Gunhegar Bawa

Gunhegar Bawa, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

Gunhegar Bawa ..Gunhegar means sinner, this is the Bawas name..

He hates photographers , but he respects me as prior to this I could not shoot his pictures , yesterday at the Dhuni after almost 5 years of shooting the Rafaees he gave me the permission to shoot him.

He lives in the jungles and is into Tantric Sufism, he visits graveyards at Chancawalli and the Sunni Kabrastan at Kurla.

He is very close to the Naga Sadhus and the Aghoris.

He is highly well versed in Koranic scriptures, and quotes them freely at the Dhuni.

Last I met him was at Haji Malang , he was selling herbs and indigenous medicine..

Before that at the Sunni Kabrastan, he was selling body ache oils...

There is a great curiosity by the Dargah visiting public about these Rafaees Bawas and Malangs.

People watch them for hours, fascinated with their life styles and its a cultural shock, the open display of drug consumption.

I shock them more with my blond hair and my camera...

I normally carried my Silver and exotic sticks to the Dhuni , but than street photography becomes tough, I am overladen with jewellery as it is..