopoli) when he saw that there is no much profit at the end of the day and then there were people who used to collect hafta from him and his father. Those days were very painful. You do all the work and then someone come and collect money from you just because it was his area where you were hawkering. This is ridiculous, but then there were people who used to help you in time of needs. This thing has been a forgotten word these days. He sighs. A small drop of tears rolled down o his cheeks while he remembering the old childhood days and trying to remember the hard work on the streets of Mumbai. And suddenly his eyes lit when he says......It's still Bombay for him and not Mumbai. Mumbai does not give the feel of what it was and what it stands for. While, I bade farewell to him from my train, he kept looking at the camera in my hand. Though, he did not allow me to take a portrait of him saying, " Kya saab ab yahi mubai me dikhaoge?"
© All of my photographs are Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved. They may not be used or reproduced in any way without my explicit written permission.
This is Rakesh from Gonda. A district in UP. He has been raised in Mumbai and started helping his father from a very tender age. He used to woke up early in the Morning and worked till late night. Time changes but he still works the same way, he used to do in his childhood but a lot have been changed since then. He no more work in Mumbai but have shifted to Khopoli, a small town in Maharashtra and close to Khandala. He has started selling fruits(Though, he still sell other stuffs at stations but his family rums a fruit shop in Khopoli) when he saw that there is no much profit at the end of the day and then there were people who used to collect hafta from him and his father. Those days were very painful. You do all the work and then someone come and collect money from you just because it was his area where you were hawkering. This is ridiculous, but then there were people who used to help you in time of needs. This thing has been a forgotten word these days. He sighs. A small drop of tears rolled down o his cheeks while he remembering the old childhood days and trying to remember the hard work on the streets of Mumbai. And suddenly his eyes lit when he says......It's still Bombay for him and not Mumbai. Mumbai does not give the feel of what it was and what it stands for. While, I bade farewell to him from my train, he kept looking at the camera in my hand. Though, he did not allow me to take a portrait of him saying, " Kya saab ab yahi mubai me dikhaoge?"
© All of my photographs are Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved. They may not be used or reproduced in any way without my explicit written permission.
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