Jalal Mamu of Byculla and Me

Jalal Mamu of Byculla and Me, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

Jalal Mamu is a very humble Shia man, down to earth , low profile and least talkative, but an icon of Shia faith, and Mumbai Shia way of Life.

Jalal Mamu organizes an event near Byculla station on 9 Moharam much before the Honda Byculla Savoy juloos and this event brings in a lot of people , thee is a short majlis and Jalal Mamu strips himself t the waist and Jalal Mamu is the greatest sword matamdar , his strokes cut through flesh , and ripping pieces from his body in the air, after the sword is pulled from his hand by 20 people , Jalal Mamu now takes the hocky shaped zanjir and further mows his back wounds with deafening razor sharp blades..I shot this last year pictures on my Flickr photostream .

From Byculla station Jalal Mamus juloos joins the Honda Savoy juloos.

The next day Ashura , Jala Mamu again cuts his bruised back with the sword at the Amin Imambada event..

I am a great fan of Jalal Mamu , not because of his sword matam , but because of his sincerity and simplicity of heart and soul.

He is an Iranian by birth and recites the Noha for the Busheri matam..

One upon a time Imamwada Bhendi Bazar had a huge population of Bushers and Shirazis of Iranian origin , they bought in the now famous Busheri matam, choreography of pain .. called Ghame Hussain.

Jalal Bhai as I call him knew my late father Mohomed Shakir Lakhnavi of Colaba as we stayed at Khatau Bhuvan in the early 50s , now the place is called Jony Castle...In 1963 we shifted to Mohini Mansions Strand Cinema Colaba..

My father was associated with the Imamiya Sabil at Bhendi Bazar, since its inception as the founder Maqbool Bhai Zariwala was my dads maternal uncle from Lucknow.

My dad made the Ashura fakhe shikani food for those who break the fast on Ashura in the evening..this was a Lucknowi specialty khade masoor ki idal and rice .. before they moved from here towards the Rehmatabad Shia cemetery for Sham e Ghariba ..those days recited by Maulana Abbas Rizvi..I think

Everybody who does the sword matam emulates Jalal Mamu , he is a veteran and pioneer of this self inflicting weapon of pain..

My friens Baqar and Habib Nasser hold Jalal Mamu in the highest esteem .

And the other person who is famous for his blood letting Matam is Ali Shah of JJ Hospital..