Dont Underestimate The Hyderabadi Blade

Dont Underestimate The Hyderabadi Blade, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

This is the common blade , used by barbers all over India, and in Hyderabad it is used for scourging the back when tied like this in a wire. It cuts deviously and unimaginably more effective than a zanjir or flagellating steel blades of the Shia matamdar.

Kids use this as it is disposable, cheap and easy to get,most of the anjumans give it free, and this is not a boast on Ashura day in Hyderabad I think tons of blades are used at Bargah and at the procession of Bibi ka Alam. This certailny must be a record of sorts.

I have never used the blade on my body,not my choice as an instrument of pain, but finally it all comes down to technique and how you use it, in Kolkatta they use plastic foldable blades and you insert a half of this in the slot ..

The guys in Kolkatta use the surgeons scalpel too, and on 8 Moharam the Shia kids of Kolkata bash up their heads with steel tumblers .. crying out Ya Abbas Al Atash..

And in certain areas of rural UP the Hindus and the Sunnis scourge themselves too..such is the intensity and the pathos of a moment frozen in time called Ghame Hussain,.


But in April I will add a new dimension by inserting a sharp 18 feet steel rod in my mouth from cheek to cheek during the Maryamma festival at Mahim beach.. and show my solidarity as Miumbaikar with the Hindu Tamil community.. my aspect of Ghame Hussain...on the streets of Mumbai..