A Blog Speaks Out

A Blog Speaks Out, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

171,110 items / 1,334,024 views

The rich Hindus or even the less affluent ones bring goats to slaughter and the meat cooked as niyaz which is distributed among the poor pilgrims of Haji Malang Dargah.

The very poor ones bring desi poultry or wild birds for slaughter....the meat is neither cooked nor eaten...just thrown away , sometimes the blood becomes vermilion for the forehead,

The Dargah world is a very strange , so much is happening , it is unbelievable and I shot in moderation , not allowing to be carried away , even when I climbed the Malangad mountains barefeet I shot limited , I wanted to climb higher to the Hindu temples above but could not because of my diabetic condition..

Dargah world is real time moving cinema , I shot on impulse , I could shoot a scene and yet not know why I shot it, I cried most of the time while I did hardcore Kaif outside the courtyard of Haji Malang..my Kaif pictures are ones I will not have any record unless someone shot me on his mobile.

My mind was on a spiritual trapeze.. I was shooting Haji Malang Dargah not as a photographer but as a mystical poet, I had dreams within dreams and strangely I never slept, the only event I refused to shoot after my humiliation by a Trustee of Haji Malang was the Dhamal, I shot it last year you can see it all on my Haji Malang 2010 set at Flickr.com

I impulsively decided to move out of Haji Malang on 20 th morning , despite the fact that the greatest hijra Sandal was later in the night at Sultan Shah Babas dargah..I am not greedy for images I get them and am happy , keeping human gluttony under control.

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi my hijra guru, was my support base including Abdul Bawa of Kalyan a holistic healer and soother, Sakib Kumar Ketkar Rahim Bhai Iqbal bhai were my other friends who really understood my pain my inner struggle to come to terms with my despair.

Perhaps this is what God wanted and this is my last documentary on Haji Malang Dargah as a poet photographer and a blogger.

Time to move on to other dargahs that I have not touched and the one I want to visit is Meera Datar in Unjha Gujrat.

I have no sponsor , I do it all by myself and he provides.