Sunday, May 16, 2010

Marziya and Me Shot By Me

I have two camera bodies of the Nikon D 80 , the other was given to me by Glenn Losack, I have hardly used it I have kept it for Marziya actually.


Once she gets used to my camera I will give Glenns camera to her for sure..because she will never take a camera without placing the camera strap around her neck I respect her more .. had my Canon G 9 not got stolen it would have been ideal for Marziya .. but than cameras are not the only things that get stolen .. I lost my heart on the internet several times have yet to get it back from the new subscriber.

Carrying the Corpse of a Lover

the mattress
on which
he had fucker her
all his life
his ashes
on the mattress
including
the seminal stains
his marital strife
the transvestite
who was his lover
but not his wife
how while he
was asleep
she half man
half woman
had stabbed him
all over his body
with a blunt
kitchen knife
on the internet
transvestite's tale
never ends
poetically
kept alive

Inside a Slum Room

The Muslim Future of a Beggar Child

The Muslim Future of a Beggar Child

into my eyes
she stares
its not her poverty
but my own she
piercingly bares
my camera binding
her to my soul
few moments
we share
yes a beggar
woman's
daughter
me an
usual pair
our fate
on a
musical chair
she heals me
i was badly
in need of a repair
god within the
holistic vision
of a child
i swear

The Future Of The Slums Stares At Me

I am famous among the kids of the slums , my notoriety to fame is I shoot pictures , pictures these kids will never see as all of them are posted at Flickr on the Internet.

I sometimes think of giving them copies but than I am not too financially stable a single copy does not cost much but a lot of copies do and I would have to give to everyone in the slums.


A few years back I did make a lot of copies of the people I shot during Moharam but never met them again,.. and I gave them to a Shia guy to display on his Sabil the watering hole.

You might laugh I have not made prints of Marziyas pictures the older one I did, but no the new ones and I have shot over 9500 or more pictures of Marziya in two years.

Flowers of Peace For A Transvestite

no big deal
a cybernetic
mistaken
case of identity
a poets plight
like Icarus
i fell from a height
when i realized
the woman
who while chatting
gave me head
was just
another
transvestite
so we had
a big fight
she removed me
from her friends list
in androgynous fright
breaching a wall
of a social networking site
my body covered
with bruises
her love bytes
although
i have deleted her
from my fucked
consciousness
i dream of her
every night
this morning
i sent her
flowers of peace
across the border
to make things right


the transvestites tale never ends my fucked brain makes me write ..at the end of an anal tunnel some spectral light cosmic delusions of broken wings in mid flight

The Red Muted Mail Box

shaped like a
phallic phenomenon
testosterone
related talks
journalistic
mental blocks
what is not news
a few block
blustered cocks
in jaw less jocks
is what media
loves to hawk
virility
potency
some hair loss
the red muted
refuted
mail box
g mail
fucked him
out of business
gone silent
he no more talks
waiting hesitating
for more future shocks
everybody wants it
hard as rock
always
round the clock

Water The Source of Slum Life

there is hell to pay if
the tap runs dry
man can live without art
but not without water
a poetic thought
within a sigh
water cuts across
all party lines
religion caste
color or creed
without water
you die
democracy
political power
depends
on water supply
to those who vote for you
water you cannot deny
the slum lords
the slum votes
with black money
you buy
but without water
you cannot make
mumbai
into a shanghai
as you amass
more money
more wealth
its the common
man who cries
his tenement
you made a tower
rehabilitation
on the sly
hey ram
ab bas
karo bhai

Her Love Letters Have Come Home To Roost

125,568 items / 901,266 views

before the
internet era
before email
we fell in love
I wrote
lots of letters
to my beloved
she wrote
a lot of letters too
up my ass she shoved
a woman not really
a woman a little bit
of a man I loved
the transvestites tale
her ass curved
although
I have deleted
her from my fucked
consciousness
a part of her
as poems
I preserve
she got what she got
I got what I deserved
why the fuck
I fall in love with
with spectral
oversexed
androgynous
beauties
who suck my
seminal poems
I observed
a comment on hold
I have kept in reserve

