Thursday, March 25, 2010

No 1


No 1, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

photo courtesy jean marc gargantiel el gekko

one soul
one thought
one blood
one heritage
one ancestry
binding us
both as
a foto frame
for
posterity
through the
eye of
a needle
captured
brilliantly
a frenchman
who saw
what
others
dont see
a single
god
you call
him by
different
names
collectively
the soul
of humanity
peace
hope
brotherhood
harmony
sometimes
to open
a locked door
love
is the best key
enslaved
to a moment
of enlightenment
but always free

By -

Marziya Shakir and a Puppy

By -

In The Divine Light of Friendship

121,880 items / 828,521 views

photo courtesy jean marc gargantiel el gekko

His message to me

Hello Firoze,

Hope everything is ok for you and your family, as it is for me!
Since my return here, I still have Mumbai in my head, everyday, and the fact I'm working on the numerous photos I took isn't helping me getting it out... as if I wanted to anyway! ;)

So, here is one picture I had fun to work for you, as a starter for the ones you'll get tomorrow.

I called it: "in the light of God", and even if he's not "yours", he's "the" one for every one on this Earth, anyway, I'm sure you'll agree about this.


jmgargantiel.zenfolio.com/p132891686


I hope you'll like it.

Also, I've started to post some of my photos on my site, here is the direct link for you!
But if you go through my standard home page (the link at the bottom of this message) you'll have a fine slideshow of the Mumbaï photos, with some music I've put on them.

Anyway you chose to visit them, I wish you a fine "trip" into my Bombay visions, then!

I'll send you more of you tomorrow, and I'll continue to post, regurarly, some of Mumbai as soon as I worked them allright, so keep posted my friend! :)

Have a nice night and give my regards to your wife and charming small grand daughter.

Jean-Marc



This was sent to me just now by my dear French friend Jean Marc Gargantiel whom we fondly call El Gekko .For those who have tuned in late Jeam Marc had recently visited Mumbai for the first time , he is a brilliant photographer , shoots any subject but shoots them poetically.His pictures are poems of light shade and temperament.

Photography is about temperament , either you have it or you dont, in Urdu you may conveniently call it Mijaz, you can buy anything in this world but you cant buy Mijaz you have to inherit it.Camera lenses technique are redundant without mijaz..

I met El Gekko at Buzznet early 2005 , he came to my photo stream after Yorrik or Richard Higgins discovered me, I was already 5 years old into photography but new to blogging , and our friendship continued , blossomed as we migrated to Flickr..

So the Woolongong Mafia a group of Australian photographers Yorrik Friar Tuck a cosmic karmic poet better than me and Dread Heading , are old mates El Gekko was our favorite photographer friend and contact.

I will now talk for myself I was mesmerized by Jean Marc's nudes he shot aesthetically all at Reunion where he is based, I must confess I tuned my own aesthetic senses seeing Jean Marcs pictures.I grew with them .Mind you I did not emulate or copy his style I read his pictures like poems as I would have read Blake or Keats..and you dont become a poet by just reading a poem..honestly poems are not read they are felt by your soul.

When Jean Marc came to Mumbai, he stayed at Sea Green Hotel on Marine Drive , I visited him ,took him to Brijwasi and to my parents house at Strand Cinema Colaba.

We had dinner at a Goan restaurant Martins.

I gave Jean Marc space , never over imposed myself on him , and this set is my tribute to him and his wife Muriel.

I took him to Worli Koliwada to shoot the burning of the Holi.I was more keen to take him to Alibagh for the bullock cart race, but they were canceled.

He came to Bandra and St Peters Church was where I took him , a place I believe God lives , this is one Church in Bandra that proves to me the existence of a Divinity beyond caste color or creed.Yes God exists for a Shia born even in a Roman Catholic Church.. Spirituality for a poet is a poem of life and death too.


