I had an experience today which really upset me.Throughout my day I have come back to this thought and I think I can now clearly articulate what specifically about this interaction upset me so.

I was taking the train from my part of town, Govandi, to a more central part of Mumbai.Sitting next to the window, I prop my camera up against the grill of the window and take photos.The plan was to create an album of photos of life along the railway tracks.The railway is the lifeline of India and the communities who live there are of interest to me as the NGO I have been working with does interventions there.The area where I was taking photos of today was the slum where I had gone for my field work two days ago.

I should mention, some of the things I see here I do not take photos of because I feel they are inappropriate.Children often use the wall near the tracks as a bathroom, and on trains there are a number of people who beg for money and are disfigured from accidents.Why not photograph these people?Because I think it is exploitative.I never thought though that people would see me taking photos of people along the tracks and feel that this would be exploitative too.

As I took photos of shacks with clothes lines, people milling about on the station, the woman across from me was watching carefully.Finally she asked, 'what exactly are you taking those photos for?'I tried to explain myself, the NGO I work with, my field placement within the area but I could see from the look in her eyes that she had seen me and assumed that I was a tourist and that I was taking the requisite 'look how poor India is!' photos.

I was bristled first by the fact that she seemed utterly unconvinced at my saying I am Indian, something which I by now should be used to.I never realized I was ethnically ambiguous looking till I got here.But what hurt me the most was someone thinking that I look at these people with some kind of disgust.And then my annoyance grew even more because this was the same kind of attitude people expressed when seeing Slumdog Millionaire - that representations of poverty are in themselves exploitative - a view which I feel is incorrect.

When over half of this city is made up of slum communities, should I just turn away from it and point and click at the beautiful monuments and lovely skyline?Should I not document this journey, heaven forbid someone look at my photos and see that there are poor people, so lets just turn our eyes away from it?I find it to be an extremely paternalistic attitude that is held here - because if you think it is acceptable to have this large a slum community then open your eyes and realize they represent Mumbai as much as the Gateway of India and Marine Drive.