Monday, August 17, 2009
An American Comments on the Mumbai Gay Parade
An American Comments on the Mumbai Gay Parade, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
a shame they have to wear masks to hide their identity
a shame it looks so unorganized
a shame after the delhi law its still so fucked up there
for GAYS
nyc has millions watching
its so organized and care is taken to protect everyone
i get a press pass so i march without hassle
a comment from an American friend
88000 Blogs At Flickr
She was the most beautiful chirpy face at the Queer Azadi Gay Parade Mumbai 2009 - an American she endeared herself to everyone ..her smile never left her face ..
She was our guest , but she was devoid of arrogance , she was polite , I enjoyed every moment shooting her..I wish her well if she ever sees and reads this
I am sure she too wont forget the barefeet blogger of Mumbai..
I complete 88000 Photo blogs at Flickr in two years ..so I dedicate this passion of my blogging at her doorstep..
Yes a thing of Beauty is joy forever .,
Beauty lies in the eye of the camera.
I thank all my friends and well wishers here at Facebook and Wordpress Blogspot..Live Journal, Vox Twitter and Fotothing ...the places where I cross blog my stuff from Flickr.
Anand Hi Anand
87,971 items / 532,817 views
I am a great fan of an indomitable fighter of human rights Mr Anand Grover , and this is the person who fought the case against Article 377.. a humiliation left on our somnolent consciousness by the British Vampire.
About Mr Anand Grover
www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/health/right/SRBio.htm
The United Nations Human Right Council appointed Mr Anand Grover as Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health at its eighth session held in June 2008. Mr Anand Grover, a practicing lawyer in the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court of India, took up his functions as Special Rapporteur on 1 August 2008.
Mr Grover is Director of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS in India, having offices in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore which he co-founded in 1981 with Ms. Indira Jaising, The Unit dealing with HIV/AIDS was established in Mumbai in 1998.
Anand Grover is a pioneer in the field of HIV and has handled several hundred HIV/AIDS related litigations in India. He appeared in the first HIV case relating to the HIV activist, Dominic D Souza, The Lucy D’ Souza case, challenging the isolationist Goa Public Health Amendment Act. He also fought the first case on blood transfusion in the Calcutta High Court, P v. Uol as well as successfully arguing against the patenting of anti-AIDS drug Nevirapine Hemi-hydrate.
Mr. Grover has also appeared in several well known cases as lead counsel in various public interest and human rights matters, including the first HIV case in India relating to employment law, MX v. ZY, the Bombay Pavement Dwellers case, several environmental cases including the Bhopal Gas Disaster case, the Goa Zuari Agrochemicals case, various sexual harassment cases including the India Air Hostess cases, the Shehnaaz Mudhbatakal v. Saudi Arabian Airlines, and various animal rights cases, such as the Camel case, the Kamani Tubes Ltd. Case, and the Garware Nylons Case. He has also acted as an advocate in many important cases regarding the right to marry and the rights of sex workers, such as the Mr. X v. Hospital Z case and the Mumbai Bar Dancers case.
Supported by the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, he drafted the HIV Bill at the request of the Government of India. The Bill is currently under consideration by the Government and is likely to be introduced in Parliament this year.
He serves as member of various renowned health boards. He was a member of the drafting group of the International Guidelines on Human Rights & HIV/AIDS and is currently a member of the Reference Group on Human Rights to Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS. He is a National Advisory Board Member of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a member of the World Care Council, a member of the Board of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), a member, National Board, AVAHAN, the India AIDS Initiative, Gates Foundation, a member of the Core Group of NGOs representatives in the National Human Rights Commission of India and the member of the National Advisory Board on HIV and AIDS set up the Prime Minister of India.
Amongst many different activities undertaken in the last few years, Mr Grover delivered the Dr Jonathan Mann Memorial Lecture at the International AIDS Conference held in Toronto in August 2006. He was also a key note speaker at the International AIDS Conference on Narcotics and Harm Reduction held in Colombo in August 2007.
© OHCHR 1996-2007
I am Warned if I post Too Many Links at Facebook , My Account will be Disabled..
I am Warned if I post Too Many Links at Facebook , My Account will be Disabled.., originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
The Right to be Right Here Right Now
Ashok Row Kavi Reflects
born in 1947
independently
introspectively
a kavi reflects
ups and downs
no side effects
man is a man
because of his
human defects
ashok row kavi
watches the world
through his specs
a battle won in delhi
against the hate
of a politico-religious nexus
artice 377
a pain in the ass
a noose
searching a neck
a curse on humanity
article 377
how many
homes hearts
it has wrecked
about ashok row kavi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashok_Row_Kavi
Ashok Row Kavi is an Indian journalist and one of India's most prominent LGBT rights activists.
