I was walking back to my car at the Forest recreation ground in Nottingham, with my dog Ruby and I saw Mushtaq and Dostan sat on a park bench. As I was approaching the bench Dostan was sat on his own and Mushtaq was walking towards him, Dostan shouted him over and the two gentlemen sat down together and started chatting. I decided the two men would make a great strangers photo, so I approached them, camera in hand and asked was it OK to take a photo of them together. As you can see I got a ‘Yes’ from both men. I introduced myself and Ruby to them.
I asked them were they friends and they told me they had known each other for many years. Both men are of Pakistani heritage. Mushtaq told me he moved to the UK 50 years ago and had always lived in Nottingham, he really liked the city. Dostan said on the 1st May this year he’d been here for 70 years. He came to Nottingham to join his father who was already here. He told me when his father died he accompanied his body back to Pakistan for the funeral.
I think it is a lovely story, two elderly gentlemen, who made Nottingham their home for over 120 years between them. I think it’s great that the UK is now a multi cultural, diverse society, embracing people of all cultures.
thanks everyone for your lovely words, I am really proud of this image, not necessarily because of the photo craft involved, I am proud because of the back story.