I Have Not Received My Voters Card Yet...

I Have Not Received My Voters Card Yet..., originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

103,111 items / 671,850 views

I will turn 56 this month , I am a Pucca Mumbaikar having lived in this beautiful city since I was an year old.. but sadly I do not have a Voters Card..I had submitted my form for address change but even before that me and my family did not have a voters card..My wife and son have received theirs I am still in the Queue.. Aap Katar Main hain

I saw this banner at Mahim..and it hit me hard.. how they spend money for such hoardings and yet do not give a voters card to a rather uncommon man..forget the common man he might have to wait till he too tuns 56...

Haven't you received your voters card yet
says the banner on Mahim you bet
get your card in one week
bullshit the voters card
a pain in the ass
is the hardest thing to get
when I am dead and gone
buried six feet in the ground
the Bandra postman
will bring it o my grave
with deep regret
asking for forgiveness
no sweat
better late than never
he begs my worm eaten flesh
not to bring this matter
on the internet
the system sucks
so Mr Firoze Shakir
please do not get upset
you can still
vote for change
your booth at
St Stanislaus School
please dont forget
till he sees my
nameless grave stone
that reads
Free Tibet

A Blogger Mastan and The Rafaee

A Blogger Mastan and The Rafaee, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

I am known as Mastan at the Dhuni, mastan is a person who finds no fault with life and takes things as they come..kind of happy go lucky , which is wrong interpretation of my present circumstances and my ensuing bad luck.

The bawa next to me is a better mastan, he wears two watches , one tells the time on earth the other presumably the time in heaven..barring Mulllahs ,jehadis and mischief makers all Sufis go to heaven , that is what he whispered in my ears.

I told him with a poker face that I was a Shia and he shot back.. most of the Sufis are lovers of Hussain too.. and than shut up...

I have not seen him do any body piercing act, but he should be good..

For the first time in my life, I was shaking my head at Fakhruddin Shah Babas Shrine almost like the ladies possessed , much as I tried to stop, it would not, I went into a trance in front of the Shrine..

This was a strange moment and I will never forget it, and it is stimulated further by the beats of the drums...today a little child asked me to bless him , and gave me Rs 5..after he moved away I gave it to a beggar more deserving than me.. yes this is Sufism .. a path of reckoning a part of introspection..and if this is heresy I accept it as it is..of course my core essence remains what it is.. I am human ..as human as a Shia can be..

My barefeet have new band aids every day, the cuts the bruises continue as I shoot divinity on the streets of Mahim.

Patiwala Na Ghar Ka Na Ghat Ka Sirf Foot Path Ka

Patiwala Na Ghar Ka Na Ghat Ka Sirf Foot Path Ka, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

yeh hai hindustani
bhaiyya dilwala
nahi mangta hai bhik
na karta hai dhanda kala
es ke dil main garibi ki jwala
eski kismat ko lat markar
hindustani ne hindustani
ko mumbai se nikala
sirf bin bulaye
terrorist
ka koie nahi leta hawala
netaji ko milgaya
phukat ka ghar
Mercedes impala
na ghar ka na ghat ka
amchi mumbai
main bhaiyaa
up ka rehnewala
foot path pe zindagi
guzarnewala

dedicated to imam siddique.. facebook

God Loves Photo Bloggers More Than Photographers

God Loves Photo Bloggers More Than Photographers, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

103,110 items / 671,584 views

Imagine a world without camera or photographers ..it would have been totally bleak depriving God of his achievements so God created the camera and through the rib of the camera the enigmatic creature called the photographer...to show Gods world his bounty , his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.. insects nature landscape and everything that could be photographed good bad and ugly...

The camera is the greatest instrument of peace , I knew a nice young lady who loved a photographers pictures that she eventually married him,and became a photographer too, Mr Dharker would have given his life to have her nude on Debonair is not the crux of my story..

A picture is a miraculous product of the mind..and photography heals the human soul..photography as promoted by camera clubs is passe... time to move on, and it changed my life when I clicked the mouse and reached all over cyberspace ..

