A day in the life of Mohammad Muslim. Daily route and routine.
Cinematographer: Shaina Anand
Duration: 00:18:59; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 22.549; Saturation: 0.146; Lightness: 0.313; Volume: 0.040; Cuts per Minute: 8.056; Words per Minute: 48.233
Summary: Mohammed Muslim lives in Colaba and moves around on his bicycle delivering bread and plastic bags. His beat stretches from Navy Nagar, the southern most tip of Bombay, to Mohammed Ali road and Dongri. We spent a day with him documenting his daily movement patterns. Here we take a break after round 2 of morning deliveries and have a short chat in his house, which is a small tenement in the compound of the posh shangri-la building behind baptist church colaba.
Colaba Post Office
Zoom in to a narrow lane. A cycle is parked under a clothesline with clothes drying. A woman in pink with her back to the camera covers her head and squats to wash dishes.
clothesline
cycle
pink
squats
wash
woman
zoom in
Colaba, Mumbai
Colaba Post Office
Cycle in foreground. Muslim woman in pink with her back to the camera squats to wash dishes while women and children sit around charpoys in the background.
charpoys
children
cycle
muslim
pink
squats
wash
woman
women
Colaba Post Office
Narrow lane lined with houses. A Muslim woman with her head covered sits on a charpoy and knits while a naked child walks towards the camera.
charpoy
child
knits
muslim
naked
woman
Colaba Post Office
Narrow lane lined with houses. Muslim woman in pink squats and washes dishes. Pan to naked laughing child.
child
laughing
muslim
naked
pan
pink
squats
washes
woman
Colaba Post Office
Various shots of children playing with and around cycles and women sitting on charpoys in a lane lined with houses.
charpoys
children
cycles
lane
playing
sitting
women
Colaba Post Office
Man walks down lane, past cycle and disappears into a house. Zoom in to ,cycle with woman and children in the background.
children
woman
zoom in
Colaba Post Office
- Sit, sit, go watch T.V.
- Sit, sit, relax!
woman in pink with a covered head is joined by her husband. They stand next to each other and are then asked to sit down by camera person. Children in the background.
children
husband
pink
woman
Colaba Post Office
Husband and wife sort packets of plastic bags inside their home as their grand children watch television in the background. Another man comes to help them out. He takes a stack of packets, walks outside the house and loads them onto the cycle. Various zoom ins to the piles of plastic.
bags
children
cycle
- Do you also help him?
- Yes.
- Actually, I have to go back to my village.
- She's asking you (the wife) if you help him sort the bags.
- Yes (laughing).
- So then help him instead of hiding behind him.
- Yes! That's it!
- Take those other bags out.
- Is he putting those (bags) on the cycle?
- Yes.
(Hindi)
grand
home
house
husband
packets
plastic
television
wife
zoom ins
Colaba Post Office
Tilt down from building facade and clothesline to old man loading plastic bags onto cycle as a children wander in the background.
bags
building
children
clothesline
facade
old man
plastic
tilt down
Colaba Post Office
Old man sorts plastic bags, carries a stack out of the house and loads them onto the cycle as children wander in the background.
bags
children
cycle
house
old man
plastic
sorts
A burkha clad woman talks to a a group of children, smiles, and walks away past a cycle and down the lane.
Colaba Post Office
burkha
children
cycle
lane
woman
The old man emerges from his house, loads his cycle and goes back inside.
Colaba Post Office
cycle
house
old man
Mohammed's bicycle parked in the lane. Basket strapped to the back, a plastic sack lying on the cycle. Lungis hanging on a clothesline. In the background we see wood.
back
basket
bicycle
lungis
wood
Camera strapped on bicycle, posh building compound, silver car parked. Lady in sari walks by.
Camera strapped on bicycle, begins to move. We are testing our track shot.. Scot will ride his bicycle and we are seeing if the camera is steady enough if strapped to the back seat with bungee cord. Scot cycles from the gate of the second building in the compound to the gate of shangrilla. A speed bumpand a jerk. mango seller walks by, lady in sari and man watch. Sign says No horn.
bicycle
bungee cord
camera
gate
mango
no horn
speed bump
track shot
Ashoks starts the bike, Scot rides ahead of him and they take a round of the building compound.
Ashok and Scot do a u-turn and cycle back. We now see the sea. Also parked cars and potted plants on the wall. This is the southern-most part of the eastern coast of mumbai. They take a complete round and come back to the gate with the no horn signs. Back to exactly where they started, near the silver car.
no horn
plants
sea
A man with a green lunch basket and bag walks by. A lady in a navari sari walks by. A man on a blue kinetic honda passes by.
kinetic
navari
Mohammed is ready to leave.
Colaba Post Office
Mohammed Muslim talking to the camera.
- What time do you go from here?
- I mean, I leave on work several times in a day. For example, I'll leave now, I'll make a delivery and come back, then I'll go again. My deliveries aren't at just one place. That's the schedule I follow. Then, in the evening, when I go to pick up my goods, I make deliveries in the market on my way back.
- Which market?
- Colaba Market
(Hindi)
colaba
daily
delivery
goods
market
schedule
Colaba Post Office
Mohammed Muslim talking to the camera.
