Beautiful Beggar Hijras of Mumbai

Beautiful Beggar Hijras of Mumbai, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

The hijras I like to shoot are the hijra beggars on the streets , at traffic signals eking out a living, running behind cars pleading cajoling the person seated within the car hidden by tinted glasses of wealth ..

Some of the traffic signals of the Mumbai suburbs are famous for hijras , Turner Road Linking Road , Juhu Versova Link road signal.

I shot this pretty hijra at the Juhu Versova Link road signal.

She could pass for a South Indian actress if she was well dressed made up and all.

She had a very endearing smile I shot a few frames as this is a long signal halt, and the hijras move around this signal , this is their marked territory.

Most of the hijras on this signal know me very well.

And I dont envy those photographers that make it year after year to Villupuram to shoot the Koovagam Eunuch festival.I have missed it since the time I came to know about it and it is because of my Hijda Eunuch blogs at Word Press I came to know Marc De Clercq, the eminent photographer who is famous for shooting transgender in India and Europe ,.

He was at my workplace and we talked for two hours , changing notes on Hijras.

He has shot Hijras soliciting on the highways and his pictures are breathtakingly unique..no Indian photographer can match his skill shooting Hijras.

I have observed him shooting hijras at Simran Dancers birthday party , he is totally low profile and being a huge tall man white you wont notice him at all, I am like a Xmas tree on a Diwali Day you cam see me more than the Hijra I shoot..

After Marc had finished his dinner at my place rice chicken korma vegetables dal he tasted jalebis too.

All the food was from my kitchen I did not order anything from outside, though wife was grumbling had she known Marc was coming she would have made some Mutton Biryani for him

I made Marc wait for Marziya as all the famous Flickr photographers have to meet Marziya its the protocol of our humble Indian hospitality.

Some of my friends often tell me that touched by Marziya their life has turned more beautiful and successful. I touch Marziya everyday and I am hoping my life too should change , at least bring me better prospects at work.


Marziya meets photographers with aplomb and in good faith , and the photographers she has met has changed her outlook too, she is confident and not shy when she shoots them with my camera.. and she will never take my camera without first putting the camera strap around her neck.. 2 and a half years and a professional.

The other brand of Hijras I like to shoot is the Hijra beggars in long distance trains , they stalk the passenger in groups , some of them are pretty and kind the majority are dangerous and vicious if not paid.. people around are too scared to put up a fight.



I have shot a lot of hijras in the trains I have a Hijda Vardan I meet them at all crossroads of my life.



Last but not the least I shoot hijra prostitutes at Peela House Red Light area Hijra Cages and Hijra Gully No 1 Kamatipura.

At Peela House I know Heena Hijda my patron and benefactor, very sensual pretty charming and humble too.

At Hijda Gully No 1 I know Zeenath Guru.

I can assure you I like shooting Hijras but I dont run after them they fall into my kundalini anyway...,If I am destined to shoot them I will shoot them no two ways about it.


Where I stay at Bandra close to my house at Lal Mitti Bandra reclamation there are performing hijras that dance at Muslim weddings in the slums but I have not visited their shanties as yet.

I would love to shoot them doing their daily chores cooking washing clothes and other such activities.


I know a foreign photographer paid a Hijra guru in the red light area to shoot a hijra being fucked in ambient light , dark morbid surroundings , his pictures are on the net and are totally aesthetic and real without a hint of porn..his pictures read like poetry.

I am too old minded , conservative and cant shoot such pictures or even hijra nudes for that matter.

I have politely refused all such offers to shoot them raw ..

My hijra pictures are human and show life the hijra way of pain and despair.. I cannot abuse the hijra trust in me as a photographer.

The only daring picture I shot was of a hijra breast feeding a child..at Haji Malang.

The eunuch children move raw around the house where I shot hijras but I would turn my face away such was the respect for their anomalous androgynous physicality..their vulnerability..

So my hijra stories wont ever end ..and in all humility I shoot hijras differently I shoot them as poems of lingering lyrical lilting pain.