Hardcore Eye Ball Piercing - Chancawalli Rafaees, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
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It saddens me , when I go back in time the same place the same Urus day and the Sandal procession of Fakhruddin Shah Baba Mahim , these rafaees I shot documented doing their piercing acts ,their Rafaee silsila pride and as time took its toll, most of the Murshads that held this volatile group together died , Sikandar Wali Baba Handi Barsati Baba ..
Most of the famous rafaees moved away, not to be seen again Fayaz Ali, Hassa Ganda Farukh to name a few..it was here in this very lane a rafaeee baba while doing his sword rafaee , slashed my stomach with a sword , nothing happened to me , he hugged me and apologized but not before whispering in my ears Allah is your life source but Ali keeps you Alive ..
And this was the very turning point of my life a born Shia a devout Shia lover of Hussain follower of Ali I extended my spiritual chaddar and this year at Ajmer Sharif along with my best friend photographer Marc De Clercq from Ghent Belgium I too became a Dam Madar Malang..
And every year on the streets of JJ hospital I slash my head with a sword or a dagger doing Tandav on the Soul of Shimr my Dance of Death.
While I was shooting the Rafaees , Shakil Bawa asked me to dance with his group I politely refused my Moharam , my mourning for Imam Hussain continues for two month eight days , I did go into Kaif a state of Sufi trance fainted and was revived by Shahenshah Baba ..
Handi Sai who died was very good to me , and my dear friend so was Barsati baba I will miss all these rafaess and though a Dam Madar Malang I was introduced to Sufism by them.. through Sakib Firize Rafaee and Fahad Pathan..
I met Kamal Trivedi a friend from UK and though he is a Hindu he too has been very close to Shiasm and Sufism..he narrated an anecdote when he plunged his poetic soul in Sufism a friend told him that the Sufi Malang was a Hippy Muslim lover of peace hope and Humanity..
And as a Indian a citizen of the world I would rather be with these Hippy Muslims than pay allegiance to those rabid lovers of Allah who blow up Hindu temples Sufi Shrines and Shia mosques .. I distance myself from misplaced martyrdom of the blinded by hate neo Jehaddi.
And Terrorism is not new to Islam, it began when Imam Ali was decapitated in a mosque head bowed in prayer it continued mercilessly when his son Hussain was decapitated too on the sands of Karbala head bowed in prayers and eunuch Muslim society at that time shit fuckin scared of Yazid looked the other way.. so Fuck tell me something new..
