Senior Mujawir Yunus Bhai of Haji Malang

Senior Mujawir Yunus Bhai of Haji Malang, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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He would sit with me in his free time, this humble man who has served Haji Malang Baba for almost 50 years or more , he would narrate the stories of faith, miracles and in the bargain make me cry too, he has so much locked up in his head a veritable storage of knowledge in the service of Malang Baba.

He has seen it all corruption , goodness evil all in and around the surroundings of faith, and as it is not my call I would listen to his narrations , and lock them up in my head too.

I came here in humility paid respect to the Holy Saint and captured the essence of the Holy Shrine on the lives of ordinary people specially the hijras who lives connected to Sufism and in general I am documenting for posterity.


My hijra documentary has the Holy Shrine as the fulcrum point as the hijra community consider the Holy Saint their protector and benefactor simply because Islam mainstream be it Sunnis or Shias looked down upon the hijra community, they are shunned and so they seek a divinity that accepts them as they are with all their human flaws.

And because I have access to a few of them , I am able to showcase their side of devotion piety and through dance charity feeding the poor they repay the Holy Saints generosity.. in a humble way of course.

And you have people biased who even in the Dargah premises look down upon the Hijras it shocks me... in utter disbelief.

Also I must mention I am doing this documentary on my own , no sponsors and I dont sell my pictures my text or poetry.

And I am thankful to Kumar Ketkar Abhijeet Sakib who help in this regard , and they give me food and shelter , without accepting in return, they know I am not a Sufi adherent , I am an Indian born Muslim Shia happy with my faith my beliefs and my ancestry.

But I pay tribute to the Sufi Saint fir it is his territory and his devotees I shoot ...I cant shoot one without the other..

I have visited so many dargahs , including Ajmer Shariif and mind you this is the first dargah where a Dargah trustee rebuked me for my hijra connection , I mean it is unbelievable for a man serving a Holy Saint like Haji Malang to be so biased myopic and narrow minded.

ell this is my last documentary at Haji Malang, I have some more pictures to upload and will finally bring this series to an end.

Let posterity judge me by my pictures my thoughts and my selfless devotion to the cause of the marginalized members of society.