136,273 items / 1,052,488 views
He thought I was crazy and was wondering why I was shooting his car , I liked the reflection and in a way it resembled my own penury of pain and pathos , my inner turmoil and the silhouette of a barrenness on my blog of life.
This was shot before Mr Satheesh Balachandran the bigot and cyber bully on Facebook zoomed into my life , so in a way pictures are premonition of what will happen ..
The only place I was voluble and talkative was Facebook and the avenue too has been locked up by me for good like my Flickr photo blogs.
No Comments No Headache No problems.
Well this is the last time I mention my antagonist in my blog post..
Now imagine had I not clicked this picture and moved away , but I did go a step ahead and came back to shoot it.. pain always calls me from every available nook and cranny where it hides and reflects itself on the windscreen of my soul too.
Living in Mumbai a concrete jungle what could I shoot save the streets the garbage the beggars the hijras when I meet them and as last resort my grand daughter Marziya Shakir.
Marziya is a healer she heals others she heals me too.
I know people who want to come and see Marziya , an ordinary child with extra ordinary perceptions. They want to see her , but she is the same as she is in my pictures at the moment as I write this she is in her mother's room drawing, and she needs to see an item once to draw it , so if her mother draws a fish she will draw it too, she drew a rat and a mango.
And it is her Uncle Assad who opened up her doors to drawing coloring and creativity.
I had taken her to Joggers park and Carter Road a few hours back, instead of Patwardhan Park on Linking Road where I normally take her.
I shoot ordinary mundane stuff, why I shoot it I dont know, a force pushes me to capture it I capture it and because I dont make prints I post it here on Flickr as a photo blog.
The poems come later I dont force a poem on a picture, but I need a picture to write a poem embed it as a code of my poetic pathos.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Sometimes I Shoot Landscapes too
Caught In The Rains
136,272 items / 1,052,426 views
mumbai rains
are unpredictable
can take you
by surprise
you have
to get wet
alas there
is no '
other choice
mother and child
searching for shelter
before it stops and dries
she was in a great hurry
to pick up her son
from school she
forgot
the umbrella
at home
a thought
that annoys
the hustle
the bustle
the noise
a monsoonal
moment
she enjoys
Give Till It Hurts
136,271 items / 1,052,136 views
every single drop
till it quenches
his thirst
first things first
homeless
hopeless
his life
accursed
a balloon
almost
ready to burst
what could be
worst
putrid flesh
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
his soul
corroded
bleeding rust
Click Click Click
136,270 items / 1,052,064 views
the sound
of my camera
makes
my soul tick
each time
my grand daughter
marziya shakirs
pictures i click
because
i dont shoot nature
or still life or the ramp
its her life i pick
from the tapestry of her
innocence holy
smoke of
an incense stick
my dream house is built
on this single brick
to my poetic angst
as a poem of joy
it comes and sticks
so i shoot what i shoot
shooting like
cartier bresson
is out of the question
not my choice or inclination
i would be mentally sick
i am a street photographer
my soul embedded
in the arteries
of an internet wire
passion pathos
in a mouse click
your height
your grandeur
your wealth
is humility
on the soul
of a measuring stick
Man Is a Tree
136,269 items / 1,051,472 views
a tiny
seed
he grows
into a tree
branches
as shade
fruits
for posterity
but sometimes
ill winds
uproot him
he falls
to the ground
crushed by his
own weight
they call vanity
a little child
drops a few coins
on his palm
he sees hope
while you
see charity
a lot trees
in the garden
of hope and humility
we call humanity
dedicated to Tysa Konstancja
~ I wanted to express how honoured and privileged I feel at having the chance to see Firoze Shakir's work and being tagged in his albums. I have often felt we have met before, and believe that it is not chance that I came across him here on FB ~
dedicated to Marcel Duvoix
Marcel Duvoix August 6 at 4:50am
Dear Firoze,
You're a respected figure in my religion of Legacism, so of course, when i see someone defaming and attacking your character and your artistic works, it bothers me. I'm ever in firm support of all that you are, your: photography, poetry, blogging; etc.
