Maryamma Feast 2010 Macchimar Colony Mahim

Maryamma Feast 2010 Macchimar Colony Mahim, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I start a new set at my Flickr photostream, I shot it this afternoon totally barefeet dressed in saffron, this is a feast where the Tamils and the Maharashtrians from Fishermens Colony Mahim pay tribute to Goddess Maryamma an avatar of Kali,.

Marc De Clercq , Kabir and an eminent German lady author Ula were here covering this unique feast...too.
They arrived when the goats and chickens had been slaughtered to appease the Goddess .

After that the contingent moved to the Mahim beach, where the piercing of the cheeks began including piercing of hooks on the back to pull a tempo a car and a basket full of coconuts.

While the puja began on the beach a lot of people went into a possession like spiritual trance..and this had happened when the goats were being slaughtered too.

I followed the procession till a few meters before the Maryamma Temple where all this ends and caught a cab back home I did not wait for the removal of the rods and hooks it would have taken a lot of time I had not eaten since morning I was in bad shape due to my diabetic condition.

There were Hijras too again this year..Muskan from Dharavi and Sarita.

I once again thank Ganesh the head priest of the Maryamma temple his kind sister Laxmi and the entire family that allow me to shoot this event , and this time they allowed me to bring my foreign friends too.

This family owns the Temple and it is basically a private family event.

This was my third year shooting this event.

I was really sad as my little friend Sairam did not show up for the cheek piercing.

Raja from Sion Koliwada was the piercer , and single handedly he pierced the hooks and the rods on the men ladies and children , devotees of Goddess Maryamma.

This is a very long series about 6 GB card I shot on two camera bodies and two lenses, most of it on camera flash as the event started very late..


This time there was no Juggernaut too, a cartwheel kind of contraption where rods are pierced both in the back and in the front of the chest.. including a 18 feet rod piercing both the cheeks.