I am not a bigot and I have just one thread of divine thought Aisi Jagah batade Jahan Par Khuda Na Ho.. Show me one place where there is no God..and I always felt the same when I visited Moghul Masjid at Bhendi Bazar.

Well Jean Marc met my spiritual mentor Fr Jaun a Jesuit priest ,my old friend who is Spanish speaks fluent Marathi and is a pucca Mumbaikar.

I took Jean Marc to a few churches in Bandra , he visited my house had lunch with us and could not get over Marziya, so a grain of salt that you consume at a mans house binds you forever , you become family this is what my dad taught me.

Jean Marc like Glenn Losack is family..of course Glenn is Marziyas god father and I consider him my elder brother he has more experience he has fallen out of love more times than me.. falling out of love is more important than falling in love..falling out of love keeps the poet-in you alive and photography is nothing but the poetry of life.

Well this is a blog, it has no format, what you are reading is human emotions, they dont travel in a straight line..Jean Marc visited Bandra twice , the last final trip he shot Behrampada.

I could not meet him on the day he was leaving for Reunion, I was meeting my dear friend Dilip Ghosh who is seriously unwell...

So my new poem is titled
In the Divine Light of Friendship and is my first poetry blog of the day..




greater
than the
divine light
of godliness
is the divine
light of friendship
i feel
friendship
that connects
you as a man
with another man
even a woman
or divinity
a relationship
that heals
a bond of everlasting
love as it seals
cosmic moments from
life it steals
moments that read
as poems
wheels within wheels
nothing
but the serenity
of human souls
reveal
like an onion each
layer you peel
in friendship
what you really are
you done conceal

this poem a tribute
Muriel and Jean Marc
Gargantiel

By -

The Chakra Bakra and Blog

bakreki gardan kategi
jab chure par dhar lagegi

mere blog
bagair dhar ke churi
ki tarah kagaz ko
kat dete hain
kuch na kehne par
na jane
kya kya
keh dete hain
befuzool guftugu
kya karen ap se
ap too faiz sahab
bade
namcheen shayar hain
hasi main
mard ko
bhi mohtarma
keh dete hain
shayad ap
aise hi logon
ke sat rehte hain
jab chaha kisi ki
bhi let lete hain
ap jaise
do take ke shayar
hamari
peshab ki dhar
se behte hain


Have to Use the Ignore Button Before I add a Poet as my Friend on Facebook..

By -

The Hijra Hurts

through a pain
in her guts
blood
she squirts
she flits she flirts
in a tired skirt
a passion
sweet sherbet
in her mouth
you splurt
a story
of a docile man
a hijra convert
another one
hits the dirt
hijra aberration
but not a pervert

By -

Dard e Hijra

kabh
adhii aurat
kabhi
adha mard
kamzarf
dard
na koie
seema
no koie
sarhad

By -

A Magic Called Heena

on the streets
of sin
she lives
what you
cant get at
home she gives
your transgressions
for a few wads
she forgives
holding you
your libido
forever and ever
captive

By -

Demistyfying The Hijra Ethos Some Word Play

you were lucky
you got away
you came
you saw
you ran away
living
you life as a man
in a fucked
man s world
you passed away
we as hijras
were stuck
made
of molded
human clay
a penis gave way
to a missing vagina
on the bidet
our testes
to an androgynous god
we donated it right away
stalking girhaks
our work day
on peela house
shshh we call
them out
from the cages
by the way
man may love
be enamored
by women
he may or may
not be gay
but a hijra fuck
is what he dreams
salaam
bombay
slithering
in through
a trap door
instead
of the
front
doorway

By -

An Enigma Called Heena

Heena is human , and Heena loves Salman Khan , she was on his show with Laxmi Narayan Tripathi on Dus Ka Duum .

Whenever I go to Peela House the red light area she will inquire about him and Salman Khan has done a lot for the underprivileged of her community and also the demarginalized.