What you have to say, and to share with others here on Facebook, is valid and important, and I'm dismayed at any attempts to silence your artistic expression or voice. You have my support always, and my fraternal love. In endearment always, your friend Marcel.
You Are What Your Parents Made You
136,269 items / 1,051,472 views
I gave Marziya money and before I could tell her something she was rushing to give the same to the homeless beggar on Bandra Hill Road .
And as a child has been toilet trained so has Marziya been trained to see feel observe pain.
But much of all this was there much before she was trained it was her heritage and her parentage is what she displays through her actions that I have documented as a street photographer.
At least I have clicked clicked clicked a childs story from the day she was born till date on Flickr 11000 picture private and public tell her story I have kept nothing back, I want Marziya to see all this once I am dead and gone.
Very few of us remember our child hood , I was lucky I had a camera and time and love to shoot her growth and through her growth my own.
And so I share her life and the life of the people around her to show you the dominance of pain above all things.
Now this beggar is a very sad tale I dont know what is his story, whether it is booze or plain bad luck, I have passed his way once once but as alcoholic I was saved before I fell in the gutters like him by my family ..
So when I expose Marziya to pain , I know she can handle it she is highly gifted and very perceptive.
And Marziya is only the sutradahar in pictures I have shot of her here the protagonist is the man and his circumstances.
Marziya is the thread that binds my soul to the street poetry of life.
Because I have a camera with me all times I am able to capture fleeting moments of pain , even those who are dead are alive on my Flickr posts.
your REPETITIVE IMAGES of the same style/ nature/ content and your "gibberish" poems are really SPAM. Also, you are not a "PHOTOGRAPHER". You are just a "Propagandist". You always tell about "Street Photography", as if you are the Master of it. Have you ever seen the Photographs of the Masters - Henri Cartier-Bresson etc. And, what "positive" results have been born out of your SPAM IMAGES & POEMS?
But, what about you? Just Clicking, Clicking, Clicking... Just an UTTER WASTE. "Give Respect, and take Respect". Humility, my friend, is a "Virtue".
its true completely true
i write gibberish
that gets you
intoxicated
like a home made
country brew
maybe because
you dont
like Muslim bloggers
hate you spew
satheesh balachandran
you are what
your parents made you
pedagogic
pedantic
pompous
muslim hating
hindu
it hurts
me to say
this but
your words
poisonous
venomous
virulent
that comes through
my poems my pictures
were not meant for you
schizophrenic metaphysical
menopause that plagues you
it is just because i write in English
not Urdu that upsets you
sleepless nights you
spent building a blog
but you learnt nothing new
humility humanity
you dont have
viciousness is
your only home
grown virtue
i pity your parents
who created you
they should
'have flushed
you in the toilet
as an embryo
but unfortunately
they did not
get around to
back waters of kerala
herbal oil massage
might cure you
to be not not to be
says the mallu
suffering
from brain damage
swine flu
yes its sad but you are what your parents made you...
I Have Turned My Back On Facebook
136,269 items / 1,051,472 views
On the face of it and this is I say with sheer honesty and pain, I have perhaps a million flaws but I am what my parents put in me, I have never boasted of being literate in a pedantic or a showy way,
I have read books but luckily no book has inspired me to write the way I write I write from my heart . my verse is simple words I dont use a dictionary , perhaps I play with the same end words adding a new context every time I pen my pain.
I dont plagiarize .
The only two people who influenced me to shoot pictures the way they wrote their stories is Honore de Balzac and Charles Dickens , Dostovesky to some extent.
I shot Dickensian characters in Mumbai in my local surroundings Uriah Heep. Micawber , Fat boy, Barkis Aunt Peggoty and so on and so forth.
I feel pain much more than you as I am constantly shooting pain in one form or the other .
So the attack on me by holier than though Keralite pompous pedantic Satheesh Balachandran, took me by surprise, I always respected him, and he commented on my posts , and he is presumably a man of letters , well read from Guruvayur Trichur Kerala , a land where the sun of education never sets.And I mean it I dont want to criticize a State of my country for the fault of one of its children or even if a few disgruntled souls chop a mans hand because he has insulted their religion.
