Basanti The Hijra Gypsy Queen

Basanti The Hijra Gypsy Queen, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I met Basanti at the All India Hijra Sammelan Park Site Vikhroli Mumbai many years back .. and she walked up to me took my hand in her hand kissed it and said we are related I understand emotions being a mind reader myself.. she is a clairvoyant she looked deep into my eyes and said we both are related by a cosmic force and we will keep on meeting each other as we live as we die.. than she blessed me but she warned me she had her hold on me .. I did not pay much heed to her words and we parted ..


And this was the first time in my life I was encountering hijras so many of them at one place at one time..

Time passed and fate bought me to Ajmer Sharif I was staying with Peersaab Fakhru Miya Hujra No 6 Bulund Darwaza, and Peersaab had given me a Malang escort Zubair Bawa of Kaliar Sharif , Zubair Bawa and I were walking down Moti Katla when someone called out loudly American Bawa I looked up and it was Basanti, she gestured me to come up..

I walked up the stairs to meet her but accidentally met Sohail Haji and Zeenat the Siddi hijra they both hugged me and than there was a angry voice behind me , Basanti snatched me from the arms of the two hijras and pulled me into her room , admonishing me that I was her guest and the usual , than she calmed down..I told her not to read my future ..

We sat talked and she was happy to see me the second time, and she gave a large sum of money to Zubair Bawa , she asked me if I needed anything I was barefeet I said no..

So hijras is not merely photography,it is more much more ..and there are so many stories locked in my head, I am a poet and writing stores in prose would hamper my goal of a mystic in life..

Zubair Bawa is a Mauliaee a Sunni born who is madly in love with Karbala , Imam Hussain is his beginning and end , he curses Yazid and if Zubair Bawa screams he can beak all the window panes like the dwarf hero of Tin Drum of Gunter Grass.

Basanti and I never met on my subsequent trips but I never forgot her crazy mystical love and affection for me..

And I have never been to Kaliar Sharif..

My relationship with hijras is seamless not forced , I meet them I have the Hijra Vardan.. they are part of my souls journey on earth..I read them they read me .. we have dog marked a few chapters of our life...

The only other person in the arena of hijra essence and understanding is my friend from Ghent Marc De Clercq , Marc lives among hijras documents their lives evocatively in minute detail I shoot poetize hijras but one thing is of an integral nature we both are Dambardar Malangs from two different schools of thoughts. A white man and a Brownish burnt man..

I have yet to meet anyone who understands hijras like Marc,..he is gifted and I am happy we have stayed friends for so many years .. an unbreakable bond of love and mutual respect and affection.

And yes Laxmi Narayan Tripathi binds us both she is my Guru and his best friend.