I met Heena the first time came to shoot this area , I came here with two goons and I had contacted a friend of a Bhai of this area who had allowed me to shoot but discreetly I shot pictures from a building that is owned by the hijras , actually even the cages belong to the hjras, each hijra madam has prostitutes working under her ..Heena thought I was a hijra too , and fuck who is not a hija castrated by a system that sucks all the way to the grave , they fleece you even on your last journey , and than thrw dirt on you and walk away and you will be raped sodomized by worms before you the face of your maker..

Well back to Heena we are friends for a long time , Heena was kidnapped by a local don , but she escaped , and Heena has people eating out of her hand , I am updating this blank post at Flickr today..even young kids are mesmerized by her beauty..

While I was shooting pictures of Lal Bagh Cha Raja last year I was accosted by a young boy , he befriended me and broached the topic of Heena and Salma ,he had read my hijra blogs including my stuff on Flickr.

I did not pay much attention to him, till he sent me a message recently and added me as a contact on Flickr.. I added him , his first message to me ..

Dear Sir,

We met last year during labaug photo shoot myself k.I have even seen you at dadar station few days ago in evening.I wanted to meet you at least once wanted to know about your photography like your photos specially heena and slma nice it is.

With Regards,


The second message sent to me again , hit me , he told me he was meeting Heena at noon , and wanted my advise and he sounded pretty dumb in his adoration for her , I requested him not to involve me at all , he sent me a reply but I had blocked him completely.


his second message

Dear Sir,

Lately I called Heena and asked her whether she can meet me .
Sha said call in noon at 12 and come at my room.Is it safe to go?
I just want to have clean friendship relation with her not anything vulgar.I just want to help her in life when i start earning properly,and maintain relationship forever.Dear sir if its possible for you please reply.


I am showing you the dangers of life and a persons obsession with hijras I shoot hijras but thats it , I play by ear , I have had no desire for hjra I shoot them because I understand their angst and their struggle in life for recognitions as citizens of India and I think without being boastful I shoot them more poetically and honestly than others.


I avoid chats on Facebook as invariably the chat ends with my hijra contacts and hijra pictures..I have therefore removed all my 59 albums at Facebook from public view.. Facebook has no option for prohibiting download of my pictures .. I do not wish to share my pictures at all that I took trouble to shoot climbing mountains barefeet etc,,,


Even at Flickr I block a person who adds me without reading my profile simply because by his adding me without my permission , I end up on his profile page , and if he has dirty pictures kinky stuff it affects me being party to his sickness a fact Flickr management is not willing to understand , I had a guy Indian who added me, he had pictures with him masturbating in a tea cup ..I mean what the fuck does he take me for , because I shoot hijras and cross dressers does not mean I am one, I am not into his kind of shit..and if this same person adds a teenager or a young woman .. I think this should stop..There are faceless molesters and child porn artistes so the true identity of a person is mandatory this is my personal view.

I abide by Flickr Facebook and Twitter rules and regulations I am an open book as far as you can see I may have written shit when I started of as a blogger but who did not..when they started off too and at least I dont come from a school of journalism I am a drop out and the internet made me better person than I ever was , the internet made me the cosmic poet of Mumbai.. only my neighbor does not know about it .. dont blame him , he has a comp but yet to get a internet connection ..

By -

Mujhe Heena Kehte Hain

main us gali main
rehti hoon
jahan rat din
dhandha hota hai
aurat aur admi
mard ur chakka
khatmalon se bhare
palang par sota hai
yahan har koie
paisa deke
nanga hota hai
thukraie hui
kismet par
waqt bhi rota hai

By -

Mera Nam Hai Heena

tune banaya tha kya
main ban gaya kya
mere jute ki nok
pe hai mardon
ka jahan
main marad se
ban gayi aurat
mera nam
hai heena
peela house ki rani
raton ki malka
meri ankhon
se pi
aur sharab chalka
tere bistar ki
chati pe lete
hai chakka
kismet
ka taqaza tha
na pura
na adha
aur
na akha
jo khuda
ne banaya tha
woh main
ban na saka

By -
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