The Hijras From Lucky Compound Come To Pay Their Respects To Lalbagh Chya Raja Every Year, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
Every year uncannily or call it bizarre I encounter Hijras when I come to shoot Lalbagh Chya Raja.
I shot them last year too but you cant view my hijrapictures restricted viewing to people I know on Flickr .. I have removed the entire lot of 18000 hijra images blogs and poetry from public view leaving some open like this one..
I shot a transgender designer at the Pandal Rose an ardent devotee of the Raja but I lost all the pictures in the stolen card .. my bad luck or perhaps my good luck I dont know.
And than after an arduous walk I spotted them they had come to pay their respects to the Raja I had shot them last year too..I shot 5 frames you can only view this one..
I know most of the hijras and they know me because the hijra community is very religious god fearing..as a photographer I have documented their pain their struggle to be respected as human beings but sadly in India they are treated as sex objects and children of a lesser androgynous God.
I am not a activist social counselor but I shot their pain in the red light areas of Mumbai extensively and at Ajmer Sharif and Haji Malang two sufi Saints they consider their Protector ..and as a photographer I shot their cyclical journey of woes traditions rituals and initiation too at Hijra Gully No1 now defunct.
I have some great hijra friends and I mostly shoot the ones begging on the roads and the trains but not as prodigiously as I used to shoot them before I have lost the passion shooting hijras as all my hijra pictures were stolen from Flickr and my pretty hijra friends robbed of their identity by unscrupulous people of their community .. for the wrong reasons ..
I shoot the spirituality of the hijras and it is universal their motto is Sarv Dharm Ek.. All Religions are One.
But now as a Dam Madar Malang I have met the Hijra Shamans Hijra Bawas Exorcists and this is a dangerous precipice of my documentary too..all at Ajmer as they come to pay their allegiance to my Peer Syed Masoomi Baba Asqan.
My grand daughter has shot the beggar hijras and she like me can spot the from a mile ... she has seen them since she hung from my waist and I shot them at Bandra Bazar Road..
And this post is dedicated to my dear friend from Pudicherry a spiritual philanthropist Patrick Dubos I wrote it for him...
I have never shot the Koovagam Eunuch Festival but I hope to shoot it next year ...Lord Iravan has kept me away from it for many years ..
