Surreal

I decided to visit the slums along the Link Road near Inorbit, Malad. The main reason was the presence of the numerous video parlors on the road front. After walking the entire length of few gullies in a couple of the slums and not finding any video parlors inside the gullies I decided to go to the ones on the road. At the entrance of one particular slum a boy was marking on the road the boxes for hop-scotch. The rest of the gully was lined with shops. Lots of them, selling lots of things. Many kids were running around, some were playing cricket, some were playing chor police some just riding cycles/ tricycles. There was one video game centre, where many boys were gathered. The small shop had three machines with screens and joysticks to play the games. On seeing my camera all of them started posing, one of them, as if he was playing the game. Otherwise it was quite fruitless.
The video parlors outside, had posters of old films put up and right next to them were the C-grade Hindi films and some English/foreign language “sexy movie”. On asking when the sexy movie will be played the ticket seller says, it is just put up to attract people but we will not show it. These parlors had wooden benches on stepped floor for people to sit and (maybe comfortable be able) see the film. One other video parlor did not allow me to take any photos, saying it was not allowed! So, I walked away. A little distance away, a young man asks me why I needed photos, I told him my purpose and reasons, and then he said, ‘Mai aagay Behram Baag mein ek aisai video parlor mein triple X film dekhnay jaa rahaa hoon, tum aaogay?’ I was stunned, overjoyed, dumbfounded, and shocked!! I agreed and walked with him. On the way, he started telling me about this side of Mumbai, and all out of his past experiences. He told me that there is not one whore house he has not visited in Mumbai. He started telling me the general rates, about the college girls outside Mithibai College who are in this trade, and many more. Then he said, all this video parlor business was run by the bhais- the underworld’s big shots, hence, one must be very careful and specially careful not to take photos in front of them. At Behram Baug, in a span of 100mts there are at least 5-6 video parlors! They have a variety of posters- old Bollywood films, English/ foreign language sexy film and triple X film. The system followed is, on the table there is the CD cover of the pornographic movie being played, so one has to say, ek triple X and pay Rs.15, the ticket seller, will give u a ticket and write a time on it. Each ticket would allow one to sit for 90 minutes. Now, there are no doors at most of these video parlors, there is a curtain. After walking in, there are many wooden benches (most of them are occupied), with people sitting and watching the movie with absolute concentration. They were playing Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge. My friend led me till the left corner of the screen where there was a ladder leading upstairs (upar double X- sexy movie dikhaate hain). In front of the ladder (on the same wall the movie was projected- but the left most part) there was a curtain, behind which was a small room (150 sq.feet) with a 21 inch TV placed on the wall (directly behind the wall on which DDLJ was being screened) and a DVD player under it. On entering, in the light of the TV I could see people sitting on wooden benches (three rows of benches and a couple of chairs as the first row) and staring seriously at the TV screen. The floor had water from the leaking tap flowing on it! People would spit into it while watching the movie. We sat on the second last row. I was now watching a pornographic film. My friend told me to extremely careful while taking pictures because if anyone saw it then meri waatt lag jayegi. So, I captured whatever I could, however I could. Here the system was, after every half an hour a person would walk in, turn on a tube-light, check everyone’s tickets, whoever’s time was up had to leave and the rest could stay. The movies would run non-stop. If one got over, then someone had to go out and call the person, he would change the VCD and the porn continued. After all this I wasn’t surprised when a person sitting in the far corner started masturbating. After I took some photographs, I wanted to leave, apart from the absolute repugnant environment, it was terribly hot. The exhaust fan directly below the TV sucked out the air from the pedestal fan afore it into the hall that was playing DDLJ. I told my friend that I wanted to leave, he said thodaa baittho, itni jaldi niklenge toh usay shaq ho jayega, waisai hi shaq hai ki camera leke andar aae ho, waisai bhi aadhe ghante kay baad apnaa time up ho rahaa hai. Somehow I managed to sit through the absolute torture. But it was quite amusing to see everyone’s expressions while watching the movie. The couple of boys sitting behind us appeared totally doped out a person in front kept going out and coming back in, another one, kept moving his legs, and the rest staring at the screen like zombies. Finally, after sometime, we came out, and I was so glad to see sunlight and feel fresh air!