Kama Zani of Mumbai- Shia Pandit
Originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1
The little Shia kids of Mumbai become men on a single night for all the nights from 6 th Moharam.The credit goes to Kaiser Bagh that has grooomed the kids and to Munna Bhai who has nurtured this art tht we Shias call Kama Zani.
Every kid when he grows up will remember his first brush withthe dreaded dagger on his head, the first time scary feeling when you see the razors sharpness in your minds eyes though you have closed your physical eyes.
The first failed strokes, the second attempt till you release blood and there you are totallyt ransformed.
I kept away from this genre because of my Dreadheads and my expensive extensions that I had paid a bomb, to Lady Diana of the Dread heads an English lady friend famous in Goa Pushkar and Manali.
But I shaved it out in Lucknow a few years back on the insistence of a few Naga Sadhus who wanted to present my hair to Shiva their deity and I just gave it away , on a poetic note and my respect for Hinduism and the Naga Sadhus, whom I had met at the Nasik Kumbh.
Being bald was a blessing in disguise as it made it easier to slash my head at Kazmain in Athvi a Matam I shall never forget and the Dance of Death thst I call Tandav on the Soul of Shimr..Pain too has its moments of choreography a thought and metaphor very alien to people who dont think the way I do..
The essence of my souls survival has been peripherally based on Hindu iconography, I believe it as my cultural inheritance- that has metamorphosed me as a Shia Pandit.
