178,482 items / 1,397,685 views
The text for this post I received as an email attachment, and I thought I would add to its shelf life, by paying tribute to my oldest childhood friend Rayomand Framroze ..we were three actually Rayo , Vimal from Sri Lanka and late Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest.
Rayo stayed at Khatau Road close to Wodehouse Road ..We Keith , Vimal and I stayed at Jony Castle..it was called Khatau Bhuvanwhen we were young.
Vimal stayed on the second floor in a house that belonged to Gazdar Jewellers Taj Mahal Hotel.Vimal and Keith were on the same wing..Keith's father Dossabhai Kanga a Parsi magnate owned the entire ground floor of their wing.
I stayed in the adjoining wing that was completely owned by late Nawab Kashmiri, we stayed in two room spacious servants quarters on rent ..1955 or before., I am bad with dates
I have not met Rayo for several years , but we connect more efficiently now that he is on Facebook.as Ray Framroze .
Rayo is in the white shirt ,I am in dungarees and a red scarf.. this is a very old timeless treasure of a memory...but he is now the quintessentially nomadic Bawa of Mumbai...
So read the attachment ..
A SALUTE TO THE PARSIS-A heritage to treasure
A SALUTE TO THE PARSIS ( An abstract from a leading Indian publication)
No Indian community internalised the civilizing mission of the British
As did the Parsis. Only 50,000 remain in Bombay today, mainly in South
Bombay, the most disciplined and cultured part of India.
In South Bombay, the cutting of lanes by drivers is punished, jumping
A red light is impossible, parking is possible only in allotted areas,
Roads are clean, service is efficient, the restaurants are unmatched -
Civilization seems within reach. South Bombay has some of the finest
Buildings in India, many of them built by Parsis.
The Parsis came to Bombay after Surat's port silted over in the 17th
Century. Gerald Aungier settled Bombay and gave Parsis land for their
Tower of Silence on Malabar Hill in 1672. The Parsis made millions
Through the early and mid-1800s and they spent much of it on public
Good.
Hindu philanthropy means building temples. They do not understand
Social philanthropy.
The Parsis built libraries all over India, the Birlas built 3 temples
In Hyderabad, Jaipur and Delhi. The Parsis built the National Gallery
Of Art, the Ambanis built Dhirubhai Ambani International School, where
Fees are Rs. 348,000 (US $8,000 a year in a country where per capita
Income is $ 600 per year) and where the head girl is Mukesh Ambani's
Daughter.
Mukesh Ambani is worth US$ 43 billion and the world's 5th richest man.
His brother Anil is sixth on the list, worth US$ 42 billion.
In the US John D Rockefeller spent millions educating black women and
Eradicating hookworm disease. He built the University of Chicago,
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Rockefeller University. He
Gave away $550 million ($13.5 billion in today's money) over the
Years, always setting aside 10 per cent of his earnings. The
Kingfisher Mallyas gilded the insides of the Tirupati temple with
Gold.
Bill Gates (who is 53) has given away $25 billion to combat malaria
And poverty. In 2006, Warren Buffet gave away $30 billion to charity,
The largest donation in history.
Lakshmi Mittal, the fourth richest richest man in the world says he's
Too young to think of charity... He's 57 and worth $45 billion.
The Hindu's lack of enthusiasm for philanthropy is cultural. The Hindu
Cosmos is Hobbesian and the devotee's relationship with God is
Transactional. God must be petitioned and placated to swing the
Universe's' blessings towards you and away from someone else. They
Believe that society has no role in your advancement and there is no
Reason to give back to it because it hasn't given you anything in the
First place.
Two centuries of British education was unable to alter this. The
Parsis understood that philanthropy - love of mankind - recognizes
That we cannot progress alone. That there is such a thing as the
Common good. They spent as no Indian community had on building
Institutions, making them stand out in a culture whose talent lies in
Renaming things other people built.
The Indian Institute of Science was built in 1911 by Jamshedji
Nusserwanji Tata, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was built
By Dr Homi Bhabha, the Tata Institute of Social Science was built in
1936 by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
The Wadias built hospitals, women's colleges and the five great
Low-income Parsi colonies of Bombay. JJ Hospital and Grant Medical
College were founded by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. By 1924, two out of
Five Indians - whether Hindu, Muslim or Parsi - joining the Indian
Civil Services were on Tata scholarships.
The Parsis patronized art and culture. They gave Bombay Jehangir Art
Gallery, Sir JJ School of Art and Taraporevala Aquarium. The National
Center for Performing Arts, the only place in India where world-class
Classical concerts are held is a gift of the Tatas.