If I have something to say I always use personal mail instead of writing on somebody's wall , I will not be so blatant I was never bought up that way, nor am I a racist ,.but we Indians and it is flaw in our genes are the biggest Racists after all.
We read someone , we see his pictures we comment on his pictures write sweet nothings praise him but hate him and this hate could be for several reasons I dont prostitute dead writers or their books..I am a street photographer I blog..
What I am is amply displayed though my pictures and my poems.
You want to promote your blogs go to Alpha Inventions or Condron , why pimp it through my wall or sending me spam mail.
So Satheesh Baachandrans words should be read ,in the context of hate for an Indian blogger , perhaps some time back a few Keralite Muslims might have tried to gang rape him or tried to chop of his uncut manhood or hands , that he uses me as a punching bag to get even with me is in real bad taste , I did nothing to provoke him no abusive missive no abusive comment..
I only comment on peoples post or feed or update if I know them I maintain great distance from the Bollywoods fraternity on my contact list too., who know me more as a couturier and not as a photographer or blogger.
All my blogs originate at Flickr and than a few to Facebook or Twitter.
I tag a friend if I have written or mentioned about him in a poem , most of my Facebook friends have made me a more mature and better poet than I was , I have written gibberish abusive stuff when I first started out writing my slam poetry 6 years back at Buzznet and Blogspot.
And I dont consider Jorge Luis Borges as my mentor he certainly could not teach me the ancestral values of humanity and humility of my birth.
So sending a personal message in very simple English asking a person not to send me chain mail but a person to person mail, upsets his literary ego, the nights he spent sleepless in Kerala to create his blog is water over his dead mothers ass.
I was not sarcastic , I was human , the flawed system of notifications at Facebook would force anyone to deactivate his account, they just keep coming once you are tagged in a picture or a message.
I have no time and mostly remove such posts or my tag, but I cant do that on the message one sends me.
I want someone to read my post I send him a message with the link of the post.
I dont write virulent stuff or post porn.
So if you are plagued and suffering from Schizophrenia, Metaphysical menopause why pick on me , Mr Satheesh Balachandran..you added me I did not come to add you , you should have dropped me like a hot potato right in the beginning why did you burn at the stake because I click click what I click, I bet you cant hold a frickin camera like my grand daughter holds and clicks , I bet you have never written your own stuff you conceited man an insult to my nationality.
So now read Satheesh Balachandrans message to me sent via my Facebook mailbox.. nothing but hate for a prolific Indian be it a Muslim blogger of no repute.
Satheesh Balachandran to me
Satheesh Balachandran06 August 2010 at 10:00
Re: thanks this was in subject to a mail I sent him not to tag me in his chain messages.
hey, what kind of a person are you? You didn't even "VISIT" my BLOG. You didn't even "explore" what it is. My BLOG and the FB Group were created over a period of 2 years. Many sleepless nights were spent into the making of it.
/Library of Babel/ {in the process of "being built"}
A Digital or Virtual LIBRARY comprising of Free "eBooks" ~ Articles ~ Discussions ~ Posts ~ Links ~ Photos ~ Videos about "AUTEUR" Films ~ FICTION ~ Poetry ~ Arts & Literature ~ Theatre ~ Philosophy ~ Psychology ~ Music ~ Science ~ Culture etc.
More than 500 eBooks (Classics & Contemporary) are uploaded there. Anybody could download them totally FREE. Till now, more than 1,200 "Downloads" had been done. And many "distinguished"/ Notable people "praised" me for this "Herculean Task". No "notifications" are being sent from my BLOG. If anybody is interested, they have to come there. If you are a person without any "Liteary Background/ Interests", that's not my fault. You could have kept "mum", rather than sending that "sarcastic" message.
