Saturday, December 19, 2009

Khuda Jab Husn Deta Hai Nazakat Aie Jat Hai

hijde ke kabr par
rat din
woh ansu bahati hai
ek burkhewali man
ko apne hijde bache
ki yad ati hai
khuda jab husn deta hai
nazakat aiie jati hai
ek badnasib maa
apne hijde bachhe
ko kabr se bulatii hai
thapak thapak kar
woh usko
phir se sulati hai
sitm se seenchi huee
zingdagi
kya kya rang
dikhati hai

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Waqt Ne Mujhe Hijda Bana Diya

warna main bhi tha admi kam ka
ek adhura admi sirf nam ka
am ke am gutli ke dam ka
ek shola aurat ke intaqam ka
entazar hai uski
mohabat ke paigham ka
moon se cheene hue jam ka
nam ha shamem
main bhi bandha hoon
Islam ka
kehte hain mujhko
hijda kham khan
main bhi hoon
ashik
tere kalam ka
mhautaj hoon
sirf tere ek salaam ka

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You Telecom Customer CareThe Worst Nightmare

My net has been dead since 8 am thanks to my Internet provider You Telecom, several calls , that their customer care kept on hold for 15 minutes and than hooked me off the line I also went to their Bandra office at Gods gift but the techies were clueless and helpless themselves , their Mumbai head of Customer Care Mr Subash would not even bother to pick up my call, I got a call from a lady Varsha of You Telecom who informed me the net would be restored at 5 pm, never happened, I told her the number of times from Bakra Idd , the net has been dead due to outage and wire cut at Sarita building, my pain , my loss of time the amounts I paid to cybercafes , the answer was I complain about compensation next time..what hurts me is the arrogance of the top shots at You Telecom, they dont care two hoots for an existing customer who has been part of their company since six long yeas.
All my uploads at Flickr are held up, and I am really a pissed of customer to say the least.
I will not given in to eunuch silence come what may..I have nothing against You Telecom personally I pay my bills and all I get a kick up my colored ass as service..

a circle of confusion
caught in a square
my pain as a blogger
with all of you
I share
since 8 am
my internet connection
has been dead
but do they care
You Telecom
Customer Care
the worst nightmare
the MD clueless
as he warms his chair
for old existing customers
he has no time to spare
a sucked system
bad infrastructure
a broken fence of apathy
neglect
he has no time
to repair
a healing touch
a word of apology
or compensation for time loss
a thought very rare
as a pedestrian poet
I solemnly swear
my misery my sorrow
threadbare
even God
connected to the world
through
You Telecom
caught in a snare
breaking his head
adding to my despair
You Telecom
how can you be so unfair
my eunuch silence
in the form of a prayer

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The Hijra in a Veil

Shamem spoke to me at length about the malaise in Islamic society, and she knows the scriptures , is a devout Muslim Hijra and a believer of Ahle Bayt.

That she became a Hijra is her choice , her gender preference , her comfort level with the inner struggle of her soul seeking its true identity.

I do not condemn her what she is , she is human and that is what matters in the end.


My pictures are to show you up close the vibrant androgynous ethereal and also real the true avatar of a person who is neither this nor that , neither a male nor female..

I dont know if I will ever meet her again , I do not pursue them , I do not stalk them..I meet them as we are pre destined to meet ,I become the voice of their ancestral pain..
writing about them without profit or gain, the hijras I meet are unique creatures , crossing my path as I cross theirs.

I shot a lot of pictures of both these hijras , they were expecting more from Kurla Kamani at the Dhuni , who did not turn up, and I moved away from here soon after.

And these pictures as I mentioned were shot a few weeks back, I am trying to complete my back log , I have a lot of stuff to upload.

However one person I will miss was the famous Shia Hijra Hijra Bulundshaher , I was told by someone she had died, I hope it is untrue..She was a firm believer of Imam Hussain and never stopped cursing Shimr and Yazid.

She would even curse Mauwiyah , and was an Islamic scholar too, erudite and well versed in history.During Moharam she wore black, recited Nohas to me.. and this post is my tribute to her departed soul..though I hope she is alive.

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Hijras at the Dhuni

This was shot a few weeks back at the Makhdoom Shah Baba Dhuni, these are affluent hijras from Kurla Kamani and patrons of the Chancawalli Rafaees, the hijra in the blue veil is an Islamic scholar , well read educated and absolutely charming, they had come here to distribute the Niyaz at the Dhuni and to smoke chillum.

This is one of my best series I have shot, this was the second time I was meeting hijras at the Dhuni ..I have another 500 pictures to upload on this memory card to Flickr.

