Resting The Alam Abbas Choti Bargah

Resting The Alam Abbas Choti Bargah, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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After the matam , the Alam Abbas is covered and rested..and the entire Alam takes on the contours a shape of a dead person beneath the winding sheet..people pay obeisance, make wishes , hope for the realization of their dreams..

One has to scrape the top layer of a photograph, with the mind to understand the message of peace hope and harmony in the picture..I could never criticize someones religious practice or their rituals , I would not even pass an adverse comment even if the ritual was not appealing to my human senses.

Till I saw the comments and the Shia bashing that I got day after day on my Shia sets and collections at Flickr..at first I attacked them, but than I came to the conclusion , if your parents gave you poison than it is poison you would spew..my parents were migrants from Lucknow , and Mumbai had made them overcome everything, my parentage made the difference in my childrens life too.

I locked up my Flickr and Blogspot comment boxes forever...I dont need to take a hit on my knuckles for a service I do free of charge..

Our servants in the early days of our childhood at Wodehouse Road were Goans or Mangloreans , and we were taught to treat them with respect, our main servant was a Maharashtrian lady and we called her Aiee.. yes Mother is universal to all..

Hinduism and Christianity existed side by side with our Shia faith.

My Koran classes were supervised by a Sunni Maulana who would beat me black and blue for not memorizing the verses, till my parents sacked him, as the beatings persisted..so I think it was my destiny to have undergone all this..and those days at Colaba of the early 60s Shia Maulanas were a rarity unless you poached them from Bhendi Bazar..

I became a blogger by accident..and I definitely dont rue my decision of giving up elitist decadent camera clubs for the humility of a photo blog.. yes we give free without charging per column or per photograph..We give to Caesar what belongs to God and we give to God what belongs to Caesar.. Amen.