Soma The Dark Dusky Hijra From Delhi

Soma The Dark Dusky Hijra From Delhi, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

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If memory serves me right I think I first met Soma at the All India Hijra conference at Park site Vikhroli, I was dressed as a sadhu and had been bodily thrown out by the hijras for entering their conclave all be it with a Press Card many years back my earliest tryst documenting the hijras of India.. as a neglected abused community and highly misunderstood one too.

However Santosh Shetty social activist adopted son of Hijra Guru Ma Madhurima gave me permission and I shot the hijras up close and strangely it was friend Laxmi NarayaN tripathoi who told me to go there much before she became my hijra guru.

It was here I mtr Soma who befriended me she was originally from Mumbai relocated to Delhi with the Najafgarh hijras of Babita and Gopal haji.

She fed me and saw that I was not hassled by the other notorious fist fighting hijras who hate photographers dressed like sadhus.

We became friends I met her over the years and this was the first time I saw her as a complete woman and shot over 100 pictures of her grooming applying make up, and dressing up.

She may not be fair or sensuous like Raveena but she had the killer hijra oomph subtle and powerfully vixen, and I shot her with a divine passion.

And this pictures is my tribute to her charm her grace her beauty and her lingering lassitude poetic and ethereal.

She was very hospitable and among the Najafgarh hijras it is Naina who really cares for me including Priti I am always welcome in their private chambers even while they are changing and they know I wont misuse their privacy .

And they give me more respect since they know I am am also from the Sufi Order of Dam Madar Malangs and I am showcasing the story of their ancestral pain living as broken dolls neither man nor woman.

I missed my friend Nisha Khushi and Puja but I shot many new hijras , I shot Basanti my gypsy hijra friend who stalks me to no end.

So there are a few hijras it is a delight shooting them and I add Soma to this list.

You can see all her pictures in large format at my site option reserved for those I have added as Friends on Flickr.com