episode 13 junaid

Raining in Bombay, finally again after a month long disappearance. It was the monday evening after the Ahmedabad bombings and after a weekend of heavy rains. The city felt wet and still and it glistened in the street lights. I was at Kala Ghoda. The first driver I spoke to flatly refused saying he couldn’t drive in the rain and talk at the same time. I went ahead a few taxis and found Junaid. He is from Gujarat, from the Chiliya community. Many of the drivers had spoken about the Chiliya log, that they were the original taxi drivers when taxis first came to Bombay. Sagir Bhai’s taxi ka seth was Chiliya. The drivers had all praised the them, saying they were honest, jyada baat nahin karte, and kam se kam. But Junaid is 23 and he likes to talk. The smile on his face….you can hear it in his voice. Click on link below to stream or right click to download. (26 min 01 sec)

junaid podcast

Junaid: Kismat mein jitna rehta, itna milta

The dance bars are as much a part of this city as the red buses or kaali-peeli taxis. If a film has a dance bar scene, it signals the setting is Bombay. This outtake is the rest of the conversation about the dance bars Junaid doesn’t frequent. I asked him about the women that danced in the bars. His thoughts intrigue me because they don’t touch on morality, the good or bad of the women. (3 min 50 sec)

outtake bars and bar girls

The next three outtakes are one flow of conversation that due to length, I divided up and are in order from the beginning to end. In Junaid’s village, the girls aren’t married until they are in their late teens or early twenties. But the sagai is arranged years before. Junaid doesn’t think this is right and he explains why. (1 min 42 sec)

outtake jaldi sagai achha nahin

From sagai accha nahin to ladki accha nahin. The ladki is the woman Junaid is engaged to be married to in 8 months. But it isn’t Junaid saying accha nahin. It is his neighbors and his family. His feelings are soft and warm and protective. and determined. (2 min 17 sec)

outtake ladki acchhi nahin

Kismat runs through this podcast. In this outtake Junaid elaborates and embroidered into the fabric of his thoughts is a silken thread of defense of his wife-to-be. (54 sec)

outtake kismat

I ask about the leaving from home and the coming into the city. I ask about what has been left behind and how that left behind is experienced, this continuum of inhabiting here and inhabiting there. Junaid speaks of the Chiliya community in the village and I hear the story of gaon mein aisa hai and traces of sheher mein aisa nahin hota. We all have our stories of adaptation, in large ways and incremental ways, to the complexities of our lives in these times. (1 min 46 sec)

outtake chiliyan gaon mai aisa hai

The men are away working and the villages are full of women raising the children. I have wondered about that, especially about the boy children. I asked Junaid what advice he would give a 12 year old from his village that wanted to come work in Bombay. His answer gives thought to my wondering.

outtake 12 saal ka ladka

I haven’t posted in a long time. I was travelling through Spain and then back overland through Turkey, Syria and then flight to Peshawar and through Pakistan to Wagah, Amritsar and Golden Mail back to Bombay. I didn’t ride in any taxis, but I have this photo of a taxi dashboard in Damascus.

The intro music in the podcast is the song Boombai Nagari from the movie Taxi 9211, sung by Bappa Lahiri, Merriene , Nisha and Vishal Dadlani.

Music by Vishal Dadlani and Shekar, lyrics by Vishal Dadlani and Dev Kohli

episode 12 anil chauhan

I was walking down the street near Cumballa Hill just as the sun was starting to be lost behind the buildings to the west. I was looking for a taxi and I saw a beautifully decorated one just a bit further down, parked on the side of the road. Then I saw the dicky was open and the lug wrench was on the ground along with a tire. A person was standing there covered with dirt and grease and sweat. He was so young I thought perhaps he was a worker from a garage. But it was the driver, Anil Chauhan, and he looked forlorn. He is 18 years old and has been driving a taxi for 15 days. He left home in UP 6 years ago, when he was 12 or 13. All these stories we have heard so far have been told from the distance of adulthood and memory. Anil Chauhan is these stories now, he is living it now and its at the beginning. Click on link below to stream or right click to download. (24 min 1 sec)

