Ashura In Mumbai Through the Eyes of a Hindu Shia .., a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
Normally I dont shoot Ashura in Mumbai, I have not shot this segment nor the entire 10 day Moharam in Mumbai since two years,.I shot Hyderabad and Chennai instead...
This year I was to shoot the Ashura in Jammu I was invited there by Sara Haji a transgender head of Jammu Srinagar they are not called hijras but Khusras , she is loyal devoted slave of Imam Hussain , her upbringing very different more cultured than the hijras of other states , I met her during the Urus of Khwajah Garib Nawaz and she looked at me her head covered and told me you are a Maulaiee a lover of Hussain , and she has adopted several eunuch children, she was the most interesting person and it was her charm her intense love for Ahle Bayt that saw me spending time with them.. I was told my accommodation would be taken care of and than came the news Dr Glenn Losack my best friend from New York wanted to come and shoot Moharam Ashura in Mumbai so I gave up all dreams of going to Jamnu , stayed back in Mumbai.
In the meantime a few days before Eid e Ghadeer I met Kim a and Viola photo journalists from Denmark they got in touch with me they were documenting the eunuchs of Mumbai, I met them as they stayed in Bandra , a very decent respectful couple and I bought them to the Eid e Ghadeer procession , they knew nothing about Shias and , than they saw my pictures of Ashura an decided to cancel their tickets of 30 November , they decided they too would meet Glenn and shoot Ashura.
They had already sold their apartment car to make this India trip, they took up cheap lodgings at Waroda Road Bandra , and they came with me shot Kaisar Bagh juloos and 9 Moharam Honda Savoy and finally Ashura barefeet and dressed in back..
They will bring their first born to Mumbai they promised me to show him Hussain and the way and life of peace hope humanity as followed by the Shias of Mumbai, this is a solemn pledge they took and made me bless them to fulfill it, I told them I will place the kama on his head and they smiled in return..they are filming Moharam through my eyes and the eyes of my grand daughter Marziya Shakir 4 year old worlds youngest street photographer and they are seeing Shiasm through the eyes of a 4 month old whose back I scourged with sharp blades .. and they filmed my pain as my grand daughter Nerjis Asif Shakir smiled at them while the blades hit her back..and I am crying as I write this I am proud of my heritage as a Hindu Shia .
I introduced them to a Kutchi Hindu boy and a Shia now known as Amir his zanjir matam is to be seen to be believed ..they met another Maharashtrian guy who wears black clothes scourges his back and who like me calls himself a Hindu Shia.
And last night they met my daughter Samiya and it was one big family reunion..my wife has missed all this as she is in Karbala much closewr to Hussain than I am..And my Karbala is Mumbai.
Every land is Karbala every day is Ashura..