As for notifications and SPAM, Your REPETITIVE IMAGES of the same style/ nature/ content and your "gibberish" poems are really SPAM. Also, you are not a "PHOTOGRAPHER". You are just a "Propagandist". You always tell about "Street Photography", as if you are the Master of it. Have you ever seen the Photographs of the Masters - Henri Cartier-Bresson etc. And, what "positive" results have been born out of your SPAM IMAGES & POEMS? Kalki Subramaniam is working hard, all over India, with a systematic and proper "Agenda". And, many "positive" and "productive" results have been born out of it. But, what about you? Just Clicking, Clicking, Clicking... Just an UTTER WASTE. "Give Respect, and take Respect". Humility, my friend, is a "Virtue".
Sorry, I can no more "accommodate" you in my friends' list. And also, I have to CLEAR my page from your SPAM.
I 'am disconnecting you, BYE.
I mean who cares a flying fuck what you do or how you do and this is Facebook case of Cyber Bullying seen in a new light...
I have removed my comment box from Facebook too.
The Beggar Hijras of Mumbai
The most lowly , the most degrading, the most humiliating the most painful the most inhuman is the life of the beggar hijra of Mumbai or any other city for that matter.
The beggar hijra is stuck till doomsday , he is a hijra which as an ethnicity is shunned looked down upon and being a beggar hijra is the worst karmic calamity to befall the hijra.
Now one thing I must mention I am not a Hijra activist , I am not connected to any Hijra NGO, but yes I have a hijra guru Laxmi Narayan Tripathi who is doing the most for hijra community.
I dont make use of Laxmi to get pictures but people who know I am Laxmis heterosexual chela respect me and dont take up cudgels for shooting them , the hijras i mean.
And no where have I ever boasted about my work on the hijras , I shoot pictures show you Hijras are human and I shoot them from a proximity even the angel would fear to shoot.
I just spoke to Kalki Subramaniam, about this psycho Sateesh Balchandran my Facebook stalker and she too is upset for his bilious outburst on me.
If I bother you personally on any networking site than you should direct your ire to the website developer, I keep away from people I blog till I fall dead asleep, that is my high, I dont ask you to read me or view my pictures .You do it at your risk if you think I am a spammer , a spammer is a person who sodomizes your soul in your inbox and rapes your spirit on you Facebook wall, I dont do those kind of things but I am real mad to be treated the way I have been treated I am 58 yeas old street photographer blogger poet ..I deserve respect as I give respect too.
I have decided I will not add friends at all on Facebook without a profile and only if they have a mutual friend or send me message as request I shall do the needful.
Screw suggestions or Friend Finder.
Adding Friends on Facebook Is A Pain In The Arse
Adding Friends on Facebook Is A Pain In The Arse, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
I normally go about with my postings on Facebook , I try not to send chain mail or write on peoples wall unless it is their birthday.I wish everybody on their birthday those on my friends list as a habit.
I got a message from a pseudo literary book seller who allegedly works on commission for the books he sells he sent me message , telling me to visit his blog , I sent him a message to remove my tag from the message as I get inundated with unnecessary notifications and the person concerned took offense and this is from a guy who does not even have the balls to show himself in on his profile thumbnail..
My message to him in sheer good faith and his reply I paste here so you know I am not the only spammer or weirdo at least I dont sell books , or my poems or my pictures and fuck Cartier Bresson I shoot what I shoot..
But yes I pimp my blogs and poems on Facebook and Twitter ..without shoving my ass up somebody's nostrils.
If you find my blogs irritating you you should block me in the beginning , you should remove me from your Feeds but than 80% hardly know how to use Facebook in the first place they think Facebook is another micro blog like Twitter.
My message when he tagged me in his fucked chain message..
Firoze Shakir August 5 at 8:34pm
Dear Satheesh Balachandran
If you cud remove the tag from your chain message .. i am already deep into notifications thanks ..i would prefer you send me one to one message next time nothing personal
His reply to me .. I give it a literary shelf life removing his link of course...