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The Kashmiri Dream in A Beggars Bowl

broken down bones
weeping flesh
a badly scarred soul
a kashmiri dream
in a beggars bowl
flowing away
through a leaking hole
doomed destiny
walking on hot
embers of coal
freedom an illusion
embattled in revolt

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The Kashmiri Beggars at the Dhuni

105,848 items / 686,810 views

Four kids a wife and the Kashmiri man, maybe back home he was not a beggar , just a helper or a laborer but here in Mumbai he has been deprived of his dignity, I dont know his personal story of pain or of others like him, I shoot him as I am a storyteller who captures pain , to share it with all of you.

I have no other motive or agenda, I dont sell pictures nor am I paid for what I write, this is my high , I call it a photo blog...wave after wave as it flows out of my Flickr photo stream..to Word Press Blogspot Twitter and Facebook.

I have stopped cross blogging my stuff to Vox , Live Journal Fotothing ..


The Kashmiri migrants here in Mumbai like the ones in my picture are a real sad story , they have come towards the Dhuni in search of food that the Rafaees distribute as Niyaz.

The kids are clueless about the next meal.

The mother is clueless about the next kid...the Muslim man is a reproductive machine that never breaks down, and if the wife fails you have the next one after you have said the magic mantra of Talaq Talaq Talaq..

I have seen the plight of Kashmiri Pandits begging at the doors of the Nizamuddin Aulia.. so caste color or creed is not the issue..the Kashmiri man at grass root level is decimated by fate and fatality..

The rich Kashmiri man well he is busy selling carpets , artifacts to the white man.

The Kashmiri politician well he is firmly protected by gun toting cops ..life goes on.

Kashmiryat is a flower pressed in a book , aging away, its fragrance doomed in captivity of a dreamless despair.

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My Barefeat

I had removed all the band aids a few days back, and my feet have a micro chip embedded in the sole that guides me safely missing dog shit, human shit, glass shard burning cigarette butts...

What really hurts are the jagged razor edged stones but I manage and after trekking barefeet the mountains of Haji Malang nothing seems impossible..I used to walk on fire but stopped the ritual since last year as the burns take time to heal .

Moharam has started and you can feel it in the air at the area around Moghul Masjid Bhendi Bazar and good old Bandra.

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The Barefeet Blogger of Mumbai

105,827 items / 686,639 views

Shot by Assad Dadan..My Bare Feet

My birthday pictures with Marziya and the cake too were shot by Assad, Assad is a gift of God who felt two sons Asif and Saif were not enough so he sent me Assad as my third son.

Sometimes water is a thick as blood...God also being over generous and kind gave me two extra daughters Arizah and Afrin.. he felt a single Samiya was just not enough..so to cushion the loss of her presence he gave me the greatest wonder kid Marziya Shakir..who needs no Introduction over 8000 pictures of her life as a story board on Flickr and her own website at Word Press.

This was also shot on my birthday I had come from Dharavi Urus and the Mahim Urus..as they were all waiting for me and specially Marziya to cut my turquoise blue cake from Monginis.

Today after a very long time I went to town to my friend Subash Bhais shop Subash Electronics to buy another 16 GB card to shoot Moharam.

Subash bhais children Shweta and Sumit are back from States so he is on cloud 9..he has even colored his hair black though I suggested a tinge of blonde..

From Fountain I came to Bhendi Bazar gemstone lane shot pictures and than to Gods favorite mosque Moghul Masjid . which has a new set of trustees who are refurbishing it to its former glory when it was built as a dream for Iranian migrants by Mr Mohomed Hassan Shirazi..the new trustees mean business and are leaving no stone unturned to make it an abode of peace and hope and harmony.

I came to know Maulana Athar Saab Mirza was here along with his son Maulana Yasoob, so I visited them in their private chambers at the Mosque, they are both grieving the loss of an important member of their life, Athar Saabs wife passed away last month.

I had lunch with them, took a few pictures and rushed back to Bandra.

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Calling You Telecom

105,826 items / 686,604 views

My net was dead since afternoon, and the connection was restored at about 7 pm after I had paid a visit to their Gods Gift office at Bandra.

I cannot upload my back log, because the fibre gets cut every time , and You Telecom does not compensate for the pain and the agony they make us go through.


The top management has till date never responded to my pleas , slow uploads erratic connection and the worst customer care service is in short You Telecom.

An I am speaking the truth I am not bitching at all, I am a 6 year old existing customer imagine the fate of those who are less vocal than me, in my house there 3 connections.

This evening I went to their office to ask them to disconnect my line but the technical staff whom I know and mutually respect told me they would look into my problems..

So each time I take them at their words and suffer because of bad infrastructure , wire cut , fibre cut..optic cut god knows how many cuts...on my body and my soul..yes I am addicted to the net as much as the net is addicted to me.

105826 photo blogs at Flickr in 28 months is my notoriety to ill fame as Bollywoods Most Wanted on cyberspace..

I use Facebook as a Blog too.. my angst embedded in a micro blog of a tweet...

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