Sword Matam Memories

Sword Matam Memories, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

This is my favorite shot, it is the rose water being sprinkled on them, the heavy built person on the left of the sword matamdar is Sameer , he too is an expert with the sword.
Mumbai matamdars use the sword for slashing the back.
In Lucknow at Dargah Hazrat Abbas is a caterer called Guddu Bawarchi, he uses the curved Punjabi sword to cut his head as kama matam, he is dark , well built, the moment he grabs the sword, people run helter skelter, he is vicious, he knows people will try to snatch the sword from his hand so charges into the crowds like a raging bull..and finally stops it himself when he is a mask of blood.
And unlike other cities on 11th Moharam, a day after Ashura blood gore, when people rest , the Lucknowis have a Juloos at Dargah Hazrat Abbas in memory of Zainul Abeddin the fourth Imam son ofHazrat Imam Hussain.
This one juloos is a sight one must not miss, the alams , the taboots and the releasing of the Zuljana, the replica of the Steed of the Imam into the crowds, he charges rushes into the Dargah and bangs his head on the Mausoleum.
I could not shoot the last scene as I was perched on a height of a porch tower that faces both sides the crowds and the courtyard in the front and the Dargah Hazrat Abbas at the back.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-MY-RM5my8&feature=related