There are 161 Friends of the Symphony Orchestra of India
(www.soimumbai. In).. Ninety-two of them are Parsi. For an annual fee
Of Rs 10,000, Friends of the SOI get two tickets to any one recital in
The season, they get to shake hands with artistes after the concert
And they get to attend music appreciation talks through the year.
Donations of Rs. 1 million to the Tirupati Temple (www.tirumala. org)
will bring the donor and his family three days of darshan in the year,
one gold coin with the lord's portrait and 20 laddoos.
They know who their gift is for - not society - and so diamonds and
gold are the preferred offerings, things that cannot be used other
than as ornamentation to prettify the deity. The temple's budget for
2007-8 was Rs 9 billion (Rs 904 crore/ US $193 million!!!).
The Parsi dominates high culture in Bombay and this means that a
concert experience in the city is unlike that in any other part of
India. Classical concerts in Bombay are always full in halls that can
seat as many as two thousand.
Zubin Mehta, the most famous Parsi in the world, is in Bombay this
month for a series of concerts. Mehta, director of the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra since 1969, will conduct the tenor Placido
Domingo, the pianist Daniel Barenboim and the soprano Barbara
Frittoli. Four concerts will be held at the Jamshed Bhabha Opera House
and then one at Brabourne Stadium with a capacity of 25,000.
No other city in India has this appetite for classical music and in
Bombay this comes from the Parsi. Despite their tiny population, the
Parsi presence in a concert hall is above 50 per cent. And they all
come. Gorgeous Parsi girls in formal clothes - saris, gowns -
children, men and the old. Many have to be helped to their seats. Most
of them know the music.
The people who clap between movements, thinking that the 'song' is
over, are non-Parsis. Symphony Orchestra of India concerts begin at
7pm. Once the musicians start, latecomers must wait outside till the
movement ends. The end of each movement also signals a fusillade of
coughs and groans, held back by doddering Parsis too polite to make a
sound while Mendelssohn is being played. No mobile phone ever goes off
as is common in cinema halls: his neighbors are aware of the Parsi's
insistence of form and his temper.
The Parsis were also pioneers of Bombay's Gujarati theatre, which
remains the most popular form of live entertainment in Bombay. Any
week of the year will see at least a half dozen bedroom comedies,
murder mysteries, love stories and plays on assorted themes on stage.
The Parsis were the pioneers of this, writing and acting in the first
plays of Bombay. They also built the institutions that supported this.
Bombay's first theatre was opened by Parsis in 1846, the Grant Road
Theatre, donations from Jamshetjee Jejeebhoy and Framjee Cowasjee
making it possible.
The Parsi in Bollywood caricature is a comic figure, but always
honest, and innocent as Indians believe Parsis generally to be,
rightly or wrongly.
In the days before modern cars came to India the words 'Parsi-owned'
were guaranteed to ensure that a second-hand car listed for sale would
get picked up ahead of any others. This is because people are aware of
how carefully the Parsi keeps his things. His understanding and
enthusiasm of the mechanical separates him from the Hindu, whose
horror of it comes from his culture. Most of the automobile magazines
in India are owned and edited by Parsis.
The Parsis are a dying community and this means that more Parsis die
each year than are born (Symphony concert-goers can also discern the
disappearing Parsi from the rising numbers of those who clap between
movements).
As the Parsis leave, South Bombay will become like the rest of Bombay
- brutish, undisciplined and filthy. The British left when they had
to, but they left some of their civilisation behind and the best of it
remains in the possession of this great Indian community, the Parsis!
Preserve this race.....
You are privileged if you have A Parsi Bawa as your friend......He is indeed a "Heritage" to treasure.
ForwardSourceID:NT0003A10E
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Rayo - My Childhood Bawa Friend
TWITTER SUCKS
171,573 items / 1,336,891 views
Trying to change a profile picture at twitter
is like reliving a fuckin nightmare..
every effort attempt gives me the scare dear biz stone
this is totally unfair a testicular tragedy a circle
sodomized by a square into an unknown zone
dreamless seamlessly I stare wondering whether
you guys do really care twitter is over capacity
at cross hair a poetic pandemonium my soul I bare
cross blogging from flickr my world I share
my bloggers soul caught in a cybernetic snare
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Weeps
ca. 1940, Probably India --- Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950) the Indian politician, at his desk. He was deputy Prime Minister from 1947 until his death. --- Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
He wanted India to be One ...above caste color language or religion..
photo courtesy
content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/8/86/400px-S...
