Shooting The Maryamma Feast in Mumbai

Shooting The Maryamma Feast in Mumbai, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

Shooting The Maryamma Feast in Mumbai

I have been passionately shooting this event for almost three years now, and it was last year I met Anmamika hijra from Mulund at the Maryamma Feast Macchimar colony.

Than this year I met Krishna hijra , who is a devotee of Goddess Maryamma.

At the beach I met Muskan and Sarita from Dharavi both hijras.

However last evening I was invited to Sion Koliwada by Raja the percer and realized the intensity of the Goddess in a predominantly Punjabi locality, I shot the Maryamma Temple known as Chellam but the piercings start from the Saibaba Temple close by.

Here I saw a Hijra from Nasik dressed in yellow participate in the rod piercing, a lot more hijras joined in , I was barefeet and shot this procession for several hours , there was a German lady shooting this event too, I did not ask her name but she was overtly fascinated capturing all this.I told her to be careful with her belongings and gave her my visiting card too.. She was a Pro all the way she danced with the hijras too.


The highlight of this procession was a guy hung from his back on hooks to a pulley on a crane and beneath him another guy attached to his stomach with hooks , there was a lot of possession too dance frolic fun ,little girls women had clusters of lime held by needles on their back back.

However as I am posting the Maahim Maryamma pictures the Sion Koliwada Maryamma pictures will have to wait.

This was the first time I shot this event at Sion Koliwada I was really tired my legs were in bad shape and as this would carry on till 11 pm I aborted the shoot and returned home by 9 pm.

You need a lot of stamina to shoot this untiring event , and I think Sion Koliwada is the best set of pictures I shot because of my fascination for Hijras and because this rod piercing event was in daylight , I did not need to use flash..

Once the procession started it became very dark.. the Juggernaut guys were there three of them this contraption with chains is known as Singapore..and thin long rods are pierced on the persons back and stomach.


The Juhu Maryamma feast was canceled , the Madras Wadi Worli I was not invited and it was last month I am told..
So Mahim and Sion Koliwada are the two Maryamma feasts I have shot this year.