He was born in Mumbai on June 1, 1947 as a premature child. He graduated with honors in Chemistry from the University of Bombay. Later, he dropped out of engineering college. Due to his early difficulty in dealing with his homosexuality, he enrolled as a Hindu monk in the Ramakrishna Mission and studied theology.[1] He has also studied at the International School of Journalism, Berlin, Germany.
In a journalism career spanning 18 years, he worked in various newspapers and magazines, including India’s largest circulated newspaper ‘Malayala Manorama’ (as Western India Bureau-Chief), ‘Sunday Mail’ and ‘The Daily’. For six years he was also senior reporter covering Science and Technology in ‘The Indian Express’ group of newspapers. His career as a journalist began in 1974 with The Indian Express and was the chief reporter with the Free Press Journal from 1984 to 1989.
In 1971, he started India's first Playboy clone, Debonair, with friend Anthony Van Braband and later in 1990, he founded Bombay Dost, Mumbai's first gay magazine. He was a representative at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam and served as chairman of the Second International Congress on AIDS.
Although he retired from journalism in 1990, he has worked at providing a formal platform for homosexuals –- people usually left out of mainstream life in a socially conservative India –- become actively involved in public life and institutions through media, advocacy, cooperation and community-building.
Row Kavi was the first person (and for a long time the only person) to openly talk about homosexuality and gay rights in India. His first coming out interview appeared in Savvy magazine in 1986. Incidentally, his mother, Shobha Row Kavi, too gave an interview to the same magazine; it was the first time that a mother spoke about her son’s homosexuality to the Indian media.
At the present, he is founder-chairperson of the Humsafar Trust, a male sexual health NGO, which also agitates for the legal emancipation of homosexuality in India. The trust’s work comprises community work, outreach into the gay and MSM groups, advocacy on gender and sexuality issues concerning sexual minorities and research into sexuality and gender issues. Besides running several intervention programmes (funded by national and international organizations and many private donors) for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections in Mumbai and Goa, Row Kavi and the trust have been lobbying with policy making bodies as well as supporting similar upcoming groups across the country.
In 1998, Row Kavi received a fellowship to design model questionnaires in the MSM sector at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS), University of California, San Francisco. Row Kavi has been a participant in various international and national fora, including the ICAAPs and the International HIV/AIDS Conferences, where he has made at least five oral presentations. As head of Humsafar, he has also organized the first ‘Looking into the Next Millennium’ conference of 32 MSM NGOs in Mumbai in May 2001 and co-organized the first ILGA-Asia conference in Mumbai in October 2002.
Row Kavi has been a regular contributor to newspapers, magazines and journals around the world, on homosexuality, gay rights and issues around HIV/AIDS.
Row Kavi is also NGO representative, Executive Committee, Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS); member, Technical Resource Group, Targeted Interventions, National AIDS Control Organization (NACO); visiting faculty at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the department of Clinical Psychology of the University of Mumbai, Nirmala Niketan, and the International Institute of Population Studies.
The Times of India v/s A Blogger
The Times of India the Numero Uno of Indian newspapers had just one picture this morning documenting the Queer Azadi Gay Parade 2009 ..I dont subscribe to any other newspaper so I cant talk about them..
I guess the people at the Times, are still holding on to SRK' s testicular fortitude tryst with American Immigrations, and forgetting that our ex President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is a greater mortal than King Khan .
Anyway Shoban Saxena has stopped writing premature obituaries of a Blogger ..
The Godman and the Hijra
he is what he is
a baba of spirituality
selling medicine
for curing the soul
charging fat fees
standing next to the hijra
he says vociferously
homosexuality
is a curable disease
with my medicine
he will become
normal healthy man
gets his picture clicked
before i say cheese
man hijra
even a restless
androgynous god
searching
for worldly peace
the story of the beauty
and the terrorizing
spiritual beast
pedestrian hijra poem
dedicated to religiosity of hate
where man is a lesser mortal
than the priest
his arrogance his conceit
his diatribe his deceit
shot by a blogger
a poet
who walks barefeet
The photo journalist god save him from his self searches for photo op, the photo blogger searches for poetry hidden in a picture //
This was god sent ..the words are gods not mine ..
Why are You a Hijra - They Ask!
