Santosh Shetty and Me And The Hijra Ethos Of Mumbai, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
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I met Mr Santosh Shetty by cosmic chance, I never knew him , and this meeting was part of my destiny and the beginning of my tryst with the hijras.. I began shooting hijras from Park Site Vikhroli, .. which was the venue of a All India Hijra Conference or All India Hijra Sammelan.
I had read about it in the newspaper and I spoke to Laxmi Narayan Tripathi her hijra group was not attending the conference , but she told me to go ..
I reached Vikhroli and the venue of the conference dressed in saffron I was bodily thrown out by the hijras , luckily I met eminent photo journalist of Times of India Nitin Sonawane he spoke to Mr Santosh Shetty as Nitin and I belong to the same club Photographic Society of India..
Mr Santosh Shetty a social activist was helping the hijras set up this conference and is the adopted son of Ma Madhurima hijra guru and powerful personality in the Hijra hierarchy of Mumbai.
After the conference got over I met Mr Santosh Shetty many years later during the Chalisva ceremony of late Ragini Nayak when hijras from all over the world had come to pay respect to her memory again at Park Site Vikhroli..
And gradually I began shooting the beggar hijras , climbed the mountains of Malangad to shoot the Haji Malang Shrine barefeet to showcase document the hijra life struggle without any ulterior motive or money making agenda..
Being a beggar poet I shot them as kindred soul , I took a domain name Hijda -Eunuch Blogs at Wordress , and all my stuff was housed at Flickr.com in respective sets and collection.
I did not stalk the hijras they pursued me I met them at cross roads of my life and than Laxmi Tripathi who was my friend for many years made me her chela to protect me from rogue hijras who did not want their story or pictures online .. this helped and yet without the the blessings of Laxmi my hijra Guru it would have been tough shooting the hijras ..
Strangely Laxmi and I never meet we interacted on Facebook I left Facebook and joined Google+ where I have a Hijra Google+ page..
I surrendered the Hijda Eunuch Blog domain and took a new one Hijras of India , which is the set at Flickr and my blogs on Wordpress.
So Santosh Shetty is the person responsible completely in being the only one who encouraged me to document the hijras .. and I can tell you it has not been a easy journey shooting the Hijras at Kamatipurs Hijra Gully No1 and Peela House Hijra Cages , but I did not give up at all.
And my four year old gifted grand daughter shoots the hijras too on the Nikon D 80.. this year the hijras beggars who come during Bakra Idd came to meet her but she was in Lucknow..
I took Viola and Kim my friends from Demark to Santosh Shettys mothers house at Vikhroli , he was in Neral but asked us to come to Marriott at Juhu where he told my Danish friends that he would help them in their documentary on Hijras , and for me it was a real bad shitty day my BB mobile got whacked outside Marriott..
I met Santosh Shetty many a times at Ajmer during the Urus he is very close to Gopal Haji and the Najafgarh hijras of Delhi.
However my life is about to change I am relocating a part of me taking up a new challenging job so I doubt I will be able to shoot the hijra community in the future..but my pictures will be a guiding to others who genuinely want to shoot the hijras and not make big bucks at their expense by publishing fucked coffee table books that humiliate and insult the day to day life of death of the Hijra in India under a homophobic bigot society..
The reaso I have been able to shoot the hijras without opposoition , is because I dont ask questions I am not interested in knowwing why they became hijras if they tell me fine I shoot pictures and being a Dam Madar Malang I come to know the story of life the poetry of their existence through body language and the circle of androgynous energy that passes from them to me .. my meeting hijras is cosmic plan known as Hijra Vardan the gift of sighting shooting hijras everywhere I go..