She Waits To Take Her Mothers Place

125,569 items / 901,272 views

she too will
wear the niqab
hide her face
from the
ignominy
of life
at the crossroads
she too will face
her sorrow
her despair
face to face
her destiny
her cursed fate
back spaced
a fatwa misplaced
going back
to medieval time
in short space
the faith of the beggar
woman in Islam
disfigured displaced
disgraced defaced
the beggar child's
inheritance
a faith
from her mothers
bleeding womb
she had embraced
through a picture
within a poem
on the street
showcased
a niqab
a face
within a face
copy and paste

Words The Extra Burden On My Head

125,568 items / 901,266 views

dictionaries
do not a wordsmiths
workshop make
if you have a million words
poems you cannot make
you need the soul
of a poet besides
poetry for poetry's sake
it also depends
on your spiritual intake
pain that you shoot
pain that keeps
your soul awake
street poetry
is give and take
based on humility
not wordy flatulence
flowerless or fake
street poetry
is learning
from another
persons
mistake
the reader
the poet
both partake
a thirst of life
living
slake
humanity
the cosmic
poets soul
wont forsake
tears
on the soul
of poetry
crystal clear
'transparent
not opaque



to kelly rae daugherty

Kelly Rae Your poems are beautiful, Firoze. Thank you for your beauty

The Butcher's Goat

125,561 items / 901,236 views

The butcher and the goat are two sides of life, and this particular butcher outside the slums does not have much regard for his animals, I saw a pair of lams that were in starvation and because I pass this way with my grand daughter I try not interfere with him , but it hurts.


I guess being a butcher is also his karmic fate , but he has no mercy it is just money at the end of the day.

This little goat too will be slaughtered and Marziya shows her love for animals .

Marziya and the goats get along very well,,sometimes I dont understand what the are saying to each other.

But they have a great human rapport and a child that love animals , will grow up to be a good person is what I believe in , pets add to the silence of our soul.

I have kept Alsatians , Persian cats and a monkey once upon a time much before Marziya was born.,


And I realized keeping a pet animal in small apartment is killing it softly with your song.

I decided never to keep pets at all.

I had Fishes too.

Now the only pet that takes most of my time is the Internet it has me by its collar, Facebook and Flickr..

Flickr is where I post all my blogs and pimp some of them scandalously shamelessly through Facebook and Twitter.

The average visitors to my Flickr photstream is 10000 every day.

From Flickr with a Pro account I cross-blog to Blogspot and Wordpress with a click of a mouse.

And I wish I could do that with a click directly cross blog from Flickr to Facebook..

Though the Flickr to Facebook tool is brilliant if all your pictures are at Flickr , it sends them to the respective album on Facebook.

www.keebler.net/flickr2facebook/

You have to manually copy and paste the text.. which is a pain.

My Wife And Me

125,560 items / 901,184 views

we are one
sometimes
it is true
most of
the times
we are two
different sides
of a single coin
god came
to our rescue
we got married
in Lucknow
33 years down
the line 3 kids
on the menu
we are a
strange couple
when people
who dont know
us see us together
they think the lady
in the burqa
is married
to a hindu
i walk barefeet
all of me
in a saffron hue
only during
moharam
they know
i am a shia
in a black
winding sheet
of ghame hussain
blood spilling
out through
doing tandav
on the soul
of shimr
a dagger
cutting flesh
muscle sinew
does it matter
as a street
photographer
i shoot hijras
as humanity
i have a hijra guru
i shoot
the naga sadhus
ganesha
durga shiva
brahma vishnu
hope and hindutva
is my cultural
inheritance too
peace is what
i pursue


my best friend
a street smart Brooklyn jew

What Is Street Photography !

