Documenting Hope Hindutva As A Message of Peace and Humanity, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.
I normally wear black it is my dedicated dress code and for me Moharam Ghame Hussain never ends...
On occasions when I shoot Hindu feats I dress in saffron or bhagwa .. I also feel it adds to comfort level of people who dont know me and accept me as one of their own..,
The only time sad to say when wearing saffron has been humiliating experience specially as I walk barefeet is during Govinda when the maximum balloons are thrown on my head and at my camera this is the other side of the Marathi Manoos when he gets carried away by the overzealous and euphoria and during visarjan .. when they deliberately throw gulal at the camera lens thats the price some of us pay for shooting and promoting Hinduism as a way of life and Peace I say this without malice..its part of the ethos .. and the upbringing givenn by parents to their children nothing more nothing less.
And when entering a shop dressed in orange the watchman stops you says Maf Karo .. I am barefeet so I dont blame him..
Back to my blog this ritual is known as the Chattri Umbrella 108 rods pierced in the body from all sides sometimes a rod in the mouth too .
I shoot all this on my own once I did invite a foreigner friend once he invited his friends who gave me a lot of stick for reasons unknown to me I shoot this on my own and besides the Tamils dont like people shooting this event or me bringing friends .. is what stopped me from inviting anyone nothing personal I dont sell my pictures or whore them in newspapers..
And this is one feast I try to shoot wherever I can..I shoot pain mysticism possession exorcism and all this falls within the same ambit.. being a blogger is being an owl .. I was asleep I got up .. nature of diabetes ..drives me off balance sometimes .. though I hardly drink water.