anil chauhan podcast

Anil Chauhan: Mein kuch banoonga jaroor

He couldn’t get the lug nuts to turn. I told him to try standing on the lug wrench. That is what i do, bounce on it with all my weight. I showed him how, but the lug wrench fell off. It was stripped clean and smooth on the inside, and couldn’t hold the corners of the lug nuts. Close by was a taxi that had just dropped off passengers and I sent him to ask the driver for his lug wrench and he came back with it and the driver also. I sat on a small step near the foot path and took photos as the other driver changed the tire. Look at the tire in the last 2 photos. You can see where the rubber has split.

Anil Chauhan’s brother is getting married. Anil got married last year. The older sister is already married. A younger sister is yet to be married. Two sons, two daughters. Two dahej dena and two dahej lena. Does it come out even? Click on the link below. (1 min 55 sec)

outtake dahej

This was one of the taxis that has separate driver and passenger seats in the front and in between them a silvery pole from ceiling to floor with lines etched on it that snaking up the length to form diamond patterns. Most taxis dont have them, either the separated seats or the pole. It was also one of those taxis that has mirrors on the ceiling, a larger one over the back seat and a smaller one over the front seat. and a green or blue florescent light between them. Someone told me that they heard that it is in these taxis that lovers can ask a driver to park and walk away for awhile while they enjoy some masti. No driver has confirmed this. In these photos I am shooting up into the mirrors.

In the Dahej outtake above, Anil describes himself as from a choti jaat. I asked him about relations between barra jaat and choti jaat in his village. Listen to his answers. (2 min 37 sec)

outtake jaat

Aside from the poles and the mirrors and one of my favourite seat cover patterns, this taxi had my favourite gear shift knobs. I love the the rainbow colours and the plastic rose fully blooming inside. And the grapes hanging from the rear view mirror. At night they flash different colours from the tiny lights inside. Watch the video to see the flashing and even more for a wonderful image of Anil in the rear view mirror.

Villages have large deep wells that the young boys splash around in. Anil said he goes to Juhu Chowpatty to catch the breezes. But has he ever gone swimming in the sea there? (27 sec)

outtake swimming in sea

The rear window of Anil’s taxi has Ganapati large holding a diya and hugging a Shiva Lingum. But dont miss the words in english on (our) left rear of the license. No what? Why not?

Anil feels that if one can drive in Bombay, one can drive anywhere. And for him, driving is what will enable him to provide for his family and fulfill his dreams. People have commented that the drivers don’t have very ‘big’ dreams. Some have found that sad. But what better dream is there to fulfill other than being able to provide for one’s family and give your children a better future than your present? Don’t most parents have that dream? What is it then that some people find sad? The difference in increment? (28 sec)

outtake driving for life

And what about these dreams? A room. A flat. In Bombay our dreams always contain that anxiety of somewhere to live. That particularity of Bombay: the disquiet about a room for one’s own. (1 min 26 sec)

outtake_roomsoom

By the time we reached Bandra, it was dark. My point-and-shoot has trouble in low light and I don’t like flash. I was trying different settings. One was a long shutter speed in my shaky hands. But the photo is interesting.

Anil Chauhan was 13 when he left home. He left school after 8th class. He has worked selling fruit, making brushes in a small workshop unit, carrying water on his head and now driving taxi. He has been back and forth from UP to Bombay to UP to Bombay over and over. But what advice would he give to a 13 year old who asked to come with him back to Bombay? (42 sec)

outtake advice

I take their phone numbers and I always give mine. We stay in touch usually. This is Anil’s diary as he looks for a page to write my number.

The intro music in the podcast is the song Boombai Nagari from the movie Taxi 9211, sung by Bappa Lahiri, Merriene , Nisha and Vishal Dadlani.

