Firoze Shakir Poet - Frozen Time: 07/21/12

Saturday, July 21, 2012

some things cannot be bought by money

some things cannot be bought by money, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

call me funny
a demarcation
line between
garib aur dhani
my self respect
the poetry
of my life
cannot be
measured
on the
scales
of money

some things cannot be bought by money

some things cannot be bought by money, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

call me funny
a demarcation
line between
garib aur dhani
my self respect
the poetry
of my life
cannot be
measured
on the
scales
of money

196,113 items / 1,605,815 views

Aiee means mother in Marathi.

That is what both Marziya and I call her .. with respect and with devotion for her station in life.

She stays at Chinchpokli road Bandra

I have been shooting her for a long time now but we hardly talk , she smiles considers me mad shooting her pictures , but when Marziya held the camera in her hand and took this shot she realized perhaps , even madness gives birth to creativity.. whether Marziya is a product of my street madness I dont know,but Marziya at 3 years makes me unlearn photography, from a manual which is not written by any eminent photographer.

I taught Marziya to hold the camera when she was very young, and camera etiquette , Marziya will never take the camera without placing the strap around her fragile neck, and the Nikon D 80 is a heavy camera for a child.

I made Marziya take the next few shots too , and she does it with a passion that is clearly from within the soul of the camera.

Marziya at times is very impulsive , she likes to shoot pictures when she is in a mood, otherwise she refuses to take the camera in her hand.

Even when she stands before my camera I have to ask her , or she will turn her face or howl at me, so she knows when to stop and when to begin .

Every morning she wears her Press Card ,Marzya has her Press Card too of Bandra Times , when we go down to the bazar to pick up the newspapers , she shoots the Desi Murgiwala , or we come back home , without shooting anything.

Marziya does not get intimidated by crowds that gather around her when she shoots she just looks through them, she sees what she has shot avidly on my sons lap top given to me as my computer is at the repairers , , but most of the time I show her pictures I shot when she was born, 11900 on my Flickr stream, she has only seen a few and she knows the chubby kid is her, she will tell me proudly Dada that is me.

So I teach my elder sons daughter Marziya Shakir 3 year old the art of living in peace with a camera, mans gift to Humanity.

And I want Marziya Shakir to be able to see life and shoot good pictures , and here photography is a means to an end not for money fame or iconic glory.

After seeing some of the shit that I come across in newspapers I think Marziya is million light years away from the way they handle their high end cameras.

And Marziya Shakir has her own Nikon D 80 a present from her Guru her Godfather Dr Glenn Losack MD of Manhattan New York.. in a way Glenn is my Guru too..

The first lesson in photography Marziya learnt is humility , she kissed the hand of the Marathi lady Aiee after she has taken all the shots.

And than I shot them both together.

update 8 Aug 2011

And Marziya got another gift from another kind Uncle , almost a son and a loving friend to me, did he read my inner mind as both my cameras were in very bad shape , overworked overused and attacked by the vagaries of rain blood and gulal, the cameras have slipped from my hands too , I sometimes dont strap them round my neck.. but that was long time back..

And the Nikon D 3100 is Marziyas I wont use it save in the house to shoot her and Nerjis Asif Shakir her 22 day old sister , already waiting in the wings , the feel of the camera on the first day of your life , a few hours after having stayed 9 months in the womb could change your life too, but than every kid does not have crazy Malang grand father like me..Asif Nerjis Shakir was born as Google+kid but she is on her own now at Facebook + .Thank you Marc Zuckerburg for allowing Nerjis Asif Shakir to use Facebook as a blog on the first day of her life..

And Indiblogger Rene Ranvin God of Blogs is her proud godfather .. he is Marziyas and my own god father too..

And thank you Uncle out there for the Nikon D 3100..

The Chancawalli Rafaees

The Chancawalli Rafaees, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

The bawa on the extreme left Handi Sai ded mysteriously ,at Kota they say, he was a heavy smoker opium user , and the bawa in the center Amanat Ali of Chancawalli rafees .. I shot this group consistently for many years , I was excommunicated from this group fr one year before I shot this picture by a Peerr Sikandar Wali Bawa , he died I Handi Sai called me back to the fold to shoot them.

But I was not inclined to become a Rafaee and I had a great equation with late Handi Sai..

Now this group after Handi Sais death has split up into many smaller groups I meet them at Ajmer during the Urus of Khwajah Gharib Nawaz.

They will be found at Makdhoom Shah Baba at Mahim during the Holy saints Urus in Mumbai..from this place they move to Fakhruddin Shah Babas Urus that this picture belongs too...all part of a parent set called Sufism, Rafaees Malangs Dargahs at Flickr.com my photo stream.