August 5 at 9:30pm
hey, what kind of a person are you? You didn't even "VISIT" my BLOG. You didn't even "explore" what it is. My BLOG and the FB Group were created over a period of 2 years. Many sleepless nights were spent into the making of it.
his website at babel.fucked,blogspot..com something like that
/Library of Babel/ {in the process of "being built"}
A Digital or Virtual LIBRARY comprising of Free "eBooks" ~ Articles ~ Discussions ~ Posts ~ Links ~ Photos ~ Videos about "AUTEUR" Films ~ FICTION ~ Poetry ~ Arts & Literature ~ Theatre ~ Philosophy ~ Psychology ~ Music ~ Science ~ Culture etc.
More than 500 eBooks (Classics & Contemporary) are uploaded there. Anybody could download them totally FREE. Till now, more than 1,200 "Downloads" had been done. And many "distinguished"/ Notable people "praised" me for this "Herculean Task". No "notifications" are being sent from my BLOG. If anybody is interested, they have to come there. If you are a person without any "Liteary Background/ Interests", that's not my fault. You could have kept "mum", rather than sending that "sarcastic" message.
As for notifications and SPAM, Your REPETITIVE IMAGES of the same style/ nature/ content and your "gibberish" poems are really SPAM. Also, you are not a "PHOTOGRAPHER". You are just a "Propagandist". You always tell about "Street Photography", as if you are the Master of it. Have you ever seen the Photographs of the Masters - Henri Cartier-Bresson etc. And, what "positive" results have been born out of your SPAM IMAGES & POEMS? Kalki Subramaniam is working hard, all over India, with a systematic and proper "Agenda". And, many "positive" and "productive" results have been born out of it. But, what about you? Just Clicking, Clicking, Clicking... Just an UTTER WASTE. "Give Respect, and take Respect". Humility, my friend, is a "Virtue".
Sorry, I can no more "accommodate" you in my friends' list. And also, I have to CLEAR my page from your SPAM.
I 'am disconnecting you, BYE.
/Library of Babelfucked / {in the process of "being built"}
So this is the kind of trash you put up with on Facebook from time to time.. and people who add me without profile or without a message I have decided not to add at all, unless they have a mutual contact I am happy with the existing friends list ..
If there was a way of choking my Facebook comment box I would do it without batting an eye lid, like I have done at Flickr.
I dont hit back at people or racially abuse them or write adverse comments on what they post.
I give respect I deserve respect..
And imagine he gets upset after I send him a message instead of writing my ire on his wall ..
But I am happy he did read me after all...
I have reported both his messages to me as Spam.
Does he hate me because I am a Muslim blogger is something he should ask himself..
Please Dont Take My Pictures - Said The Hijra To Me
Please Dont Take My Pictures - Said The Hijra To Me, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
on the fucked streets
of despair let me be
the traffic lights of my life
got hit by a fatal stone
karmically
hijra sorrow
hijra pain hijra poetry
castrated cast away
from society
finally
fucked by a system
fucked by cars
fucked by fate
sordidly
testicular fortitude
slashed by a sharp razor
androgynously
born as a hijra
in the body of a man
my fucked destiny
tryingly
will prince of raj pipla
manvendra singh gohil
use me on the front
page of his new gay
magazine
no it wont be
she said scathingly
my body
my butt
my angst
with a drop
of tear
from his eye
said the hijra
to me sighingly
cryingly
My Haunted Hand
up my
fucked up fate
in quicksand
as i sink
every second
every minute
no one there
to hold my
fucked hand
a bloggers
last stand
in mud and sand
like a Google buzz
post they all see
it when they
read their mail
but who the fuck
has time
to read it
or expand
so i twitter
in short hand
pimp my pathos
on facebook
some share it tag
it like a friendship band
a street blog
of poetic passion
bollywoods
most wanted brand
no editorial
constrains
on its own
fucked leg
it stands
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Shah-e-Mardan Sher-e-Yazdan Quwat-e-Parwardigar Lafata Ila Ali La Saif Ila Zulfiqar , originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1 ....
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Dargah of Hazrat Syed Ali Mira Datar Unava Gujrat , a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr. HAZRAT SYED ALI MIRA DATAR'S G...