125,555 items / 900,871 views

shooting pain
fornicating
on the street
pain populating
more pain
poisonously bitter
sad and sweet
poetizing
a fleeting
moment
barefeet
felictating
mans agony
disillusioned defeat
feeling the hot burning
pain beneath my feet
a fate none can cheat
humility
the essence
of street photography
paying tribute
to humanity
a circle within a circle
karmic holistic
complete

Her Future She Does Not Know

125,552 items / 900,854 views

in the slums she lives
a part of life's flow
a little child full of hope
into a woman she will grow
sad confused her future
she does not know
her fate her friend or foe
her story hidden
in a child's shadow
blessings her god
will bestow
save her from
lifes agony
or any blow
but being
a muslim child
her destiny
enslaved
to a mullahs fatwa
a fact she does
not know
her silence
her pain
a child's echo
adding to her
womanly woe

Her Future She Does Not Know

125,552 items / 900,854 views

in the slums she lives
a part of life's flow
a little child full of hope
into a woman she will grow
sad confused her future
she does not know
her fate her friend or foe
her story hidden
in a child's shadow
blessings her god
will bestow
save her from
lifes agony
or any blow
but being
a muslim child
her destiny
enslaved
to a mullahs fatwa
a fact she does
not know
her silence
her pain
a child's echo
adding to her
womanly woe

Shot By Marziya Shakir on Nikon D80

125,544 items / 900,728 views

I can assure you that if Marziya shot this picture it was the Hand of God when she hit the trigger on the Nikon D 80 and for a two year old her hands dont shake I assist her in partially holding the camera , the strap is always around her neck.

These are street urchins after the shot she took her purse that was on my person and gave them some loose change all this on Bandra Hill Road opposite the Vodophone gallery.

A Street Photographer Is Born - Marziya Shakir 2 Year Old

125,544 items / 900,728 views

This was Marziyas first shot I held the camera already around her neck, she pressed the trigger , and Marziya is about 2 and a half years old.

At home she will ask for my camera and shoot her mom my wife or me while on the bed , but here she not at all shy and the second shot freaked me out completely ..

So teaching photography to a child since the day she was born has paid fruit, and having shot over 9800 pictures of Marziya two years old I am sure she knows the essence of photography.

After she takes a shot she will ask me to show it to her on the camera monitor.


And this is the magic of Nikon D 80 in the hands of a little child.

Marziya And The New Goat

125,542 items / 900,689 views

This goat is quite sickly , and knows Marziya very well, and children and animals share a silent language of love and understanding.

Dont blame me for shooting a number of shots , not only as her grand father , but as a learner of life , as Marziya is a textbook that teaches us a new lesson everyday.

Yet in spite of her pictorial friendly nature I dont go overboard I shoot with total control..situations such as these as she speaks in the third person she will tell me Dada wont take Marziyas photo in her own childish way in Hindi.


Another thing maybe you guys may not believe , so many top shot photographers have visited my house met Marziya that some of their magic has rubbed off on her undeniably.

Marziya And The New Goat

125,542 items / 900,689 views

Firstly I have till date posted 125542 photos at Flickr and my photo stream has been viewed 900689 times , I thank all those who see my world a cosmos of street pain within street photography.


Marziya loves goats and her favorite was Jimba who was slaughtered by his owners for Bakra Idd last year.

This is a new goat outside the Rajiv Nagar slums , we pass this goat when I take Marziya to my work place sometimes.

I shot several frames , and even today the goat stood up the moment he saw Marziya.


Today is a special day as Marziya shot pictures on the street with my Nikon D 80 I have to hold the camera that she has round her neck, this is compulsory each time she takes my camera from me the strap goes round her neck.


She is no more shy and does not get riled when people gather around to see what she is shooting..


Both shots she pressed the trigger confidently both shots are unique I shall post after this.

The Fatwa That Failed

125,539 items / 900,650 views

her future
on the streets
nailed
hiding her
shame from
others is
one of the
reasons
she is lucky
she is veiled
married
in haste
her a life
a waste
derailed
her soul
on the streets
impaled
her bad luck
her life
has trailed
an empty stomach
her child wailed
fluttered flailed
rehabilitation is
not part
of our creed
the fatwa that
failed
a few coins
on the face
of her
deprivation
truth
has
prevailed
charity
appeased
availed
for saying
a system
that is mad and insane
a poet lyricist emotionally
censured blackmailed
freedom of speech
cloaked as truth
handcuffed curtailed

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