Documenting the Hijra Soul at Moti Katla

Documenting the Hijra Soul at Moti Katla, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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This is the famous area called Moti Katla where the affluent hijras from Delhi Mumbai stay,the influence of Khwajah Gharib Nawaz is felt by the Hijras from Delhi Kolkatta and Mumbai and nearby places in the northern states including Pakistan and Bangladesh.

They come in hordes t renew their spiritual pledge with him dancing away into the Holy Shrine with their Sandal processions floral tributes and chaddar offerings.

Nothing is bigger than the Urus of Gharib Nawaz as Khwajah Moinuddin Chisty Al Sabri the Sufi Saint is ubiquitously called by all and sundry.

The Hijras stay here at Moti Katla in old time houses belonging to the Khadim that have balconies facing the main road that leads to Bulund Darwaza.

So when you come through this main road you can see the hijra beauties watching you from above.

The hijras are great spenders they dont scrounge and feed the poor and needy twice a day till they are there .Once they present the sandal they leave Ajmer back to the places from where they came from.

Chatti and 9 ka kul are important dates for these androgynous devotees of Gharib Nawaz.

In the nights the hijras dressed in their finery move around the lanes of the Dargah or sit and chat at Babbbar Alis s tea shop.


Around the dargah there are Qawwali programmes almost very night where these beauties are called to add their glamor and glitz , dance.They are paid handsomely by the crowds and the patron that called them.


I am a known face at Moti Katla.

Hijras also stay across the road on the other side of Moti Katla but I dd not go there.

Hijras are found in some hoses near Sola Khamba but again I would visit this area when Laxmi Narayan Tripathi my hijra Guru was around.

This time she did not come because of the ailing health of her father.

She was tremendously missed by everyone.

Marc De Clercq my friend from Brussels ace photographer who like me shoots the Hijra ethos was here much before me and we spent some time together at Gopal Haji and Babitas house at Moti Katla.

I was not in a very comfortable state of mind , overloaded with constrains back at work I shot without my early passion.


My heart as a photographer was not in its right place.

I just shot what came in front of my camera lens .

I was invited to some hijra dancing events I skipped them as they happen pretty late and I was staying at the house of Peersaab Fakhru Miya Hijra no6 and did not want to over impose my activities on him.

Their doors shut by midnight.

And the hijra events carry on till the wee hours of the mornings I am told.


And I had already shot 22 GB footage in a few days I decided after Chatti it was time to hit the return trail.

This is my second memory card I am uploading there are still 3 more to go.