Music by Vishal Dadlani and Shekar, lyrics by Vishal Dadlani and Dev Kohli

episode 11 lal mohammad khan

This time I picked with a bit of intent. I had been at Kurla Terminus taking photos of the crowds of people arriving in Bombay on the trains after the long trip from the eastern interiors of UP and Bihar. The area was full of taxis and drivers, trying to get passengers. I decided I would come back and talk to a taxi driver that worked out of the terminus. I used to often work the airport when I drove, not going into the lot to wait my turn but instead driving the lane in front of arrival and stealing tired fliers as they searched for the taxi stand in the confusion of the airport or standing by the exit door for the late nights flights. “Taxi?” “Taxi?” “Where you going?” Lal Mohammad Khan always starts from Kurla Terminus. I forgot to ask him why or any questions about things like that. Because when the conversation turned to his wild youth and then HIV/AIDs and nirodhs and safe sex and then kissing in taxis, it took on its own life. Click on link below to stream or right click to download. (20min 24 sec)

lal mohammad khan podcast

lal mohammad khan: bombay aisa saher hai yahaan jo ek time aajaata isko dusri jaga dil nahin lakta

Streets are cleared of hawkers and thela-walas. Markets are moved to Vashi. Streets are cleared again of hawkers and thela-walas. And again. The push to imagined modernity also pushes the people who work on the streets away, elsewhere. This ripples across the skein of working people connected to them in ways that are not visible. The hidden hardships are felt, and in this case, articulated in this outtake. (1 min 33 sec)

outtake taxi-ka-danda

Kurla Terminus, officially Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, is a rail head in the eastern suburbs for trains coming in from the eastern, and southern parts of India. It is relatively newer. It hadn’t been built when Sagir Bhai arrived in Bombay. Back then, those trains terminated at VT.

We took the Eastern Express highway to Sion and then through Dharavi to the road to BKC that connects to the Western Express Highway. Right at the signal there when we turned left to go towards Bandra, we heard the police whistle and the havaldar jumped out and flagged us down. or so we thought. This is the view from the back of the taxi as I waited for him to come back.

Many of the taxis have florescent lights in them. The image in this blog header is a taxi driver in Mahim at night, with the green light shining from his ceiling. Lal Mohammad Khan’s taxi had a blue light inside and a light on the dashboard that shone out the windscreen, flashing and changing colours: red, blue, yellow

to see it in action and to see Lal Mohammad Khan, watch this video. The young boy who comes into the frame is the bhaji thela-wala ka ladka.

Lal Mohammad Khan’s taxi had some nice decoration.

and seat covers………..

Actually, I had a funny experience at Kurla. The first taxi I got into was with two brothers. They were Bombay Maharashtrian. I thought this would be something different and perhaps interesting, the non-immigrant experience. I had explained I would be recording the conversation and they agreed. Strangely, they insisted on showing me the taxi badge and taxi license. And a rate card that turned out to be some local printer job I think. We had already left the terminus and were winding our way through the lanes of Kurla East to reach the Expressway. I told them I would also be taking their photos and also explained how I would use the material and that they would also have a CD, DVD and hard copies of the photos. They were increasingly uneasy. No photos they said. Or, as a compromise, one brother would talk but the photos would be of the other brother. No photos of the taxi. I said lagta hai ki ap log biswas nahin karte hai issi mamla mein and if so, i will be quite happy to get down from the taxi. They pulled over to the side, I paid the Rs 13 and walked back to Kurla Terminus. There was this taxi with green decoration on the back and Lal Mohammad Khan leaning against the driver door. I explained where I was going and what I wanted to do and showed him the recorder. He smiled and said chelo.

The intro music in the podcast is the song Boombai Nagari from the movie Taxi 9211, sung by Bappa Lahiri, Merriene , Nisha and Vishal Dadlani.

Music by Vishal Dadlani and Shekar, lyrics by Vishal Dadlani and Dev Kohli