The Limbless Boy Of Ajmer

The Limbless Boy Of Ajmer, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.

This was shot on 17 May 2013 at Ajmer Urus .This is his latest image , the ones I posted earlier was shot 7 June 2011 ..the earlier image was shot barefeet , and I shot just a few frames because my feet were burning .. after shooting him I never saw him again till 2013.

There are two people who as beggars human beings , unfortunate have gown over my poetic consciousness , this child and Appu my best friend without hands or legs.

Appu disappears like me , like the way I disappear from Facebook time and again to refresh restart the computer of my beggar soul..I cannot carry the baggage of too many friends specially people I dont know ,I am hesitant to add as the person does not have a generic background ,,I dont add people at Flickr if they dont have a profile ..sorry.. I see their favorites also before adding them.. I may not be comfortable with your choice of images , I dont add certain communities though I have respect for them, most of them are here for the wrong reasons , voyeurism , titillation soft or hard porn.

So I removed all my 20000 images of transgender and the Mumbai pride march.. I stopped shooting the pride march as there are bigots among them than among the majority..

Well back to this little boy .. I shot him near Dhai Djinn ka Jhopda and this was taken hastily while leaving Ajmer .. and I paid him on both occasions ..I wish I had time to only ask his name and from which place he was , most of the beggars that come to the Urus are not from Ajmer.

I try not force poetry on all my images , the image and my poetry in some situations are cosmically attached , I am not just a photographer or a documentarist but a poet too.. photography made me a poet .. I cant write poems without images .. I need a poem that lives breathes feels pain like me..I shoot beggars I call myself a beggar poet..earlier I wore saffron I shot a lot of Hindu stuff my detractors called me Hindu Shia .. but ever since I became a Malang I only wear black ..I calll myself a beggar poet ..per se.

My poems might be published after my death hopefully .. I dont intend to live long .. I have decided to die soon naturally ..without being a burden to my family ..being a Malang some things dont defy imagination at all.

I forced this child back to shoot him again....after two years of a disappearing act..

what is his name
i did not ask him
should not come
as a surprise
i had no time to
ask him as i
walked past him
twice ..all i could
feel were his
haunting eyes
as it pierced
the poetry in
my soul ..no
otherwise
plain simple
from the fumes
of nothingness
making words
rise .. holding
me my silence
in a vice ..the
limbless beggar
boy of ajmer
is a mystic like
me in disguise
a photographer too
shooting me
shaming me
with his orbs
like rolling dice
sometimes
mocking me
playfully jostling me
like a cat does to a mice

this poem was inspired by a comment by a friend ..
Those eyes will haunt me
mm gives him a huge hug