sardar vallabh bhai patel weeps
politicians drive a blunted dagger
through his heart
while the hardened soul
of a fragmented nation weeps
on our national unity
shadows
of factionalism
regionalism
parochialism
creep
political compulsions
defrauding democracy
come to Maharashtra
for a seconds peep
the bhaiyya in the throes of pain
a promise his state satraps could not keep
he came here to earn as an Indian
now battered bruised on a cow dung heap
yes we have progressed by leaps
terrorists come in from the back door
while our erstwhile government sleeps
why blame only Pakistan
some soul searching
within the cobwebs of our conscience
as the martyrs blood from
our country's flag seeps
what we sow another man reaps
lost illusions of our heritage
our past glory
political chicanery sweeps
from a pedestal back to a garbage heap
Jesus out of reach
a wall of the clergy
that a common
man cannot breach
jesus
in protective custody
jesus out of reach
jesus
might get infected
they practice
what they preach
jesus
in an isolated
ivory tower
only the papacy
can
over reach
soul thrashed
grounded on the beach
jesus
a monopoly
of the parish priest
jesus a metaphor
now a figure of speech
The Shia Hindu
209,364 items / 1,726,233 views
humanity
the only
religion
it is true
an American Jew
my photo guru
he shoots beggars too
we met on the internet
out of the blue
a cosmic intervention
how why i have no clue
the walls of Jericho
shooting
the elusive soul
of the downtrodden
we pursue
naga sadhus
brahma shiva
vishnu
souls held
in captivity
he rescues
why god
made us
white black brown
we never argue
what is color
if it has no
human hue
from the matrix
of religious bigotry
we both withdrew
dedicated to another
Indian lover
sukhi hontu
My Hijras Wont Ever Be Part of A Rich Mans Coffee Book
My Hijras Wont Ever Be Part of A Rich Mans Coffee Book, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
209,364 items / 1,726,180 views
I shoot the hijra community ,I am not a hijra activist, or a person attracted to hijra sexuality , I shoot hijras with due respect, I dont and wont ever ridicule the people I shoot , and I wont ever make fun of my countrymen , whatever their color caste or creed .. this my parents taught me and is the mainstay of my life..
I know hijras but dont familiarize with them , the only ones I interact or communicate with are Laxmi Narayan Tripathi my hijra Guru, Khushi the most beautiful hijra and Simran dancer a happily married transgender.
I shot a lot of hijras and these were gifts of God of his children, I am sure he would not alienate them for their choice of gender I think God is more human understanding than religious bigots and homophobic godmen.
I have inundated my Google+ stream with my hijra pictures to show you a world you may never see even in an Indian travel brochure ..our leaders our so called humanitarians dont have much regard for those who rebel or go against the nature of God ..
My hijra pictures did not come easy , I pay Rs 1300 per month for a net connection to MTNL Broadband my Internet provider , the net dies off at 8 pm evenings and 8 am mornings , but yet I continue ..I have a Flickr pro membership thanks to a person who gave it to me as a gift as he respects hijras and wanted to see my stream alive ..
I dont sell my pictures I give my time posting their pictures so you see them only as women and not as hijras .. at least the hijras I shoot are more women than they are hijras.
Why am I writing this , well everything in life needs change I took up a challenging assignment I sold my freedom my wings for security and a home loan , I took up a job.. so I wont have time only the weekly or public holiday, so I dont know whether I will be able to go to Ajmer or Haji Malang ..
My adventures will end , as a people photographer who shoots hijras , even my own religious documentary as a Shia will be just the main days as I have to honor my commitment I have given to my new employer and he needs more miracles than I do.. from my end.
I was a free man for 12 years , and it changed in one hand shake I have no regrets my profession is not the camera or writing or blogs , media does not have much respect for adventurers like us ..
I will blog less , after work in the nights perhaps.. and try to change my lifestyle to give a better future to my family my children and my grand children.
Luckily I dont use Twitter the way others do every time they fart loud or sneeze, my Twitter was a crossblog from Flickr to pimp my blogs..
I left Facebook though I love Marc Zuckerburg more than Steve Jobs and that has nothing to with the Garden of Eden or the half bitten apple.
I am on Google+ but Google+ is not in my bloodstream as Facebook was ..I use Google+ to pimp my blogs to a more serious audience. and a more knowledgeable audience..
But I can shut off Google+ too when the time comes .. nothing is bigger than my family..my commitment to life ..
I am far too old too take up a job as a photographer and I am not technique savvy but though I may not have high end cameras or lenses I have cosmic luck I shoot what others wont shoot I shoot the children of a lesser God I shoot hijras ..beggars and the unknown faces of India..
And Flickr is my gallery , through Flickr I show my world my ethos my restless angst...Flickr has always been my home , through its windows you see the hijras and my street life culture rituals and poetry..
