Cutting the Head With Swords

Cutting the Head With Swords, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

These are the local lads of Hyderabad and this seems to be their area, so they cut themselves with swords to the hilt, there was no stopping them , and mind you the Bibi Ka Alam is a very long juloos , and it is tough breaking the cordon to shoot up close , but I was lucky, I was at the right place at the right time most of the time..

This cutting went on in every area the Bibi Ka Alam traversed , but this area it was awesome display of Shia faith and Shia guts of steel.

The only other place I have seen this is at Hazrat Abbas Dargah Lucknow on 11 Moharam when Guddu Bawarchi cuts his head with a curved scimitar and before anyone can come forward to stop him rushes at a speed into the crowds with his sword..

Shooting all this is dangerous , normally I sleep on the floor and slip in between ..the sword strikers reach..but here it was very tough the jostling , the camera shake , worst the camera lens bleeds as much as the wounds on the sword strikers head..the only other person who would brave all this and shoot in a more superior way is Dr Glenn Losack MD ..

And on second thoughts I might not come to Hyderabad for Chehlum with Dr Glenn Losack MD , simply because hardcore Kama Zani takes place in the night and the good doctor hates flash.

So as of now it might be Chehlum in Mumbai but one does not know..

Dr Glenn Losack MD is well known by the Shias in Mumbai having shot the Kurla juloos and Chehlum 2008 in Mumbai..

All in all Moharam in Hyderabad is an occasion not to be missed ,it shows the angst of the Hyderabadi Shia his raw fervor and unleashed emotions of pain.

I waited almost six years to shoot Hyderabad , I last shot this in 2003 and I was new this landscape of pain.