But as the photographer was getting a tad bit lazy and repetitive, I mean the media photographer , the usual pictures , the broken glasses , the tattered school book at bomb blast sites , the Idd hugging pictures, the Parsi New Year Watsa Agiary Fountain pictures , year after year , that really got on Gods goat..God was really pissed..

Out of a chaos the confusion as splattered on newsprint he created the photo blogger ,the photo bloggers obituary thanks to Times Of India Sunday review continued for sometime, the blogger may die choking on his blog but his blog will live long after .

Thanks to the Holy Ghost of cyberspace called Google Search.

And a Blogger is Gods chosen disciple , God gifts him pictures ,,if you cant go to Shirdi due to some constrain or other , God brings Shirdi and the Holy Saint Sai Baba into the human heart..actually I saw this at Dadar Tulsi Pipe road on my way to town, I thought I would shoot it on my return, but due to some confusion he bought me on another route, as I wanted to reach Mahim Dargah I did not crib , and than without asking me directions he swung back to Tulsi Pipe Road and I saw this vision again I got of the cab and shot a few frames .. I reached the Dargah too through the inside lanes of Mahim..
So in short picture that are destined to be shot will be shot come what may..

So a picture becomes a photo blog..and photography the cradle from which a photoblogger was born and raised..

Today was my 6 th day at the Mahim Dargah Urus, I shot Sakibs Sandal..and Firoze Rafaees body piercing acts..he pierced a short pointed rod into a Rafaees cheek and the point that came out he hammered into the face of a stool..the man lifted up the stool bleeding, than the rod was removed , he drank water which began to flow from the hole in the cheek.. I have to upload a 16 GB card..

And I do not want to talk much as a photo blogger provided you read me as street poet and a pedestrian photographer only..

God Loves Photo Bloggers More Than Photographers

God Loves Photo Bloggers More Than Photographers, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

103,110 items / 671,584 views

Imagine a world without camera or photographers ..it would have been totally bleak depriving God of his achievements so God created the camera and through the rib of the camera the enigmatic creature called the photographer...to show Gods world his bounty , his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.. insects nature landscape and everything that could be photographed good bad and ugly...

The camera is the greatest instrument of peace , I knew a nice young lady who loved a photographers pictures that she eventually married him,and became a photographer too, Mr Dharker would have given his life to have her nude on Debonair is not the crux of my story..

A picture is a miraculous product of the mind..and photography heals the human soul..photography as promoted by camera clubs is passe... time to move on, and it changed my life when I clicked the mouse and reached all over cyberspace ..

But as the photographer was getting a tad bit lazy and repetitive, I mean the media photographer , the usual pictures , the broken glasses , the tattered school book at bomb blast sites , the Idd hugging pictures, the Parsi New Year Watsa Agiary Fountain pictures , year after year , that really got on Gods goat..God was really pissed..

Out of a chaos the confusion as splattered on newsprint he created the photo blogger ,the photo bloggers obituary thanks to Times Of India Sunday review continued for sometime, the blogger may die choking on his blog but his blog will live long after .

Thanks to the Holy Ghost of cyberspace called Google Search.

And a Blogger is Gods chosen disciple , God gifts him pictures ,,if you cant go to Shirdi due to some constrain or other , God brings Shirdi and the Holy Saint Sai Baba into the human heart..actually I saw this at Dadar Tulsi Pipe road on my way to town, I thought I would shoot it on my return, but due to some confusion he bought me on another route, as I wanted to reach Mahim Dargah I did not crib , and than without asking me directions he swung back to Tulsi Pipe Road and I saw this vision again I got of the cab and shot a few frames .. I reached the Dargah too through the inside lanes of Mahim..
So in short picture that are destined to be shot will be shot come what may..

So a picture becomes a photo blog..and photography the cradle from which a photoblogger was born and raised..

Today was my 6 th day at the Mahim Dargah Urus, I shot Sakibs Sandal..and Firoze Rafaees body piercing acts..he pierced a short pointed rod into a Rafaees cheek and the point that came out he hammered into the face of a stool..the man lifted up the stool bleeding, than the rod was removed , he drank water which began to flow from the hole in the cheek.. I have to upload a 16 GB card..

And I do not want to talk much as a photo blogger provided you read me as street poet and a pedestrian photographer only..