The Hijda Gets Ready for the Cheek Piercing

The Hijda Gets Ready for the Cheek Piercing, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

The hijdas are a very unique race , totally seeped in ritualism and hardcore spirituality of the street , they are active participants dancing their way into the Holy Saints heart during the various Urus at Ajmer or Haji Malang.

I have tried to talk less on my pictures keeping them as visuals only, but my fascination for the hijda ethos makes me voluble.

One thing I must reiterate I was invited here by Raja the piercer and it was the first time he invited me here to Sion Koliwada , imagine I know him since three years.

Why this change of heart I dont know,,he hardly ever talked to me or ever called me, but now I have his phone number.

Raja will not pierce your cheeks without money this is his basic rule hard cash no Udhar means no credit , he charges for the removal of the hooks and the rods too..

But he is experienced and does a fabulous job.Nobody complains .

Photography is not about shooting a picture and sharing it for comments discussion etc photography is the mother of all emotions ..just see the raw thoughts in the hijdas eyes in a few seconds the rod will enter his cheeks through and through..so I was not merely shooting his facial expressions but his spiritual anguish only the wise will read it and understand.

He was a decent hijda not raucous or loud , and gave me a lot of respect as he knew I would reach the dark crevices of his soul through Shivas eye embedded in my camera like body.

Of late due to professional personal problems my heart and soul is not in my photography there are other fears that haunt me I shoot this with a passion but not the way I should have if I was in a better frame of mind.

You can write poems and a novel on an empty stomach but street photography should be with a peaceful state of mind without hindrance stress or agitated state of mind.

So with this picture I show you the various frames of this hijdas cheek piercing with a 18 feet rod , I confess I shot him extensively he was my subject and I did not let him go.

And he had told me the following day he would go back to Nasik from where he hailed.

The Tamils are good natured people very possessive about their rituals customs and Goddess Maryamma.

I am now a known face ion this community and even people I dont know greet me and remind me that they had seen me in their procession .



So my genre is hardcore street photography of pain , I wanted to pierce my cheeks at Mahim but my Tamil frends told me to wait , perhaps it is because when I do this ritual one day I want my mentor Dr Glenn Losack to be there and shoot me too a Shia blogger among the Tamil brethren.

Because I can cut open my head with a dagger I have no fear of pain at all..and maybe because of my diabetic condition I dont really feel pain like you would ..only my bleeding does not stop for a long time.

There is another ritual connected with Maryamma the devotees walking on fire.I have not shot it as yet.

The one Maryamma feat I missed this year was the Maryamma Feast Madras Wadi Worli.

It happened and I did not know about it.

But through Raja I will cover the Sion Koliwada belt next year too.