The Maulaiee Hijra Bawa Char Yar Ajmer

The Maulaiee Hijra Bawa Char Yar Ajmer, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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She sits at Char Yar the cemetery cum haven in Ajmer for all mystic strange people , and they are aloof , reticent they have hijra or normal male murids.


The chillum is a part of their mysticism some hijra bawas dont smoke it all.. I know the core group as the hijra bawas know I come here every year and I am guest of Peers Saab Fakhru Miya Hijra No6 where I stay.

And they know I am a Moualiee and a Shia.

This bawa is a hardcore Mauliee it is only Hussain and Karbala on her lips ..and her faith I think in Hussain is indomitable in its essence and its beauty.

I have wept when she speaks of the Battle of Karbala , she is a hijra and flies me on her broken wings I see what I could not see with human eyes.

These hijra bawas are clairvoyants exorcists and do dua tawiz..they dont harm anyone they light the path and they are pios they have given up life of sex taken up celibacy ..

Many intellectual hijras come and sit with them , hijras that talk on Freud Adler and Jung.. hijras that speak the language of Rumis wisdom Gibrans poetry and it is an exciting world a world of dreams etches on this poets soul.

This is an esoteric group, and they shoo away ordinary mortals and when I sit and shoot them a crowd collects that disturbs but such is Ajmer Sharif ..

There are qawali sessions and I have gone into kaif and smashed myself my camera on the floor but nothing happens , I need a lot of space for kaif as i rotate on the sul of nothingness I go into circles within circles but here my movements are restricted..

The main person in this are the Peer is Naushad Ali Bawa I always pay my respects to him , he hardly talks,, and his pictures are all black.. unless he lets down his spiritual guard I have shot him successfully..he is a huge larger than life personality head of the rafaees and the body piercers and some malang school of thoughts.


A little ahead is a tiny group Chancawalli Rafaees that I have documented and shot for several years I beg with them , I do kaif I did not take up the art of rafaee for obvious reasons as I do the real thing with a sword or dagger during Ashura and Chehlum.


I have met a Rafaee Hijra bawa too in Mumbai.

Shooting Char Yar the bawas and the hijra bawas has been a fascination that goes beyond the inner darkness of my soul..

And outside in the Char Yar mosque are the dread headed Malangs with 33 feet hair tied in a huge turban , these are my patron too..I will talk about them later.. as I have nothing to upload I am bringing this set forward from my Flickr date of posting.. these were textless posts I have added fuel to fire..