A blogger is a lonely wolf .. as a blog when he cries he is noticed too,,,
Allah Is One Only His Followers Are A Divided Lot
Allah Is One Only His Followers Are A Divided Lot, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
209,364 items / 1,725,635 views
Muslims love
killing Muslims
sectarian strife
sectarian violence
hate that is taught
suicide bombers
misplaced martyrdom
bombs gunshots
on the soul of islam
it is the Muslim
evil plots
because
of one jehhadi
the innocent Muslim
on the wrong foot
gets caught
for the sins
of another man
in foreign prisons
he rots terrorism
we must boycott
a message of peace
hope harmony
through a snap shot
Fucked Word Verification at Blogspot
178,796 items / 1,402,704 views
Blogger says that this blog has been rate-limited. Please try again later.
fucked
word verification at blogspot
may the guy who created it
in fires of cybernetic hell rot
a tear of shame on the soul
of a crying parking lot
a developer dude
who loves bloodsport
in short who cant differentiate
between a a blogger
a positive spammer
a poetic after thought
pain on my poetic
soul he has brought
Friends Die Friendship Lives On Forever
178,482 items / 1,397,685 views
I got the link of this picture of Keith Kanga my childhood friend through a Facebook message from another friend Rama Sethu Ranga Nathan November 2 at 10:54am
Dear Mr.Firoze Shakir,
Salam Mala Kum.
Greetings from Chennai.
Madukar Chandradas Was Also a Singer from Atomic Forest an
old friend of mine.In this collection you may see some of your friends and the Granny From Johnny's castle
I will be in Mumbai from 11 th Dec to 17 th Dec.for an AA Conference in St.Pious Church in Goregaun.
Would like to meet you and go on a street Shoot with you.
Kindly send your contact phone no's.
My respects to you.
God Bless.
Regards.
Rama Sethu
So with humble apologies to Madhoo I post this picture of Keith Kanga founder of Atomic Forest that was in the beginning was known as 100 Ton Chicken.
Keith studied at Cathedral & John Connon school for a short while and his principal those days was Mr Gunnery , Keiths life story is a saga of pain doom and misplaced martyred destiny.
Keith was one of the richest kids of mixed parentage his father Dossabhai Kanga was a Parsi businessman , highly educated cultured , and owned the famous New Era Printing Press at Worli , I saw his father once and that was when his body was being taken for funeral , I still remember it vividly.
He left behind his widow Gwendolyn Keiths mom and Keith..and a palatial house at Khatau Bhuvan that later on came to be called Jony Castle.
Keith mom sent Keith to a boarding school in Darjeeling and when she missed him , she would request my mom to allow me to stay with her this was my proximity with this motherly lady, the most beautiful the most gorgeous that God ever made.
I slept in her bedroom and we would endlessly talk about Keith she loved him far too much her only son and its tough to retrieve the long lost memories from the recycling bin of a past that has moved away fast and faded too.
I am 58 years old so memory is not in the best of health to reminisce old times..
Keith had a vibrant Parsi connection Keki Uncle Jangoo Uncle and many uncles as his mother loved company and lived on the edge , heavy drinking and late night parties was the order of the Kanga house.
Khatau Bhuvan had two wings I stayed in a servants quarters with 3 rooms at Wing A and my father Mohomed Shakir was the tenant of Late actor Nawab Kashmiri's family.
Nawab saab was already dead when we moved here from a hovel at Kurla and my dad worked at N Swamy Rao Tailors Wodehouse Road those day early 50 s .
Keiths mom died of cirrhosis of the liver, and after a legal battle Keiths custody was granted to his maternal grand mother we called Granny instead of his Parsi relatives .
Thus began the rise and fall of Keith Kanga the pioneer of Rock in Mumbai perhaps India too.
And I shall continue this episode on the picture of Granny in my next post.
We moved away from Jony Castle in 1963 and a short stint at Breach Candy we finally made Mohini Mansions Strand Cinema our home and I met Keith on and off.
In the 70 s I joined Burlingtons of Bombay at Taj Mahal Hotel and every night after my late shift I would meet Keith Kanga at Slip Disc the local hub of Rock Music and sit and chat with him..and he was very fond of me..
I called him Baba like all others did.
But before this meeting my father suffered a great financial loss and he was totally destroyed both in mind and body and this was during my SSC final exams , he had sent my mom sisters younger brother to Lucknow , Shakil one of my other brothers stayed with him in a lodge and our house at Mohini Mansions my dad gave away on rent , I did not want to go to Lucknow because of my impending exams Granny and Keith immediately gave me shelter and I stayed with them for about 6 months till my exams got over and good times bought my mom and the rest of the family back to Mumbai.
