9 Moharam Kaiser Bagh-Finale
Originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1
This is the famous Razor blade Matam, a sight that you seee quintessentially at Hyderabad and Kolkatta.
In Mumbai it is Kama Matam cutting of the forehead or Zanjir Matam, flagellaion, and the now famous slashing the back with the Sword Matam.
This picture brings to an end my over 400 shot images of an event called Shab e Ashur the eve of the night of Ashura.Ashura is the 10 th day of the Martyrdom of Imam Husssain the braveheart noble grandson Imam Hussain by the accursed Yazid of the Ummayad Caliphate.
I began shooting this on foot from 7 pm at Savoy Byculla and ending all this at Kaiser Bagh at about 1 am.
I had to abort this shoot rush back to Bandra where I stay as the family wanted to attend
a vigil , a night of prayers at Rizvi..
Moharam not just because I am a Indian Shia Muslim, but because of its rituals of rememberance has always fascinated me.
The emotions on display, the free flow of blood tears and sweat of a persecuted community...I photograph all this for posterity.I photograph it sincirely as I know trhe metaphor the symbolism beneath the Shia turbulence of Faith.It also helps in rediscovring myself.
Normally each year in Moharam I hit the trail tryingto shoot a different venue, a different city, this year due to various constrains, and more because of my injured right hand and a frozen shoulder I stayed back in Mumbai.
Also places like Lucknow , the city of my birth reads me wrongly, as a Shia, so I am disillusioned , and find Mumbai more compatible to my souls quest.People know me in Mumbai and have been helpful and cooperative, and the Mumbaikar Shia is more mature than his counterpart elsewhere.As Mumbai is there Karam Bhoomi as much as mine., most of us our children of migrants that have settled here and made Mumbai our home.Moharam in Mumbai is the ultimate high of a Shia ethos.
The state administration, the police , the law and order machinery, the Hindu community, the majority community of Sunnis, and other denominations go out of their way to make Moharam a peaceful fare and add to its ambience of spiritual sanctity.
