Spitting Milk In The Mouth To Seamlessly Remove The Rods From The Mouth After The Rod Piercing Ritual, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
It was Bhima the spitting Guru and rod piercer of Goddess Marriammen , who I accidentally met a few years back, at Nehru Nagar slums , during the Marriammen feast .. and we became good friends ..
It was Bhima who introduced me to this feast that has passionately fascinated me no end , through him I shot the first Marriamman Feast at Macchimar Colony Mahim West ..and than I created links made friends shot the Marriammen Feast Sion Koliwada and the last concluded one at Madras Wadi Worli thanks to Shanmugham and Sundar a graphic designer all Tamil Hindus migrants and pucca Madrasi Mumbaikars.
I am invited to these rituals by Bhima and my other friends including Velu the Head Priest of Marriammen Temple Nehru Nagar Juhu.
I shot the piercings at Juhu beach, the animal slaughter in the morning and I follow the piercers and the main procession till Nehru Nagar where the rods the limes hung on needles attached to backs arms , the tiny trishuls in the ladies tongues and the hardcore hooks are removed .
This removing of the rods takes a lot of time , as this year there were more than 750 I think, and as I shoot this barefeet , it tires me out.. I left early .
Bhima is a very humble Tamil Hindu and is a devoted Marriammen follower worshiper.
Without him I dont think I could have documented all this ..
One person who wants to shoot this with vengeance is my American friend Dr Glenn Losack.. Marc De Clercq my Belgian friend had shot the Marriamman Macchimar feast three years back.
Luckily I am now a well known face at the feast and nobody objects to my shooting them...
