Hardcore Zanjir Matam at Hussain Tekri Jaora Chehlum, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
165,498 items / 1,302,158 views
I shot this seven years back and did zanjir matam too, and now coming back after seven years was nostalgia, and the Shias who come to Hussain Tekri for Chehlum ,its a spiritual high of a symbolic nature.
The matam is fierce, and you dare not come near the guy who is inflicting his body for Ghame Hussaain.
All this blood letting is a protest against the war mongers terrorist thugs of spirtuality collectively we call this bunch of thugs by the name of Yazidiyat...
Yazid was the accursed Caliph of the Ummayad Dynasty who wanted power temporal and spiritual at any cost and the person who stood in his was was the poius devout Imam Hussain grandson of the Holy Messenger of Islam and son of the first Shia Imam Ali , Imam Hussains mother was Princess Fatima or Bibi Zehra the only daughter of the Holy Messenger.
Imam Hussain lost his life and his family ,a chapter that the pseudo religious would love to erase , they did it under every regime but we keep it alive with our black clothes our matam our majlis our blood sweat and tears.
So shedding our blood is personal form of pain and expression , and you dont have to do this as a choice, but each one relates to Moharam in his own way.. they also serve who only stand and stare.
I cut myself , its my choice I have cut my head thrice this Moharam, my bleeding continues even after my head has healed and this is Faith.
But this year because my Hindu friends scourge for Hussain , I shall pierce my cheeks with them with a 18 feet rod as my contribution to their cultural ethos, ever year I take the rod to push it through my cheeks they stop me, and they know I shoot this ritual of theirs ever year known as the Maryamma feast of the Hindu Tamils in Mumbai.
So one of the reasons I call myself a Hindu Shia is a metaphor of my roots embedded in the soil of my beloved India..
Verily Humanity is another name for peace hope and harmony we call it Hussain
