Maryamma Temple Macchimar Colony Mahim

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

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I would have never known about this place or these rituals but it was my Tamil friend Davendar from Nehru Nagar Juhu who had bought me here three years back, he was invited by Ganesh to the celebrations this year but he did not turn up.

Davendar is an accomplished piercer too.

And I became good friends with Ganesh the head priest of this temple and his sister Laxmi and the entire family.

They consider me a part of their family too.

Being a Shia Muslim who undergoes pain doing the head cutting with a dagger I know pain on mutual terms , I shoot pain.

Pain is the essence of my photography ..the ethos of pain goes beyond every religiosity.. pain is what makes you and me human..

I also understand the pain of the sacrificial goat..I went into a trance here during the arti, this is part of the mysticism of my human soul and my Indianness..

Sometimes people who have read a lot of books derogatorily call this madness , specially my Shia rituals , it hurts me , but than you have to be a shia understand the Shia angst , I am not a Hindu but I become one when I shoot these rituals respectfully , if my agenda was to make fun of religion than I too would become an agnostic or atheist .

I am not.

I dont ridicule rituals customs of other communities I shoot them as passionately as I shoot my own .I understand the other persons love for his heritage his ancestry and I pay my humble tribute to their faith through my pictures.

Photography is not just shooting pictures but holistically healing through pictures .

Because I shoot what I shoot you know pain exists man exists God exists in the state of the mind of the person who pushes a 18 feet road from one cheek to the other ..

Children pierce their cheeks with the adults and the women too.


I cannot stop shooting this event it is catharsis for my own soul too.