Mahi The Child Eunuch And Me

Mahi The Child Eunuch And Me, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

One of the reasons I have been able to shoot hijras without confrontation or controversy is because I am not a journalist , I dont ask questions I am not all a nosy parker and I am not after stories I hoot pictures with minimal background , I dont hassle people if them tell me I listen otherwise I just shoot pictures.

I met Mahi the child eunuch first time this trip at Ajmer Moti Katla , he took an immediate liking to me and perhaps hermaphroditic children can smell people , and maybe he smelt my love for my grand children.

And I was missing my grand kids is an understatement, Mahi would chat with me endlessly spinning tales but within his childhood veneer he carried the frugality of his mortal pain.

All the hijras loved him , hugged him kissed him , he was a special a born eunuch unlike the who became hijras late in life.

I did not ask his birth details i did not ask anything..but I shot him and I met him again at the quartes of the Delhi hijras and I would have liked to shoot him with Mona the child eunuch I have been shooting Mona the child eunuch since she was 4 year old and I have shot Mona with his sibling a eunuch child too Nandini, this year Nandini and her parents , foster parents of Mona too Gopal Haji Babita hijra did not make the trip.

Mona the child eunuch is the Guru of Raveena hijra.

Mona loves me and because I have shot him for many years , we get along well.. and he searches for his pictures on the net, this year he wont see his pictures at all.. unless I post a thumbnail like this one.

Mona is lucky has rich foster parents and a good life, I remember Monas parents wanted me to get him educated but I politely refused they were going to pay me for his upkeep , but I have my own priorities I come from a different cultural background but this year I learnt that Monas real name is Ahmed .

I am a photographer documenting the story of the children of a lesser god and this ends my Ajmer trip ..

I have been shooting the Turner Road beggar hijras close to where I stay and their life is very painful, imagine begging at the traffic signal drenched in rains and earlier when I went to Chor Bazar I bought them sarees and umbrellas it is this goodwill without profit or gain that gets me hijra pictures ..

And to be able to enter the living quarters of hijras , is all about mutual trust and mutual respect.

The hijras are more perceptive than I am as a mystic photographer and a street poet and a Dam Madar Malang.