- I get tired...(INCOMPREHENSIBLE)... From the morning it becomes about 11 at night by the time I get back. So I stop for breaks from time to time.
(Hindi)
daily
schedule
- What is your name?
- Mohammad Muslim.
- And how long have you lived here?
- I've lived here for over fifty years.
- Are you from Bombay?
- No, No, I'm from U.P. (Uttar Pradesh) but I've been living in Bombay for fifty years.
- Right here, in this place?
- Yes.
- So how long have you been working on a cycle, as in, since when have you been using this vehicle.
- For the last fifty years.
- So you've always used it?
- Yes. To deliver
pav (bread). As in, I used to deliver
pav to houses. To Shangrila and all these other buildings. But now that I've broken my leg, I can't walk so I sell this (plastic).
- What to you mean by "you broke your leg?"
- I've broken my leg twice. I had fallen down...
- From the cycle?
- No, not from the cycle. Once, in Mumbai I was passing by while some people were talking under the roof of a building. I went over to stand there and the roof just fell. One man died.
- And it fell on your leg.
- Yes, on my leg. I got hurt till here. And once I fell in my village. The roof in the bathroom caved in. I got saved.
- So you got hurt in both legs.
- No, twice in the same leg. But now it's healed.
- But you still ride your cycle?
- Yes sir, yes sir.
(Hindi)
Mohammed sitting in his house talking to the camera. Pan to foot and back to man.
Interview subjects: Origin, Uttar Pradesh, life in Mumbai, cycle, leg injury
Colaba Post Office
accident
building injury
cycle
injury
leg
life
mumbai
occupation
origin
pan
pav bread
plastic bag
resident
roof
transport
up
uttar pradesh
- Sell bread, from building to building. Now I also sell plastic because I can't climb up the buildings.
- And during the day you were saying before that you go out, then you come back and take rest and go out again...
- Starting in the morning around 7 or 8 it becomes about 11 at night, to go and come back.
- And how many rounds do you make?
- Four rounds.
- Where all do you go to?
- Cuffe Parade, Colaba Market, Post Office, Badhwar Park.
- So in all these places you deliver bags to the small shops.
- Yes.
- In the vegetable market also?
- Yes.
- So say that but in a different way, like when you were saying that you go to the vegetable market, the fish market and general stores. Where all do you give your bags?
- Well I supply to general stores and vegetable sellers also buy my bags. And I also sell
pav in houses...
- In houses? You still do that?
- Yes.
- Where do you go to buy the plastic?
- Masjid Bunder.
- What time?
- There's no fixed time for that. When I run out off stock I go at 4 or 5 o'clock. Sometimes I go before 12 o'clock. If I have to go pick up my stock I may leave here at 10 o'clock in the morning. I may go at 4, or 5 or 6 o'clock depending on when I have the money ready.
- So you don't go everyday.
- No, no...
- As in, how many bags do you sell in a day?
- There's really no fixed amount.
- Where do you buy the
pav from?
- Right here, from the bakery in Colaba, the Sassoon Dock Bakery.
- And you buy that once a day too?
- Once or twice.
- That also has no fixed schedule?
- No. When someone asks for it I bring it for them.
-
(Hindi)
Badhwar Park
Colaba Market
Colaba Post Office
Cuffe Parade
Masjid Bunder
Mohammad Muslim talking to the camera.
Sassoon Docks
bakery
bread
buy
delivery
irregular
plastic
schedule
sell
shops
trade
Bicycles are being posited as an alternative to rickshaws and private transport, but they are anathema to Bombay's wider roads. In heavy traffic, they are admired and reviled for their ability to sidle up to the front. Increasingly, high-end bike manufacturers are seeing the advantages of tapping urban Indian markets. However, on the roads, all bicycles are equal. The designer bike and the doodhwala (milkman's) bike both navigate the fraught terrain, keeping to their left, dodging buses and people. It is hoped that the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) allows for dedicated bicycle lanes; proposed for Mumbai in 2002, there is uncertainty on when the BRTS will finally come into being.
Churchgate
Colaba Post Office
Mohammad Muslim talking to the camera.
Interview subjects: Mumbai traffic, local trains, BEST buses, businessmen, cars, cycles, rickshaws, pollution, exercise.
Virar
best
bus
buses
businessmen
cars
cycle
cycles
- Everyone who lives in Bombay has something to say about the traffic. Those who travel by train say they wouldn't survive without it. For example, some people travel from Virar to Churchgate and their work life runs because of the train. Others say they couldn't survive without the bus service. Some business men types say they couldn't live without their big cars. So for you, you were saying that for the last fifty years you've been riding a cycle. And today people say that young people like us should avoid taking rickshaws and use cycles instead because they are non-polluting and they provide exercise as well as transportation. So what do you think about the cycle.
- Yes, I ride a cycle.
- No, but do you like riding a cycle?
- Yes.
- Then what to do you like about it? Imagine you did this same job in a rickshaw or walking. Why is the cycle the best way?
- See, I can't drive anything else, and I don't have the money either. This is a job for the cycle only, to go from building to building, to buy plastic and give it to stores. This can only be done on a cycle and that's what I've always done.
(Hindi)
livelihood
local trains
mobility
mumbai
non-polluting
playrick
pollution
rickshaws
traffic
train
transport
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