Those six months with Keith and Granny and a pet dog called Fu Fu was part of my poetic illusions..
Granny though a Jehovah witness racist and bigot towards all religion liked me because she knew I was Keiths favorite , thus began my Bible studies brain storming and every means to make me a Jeovahs witness , my baptism was to take place at Cuffe Parade that was only a sickly beach those days opposite the Badhwar Park but to my good luck it rained and the baptism was kept for a later date..
I was taken way reunited with my family with no dent to my spirituality , Jeovahs witness those days was intense hate for all and I do not want to blame Granny for her actions she never stood up for the recital of the National anthem when the movie ended pretending she had an injured leg.
She and both her doting grandson were destroyed but a religion that was totally anti human and a Lost Paradise and a Shaky Watch Tower.
She did not like Catholics be it Philip or Erwie Vaz or Appolonius who was Keiths constant help and drug mate.
Jimmy Baria who stayed on her wing at Jony Castle was never spared for being a fire worshiping Parsi.
The only friend ours who got special treatment was Vimal from Sri Lanka his father was a goldsmith at Gazdar Taj Mahal...Vimal studied at Campion was close to Keith too.
Than there was Dinshah Sanjana Rayomand Framroze, Soli, and many others but yes I remember Neil Chatophadya ..
I had once gone to Pune when Keith played for Three Coins.
Atomic Forest jammed with foreign players too ..like led zeppelin
It was at a bar many years later after Keith got married was usurped cunningly of all his property by a wily landlord it is alleged that I saw his obituary he had gone into the world of lost dreams unannounced and it was Keith Viegas another friend who had placed the obituary.
Keith Kanga touched everyone and through my blogs bits of memories I share Keith Kanga with all of you..
Yes Friends Die Friendship lives on Forever like a drop of molten tear on a wizened cheek of Hope ..
RIP
Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest
Dinshah Sanjana
Amazing recollection Firoze. I never met Keith's mother as I befriended Keith when I went to the Cathedral senior school from the middle school in the 7th standard... but the fate our families were intertwined much earlier. The Keki uncle a...nd Jangoo uncle you speak about were my father's brother-in-law and brother. Keith was a big inspiration to me while I was young and searching for my path in life. There were two real bands in my neighborhood..Waterfront and Naked Earth which transformed into AtomicForest. They both impacted me greatly and made me realize that I wanted to be musician and walk this path for the rest of my days.
For Those Adding Me As Contact at Flickr Google+- I dont Add People Without Profile or Profile Picture
For Those Adding Me As Contact at Flickr Google+- I dont Add People Without Profile or Profile Picture, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
I simply ignore request or delete block at Flickr nothing personal..
Please read my profile at Fickr before you add me it says everything about me in simple wikipedia English..
Without a Profile Picture of adequate profile information I will not add you as contact but block you too,,,
PLEASE READ MY PROFILE BEFORE YOU ADD ME AS A CONTACT HERE AT FLICKR
I have stopped adding transgender cross dressrs gays homosexuals with lewd photo streams and favorites as contacts completely I will block you with immediate effect.
Unauthorized use or reproduction of my pictures or text for any reason is prohibited ...
PLEASE DONT ADD ME AS A CONTACT IF YOU ARE INTO PORN SEMI PORN , KINKY GROUPS I AM NOT INTERESTED IN BEING A POSTER BOY ON YOUR LIST OF FRIENDS EVEN IF IT IS ONE SIDED FROM YOUR END- I WILL BLOCK YOU IMMEDIATELY ..PLEASE RESPECT MY RIGHT OF PRIVACY..AS I RESPECT YOURS..
DO NOT ADD ME AS A CONTACT if you have tasteless masturbationally self-indulgent crap on your page!..find someone of your own kind dont subject me to blocking you - which I will if I see my thumbnail on your contacts page.
PLEASE DONT SEND ME INVITATIONS FOR GROUPS..I DONT BELONG TO GROUPS HERE OR AT FACEBOOK OR ELSEWHERE
I WILL BLOCK ONE SIDED CONTACTS THAT HAVE ADDED ME WITHOUT THEIR PROFILE OR AVATAR OR THOSE INTO KINKY GROUPS..PORN ETC..
I HAVE BLOCKED OVER 700 SUCH CONTACTS..
www.flickr.com/people/firozeshakir/
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Shah-e-Mardan Sher-e-Yazdan Quwat-e-Parwardigar Lafata Ila Ali La Saif Ila Zulfiqar , originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1 ....
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Dargah of Hazrat Syed Ali Mira Datar Unava Gujrat , a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr. HAZRAT SYED ALI MIRA DATAR'S G...