87,923 items / 532,656 views
why are you a hijra
they stupidly ask
to save herself
from homophobic
anti hijra society
anti human mentality
she wears a mask
for being what her
karma wants her to be
fucked society
takes her to task
androgynous tears
into the gutters
as they flow
from the flask
Sealed Lips of Silence
87,919 items / 532,651 views
sealed lips of silence
starting point
august kranti marg
symbol of our freedom
ahinsa non violence
god give the
homophobic
religious leaders
some simple
down to earth
common sense
live and let
others live
dont be so dense
uttering
homosexuality
is a disease
such other non sense
flaunting
their political nexus
their Mercedes Benz
the ethos the angst
the right to survival
of the wittiest
caught by my
camera lens
a gay parade
drama
theatrics
fun frolic
some suspense
dedicated to ashok row kavi..
The Hijra Hides Her Face
on the fringes
of hijra hating
society she stays
in the hearts
of biased humanity
she has lost her place
religious leaders
homophobic hound her
her karmic destiny
of a hijra they want
to displace
misplaced religiosity
terrorizing her soul
always
robbing her basic life
to live a hijra
in dignity and grace
her soul whipped
her body flayed
a hijra that god
through man remade
an exotic fruit
in the garden of androgyny
that Satan forbade
satanic minds
with their satanic spirituality
her kingdom raid
caught in a spectral darkness
between light and shade
The Veiled Hijra of Mumbai
comely cute and coy
hiding her face from others
because of her overprotective
over possessive toy boy
the veiled hijra of mumbai
sweet simple and shy
neither man nor woman
this androgynous guy
treated like a leper by
homophobic society
her basic rights
to live as she wants to live
they deny
saying homosexuality
is a disease
they squeeze her dry
a testicular tragedy
a hijras soulless cry
article 377
to sodomize
her fundamental right
her life a swine flu
pig sty
dedicated to anand grover
Queer Azadi Gay Parade Mumbai 2009
I have kept my Dahi Handi pictures in abeyance , pictures I shot in the night of Advocate Ashish Shelars Dahi Handi celebrations at Hill Road Bandra .. I shall post them later.
August 16 2009
I shot the Queer Azadi Gay parade barefeet in the blazing sun to pay tribute to the resilience of the hijra and gay community.
I went there because as a photographer as a blogger and as a pedestrian poet I am dead against Article 377 a travesty of justice against humanity on basis of gender..
This is a very long series 6 GB card and I wont be cross blogging this set to my hijdaeunuchblogs at Wordpress..I have an irreparable injury on my right hand hand , I type with a singe finger , so all my pictures will be housed at Flickr only..
Also this entire series is dedicated to my gay friend Alan Gill Bollywood designer who passed away a few years back, we worked on a lot of films when I was working with Mr Nitin Manmohan of Neha Arts...at his fashion studio called Prachins.
Alan I knew since the early 70's from Gypsy Rose at the Oberoi Sheratons, he Oscar , Mahmood of Mahmood and Leno fame are memories attached nostalgically to my life , I hold them as part of the serenity of my soul.
I will keep text minimum on this series.
The Queer Azadi Gay Parade 2009 began from August Kranti Marg Gowalia Tank.. organized by Humsafar Trust and various other groups of this community.
Ashok Row Kavi was the man of the moment answering a barrage of questions ..and Ashok's charm is very effective ..he was a very happy man from the beginning to the end of the Queer Azadi Gay Parade - it ended peacefully at Girgaum Chowpatty.
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi my hijra guru was there including Celina Jaitley who has championed and supported the gay community..Sambhavna Seth too walked side by side at this parade.
The Hijra contingent was by far the largest with ethnic dance and fun and frolic.
This parade had people from all walks supporting the gay community two Muslim girls in hijab..I shot them too..
Media persons , amateur photographers , electronic media had a field day to day.
Nitin Karani Vivek and other gay activists including the Prince of Raj Pipla..
I met some of my old college friends too Jangoo Fleming ..Dodo..the list is long..
Mr Anand Grover who fought the case against Article 377 in Delhi was exuberant and happy for the gay community , Dolly Thakur too was there..gave me a smile as I had shot her at the Nasik Kumbh .
The Mumbai Police were exemplary in their security arrangement , polite and human to the cause of the gay community..
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Shah-e-Mardan Sher-e-Yazdan Quwat-e-Parwardigar Lafata Ila Ali La Saif Ila Zulfiqar , originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1 ....
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Dargah of Hazrat Syed Ali Mira Datar Unava Gujrat , a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr. HAZRAT SYED ALI MIRA DATAR'S G...
