Of Cuff Road by a little pink camera
I've taken on a new project. Ever since I started volunteering with TWC2, I've come into close contact daily with various Banglah boys. Many of them, like Israfil from my previous post, come for dinner first before starting to volunteer as well. They all have their own stories of their work journeys: From how they first decided to come work in Singapore to how they managed to pay their agent fees to the sort of work they did in Singapore to how they spent their days off to how they ended up at Cuff Road. Some are more open than others. Some are cheekier. But almost all of them are good natured. I don't know if I would be in their positions. But maybe its one of those "you never know until you're actually knee deep in the same shit" sortofathing. The friendships formed at Cuff Road can be very transient. We never know when they will be leaving. We never know when they might come across some alibaba job opening and take it on in spite of the legalities involved because they need to send money home or just to get by while waiting for their cases to process. This makes them illegal workers in Singapore. But the dirty secret is a significant portion of the Singaporean economy depends on these illegal/undocumented workers precisely because they have no rights, they have no status, they have no access to counsel.
But I digress. This is about my rather sexy photo project. I'm taking photos of them - as first, I just wanted it to be a gift for them. Take some phots of them at Cuff Road with nice dusk lighting. But then I decided to catalogue them - their presence may be transient but they dont have to be one dimensional. They shouldn't just be a statistic. We dont all have to forget them once they no longer appear at Cuff Road. I'mma take a bunch of photos, print the nicer ones out for them (maybe in one picture their bicep is more prominent than the other?!). They can pick the one they like best and I'd catalogue it in a collage book/album with blurbs about their stories. This catalogue can then go to TWC2 :) Because I will keep their naked pictures for my personal calendar.
Swapon and Delwar
But I digress. This is about my rather sexy photo project. I'm taking photos of them - as first, I just wanted it to be a gift for them. Take some phots of them at Cuff Road with nice dusk lighting. But then I decided to catalogue them - their presence may be transient but they dont have to be one dimensional. They shouldn't just be a statistic. We dont all have to forget them once they no longer appear at Cuff Road. I'mma take a bunch of photos, print the nicer ones out for them (maybe in one picture their bicep is more prominent than the other?!). They can pick the one they like best and I'd catalogue it in a collage book/album with blurbs about their stories. This catalogue can then go to TWC2 :) Because I will keep their naked pictures for my personal calendar.
Swapon and Delwar