The Dhuni of the Chancawalli Rafees Mahim Dargah, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
I have sad memories , bitter memories sweet memories of the Dhuni I have been documenting the life of these Rafaees or body piercing mendicants who belong to the Chancawalli Order ..pay allegiance to the Holy Saint of Ajmer Khwajah Moinuddin Chishti..
I have seen Murshad come die fade away and they are alive at my Sufi sets at Flickr dot com..I have been ex communicated from this group for an year but was again called back when the Murshad Sikandar Wali Baba died, and Handi who succeeded him , the only Murshad who stood by me supported me from Rafaees who did not want their life styles to be recorded for public died recently, Handi was the only Rafaee who knew about my Shia back ground, my head cutting and my love for Hussain , he had visited my shop, he invited me to become a Rafaee , learn the Rafaee art from him, he was the best exponent of tongue piercing and eye ball piercing, but I refused politely..
I was happy doing what I do what I do in real bleed for Hussain and did not want to add the baggage of Rafaee surrealism to my persona...
And besides Handi was very close to my Naga Sadhu Guru Shri Vijay Giri Maharaj of Juna Akhada , we bonded beautifully , the Nagas and the Rafaees both have the Dhuni in their respective orders and both are good at martial arts.
At Haji Malang he knew I knew he was going to die , as I saw or imagined huge vultures surrounding him, and he wore a necklace of onyx given to him by me, that was our last meeting he died at Kota...the finest Rafaee Murshad of the Chancawalli order.
Barsati Baba took over but was soon replaced by Sarkar Ali seated on the Gaddi in my picture.
I met Hassan Ganda Handis nephew last night at Fakhruddin Shah Babas sandal, and he is another great exponent of the sword.
Though this year I did not meet the crazy Bawa who in a madness of frenzy slashed my stomach with his sword , but nothing happened to me ,,later when he came out of his trance hugged me like his brother ..the world of the rafaees is a crazy world.. indeed .
