Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Rafaee Of Ajmer ..With His Loving Pair..Love Smoke And Air

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Late Handi Sai Murshad of Chancawalli Rafaee ...At Kota He Lies

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i beg to differ ..

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I AM THE BEGGAR POET ..IN HER DEBT ..SHE WHO ROBBED MY SOUL ON THE INTERNET

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Naga Sadhus of Malangad Mountains


He has a temple as you begin the steep climb towards Haji Malang Shrine .

He is a Naga Sadhu an caretaker of the Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva Parvti and their son Ganesh.

I have known him from the time I first climbed the Malangad mountains.

Most of the Hindus take his blessings and they feed the devotees of the Holy Saint .. at the Bhandara.

He is well educated , hospitable and a very friendly person.

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Shahenshah Baba Rafaee

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I have known him since the time I began documenting the Rafaees a Sufi order .. he belonged to the Chancawalli Rafaees , and those days they were led by late Sikandar Wali Baba who spoke a smattering of English.. I met the Rafaees through my dear friend Fahad Khalil Pathan whose late father a holistic healer and the Imam of the Makdhoom Shah Baba Shrine at Mahim.

I documented their body piercing, eyeball piercing rituals and even went on their rounds begging from shop to shop , dressed as I was like them but more colorful , women ended giving me money and wanted to take my blessings .. However what I got as a beggar the alms I handed over to late Sikandar Ali Baba.

For sometime due to serious differences with late Sikandar Ali Baba I was expelled from their group and once Sikandar Ali Baba died his successor Handi Sai asked me to come back continue shooting them .

Handi Sai kept urging me to become a Rafaee , he visited me at my shop but I was not rafaee material.. than Handi Sai died at Kota .. I had visualized his death when I saw vultures hovering over his head at Haji Malang.

He was a heavy chillum smoker and addicted to afeem , and that took a heavy toll on his mind body and soul.

Many Murshads came after his death , but Handi Sai the greatest eponent of eyeball piercing , tngue cutting stands out.

Shahenshah Baba was his Man Friday , the kotwal and one of the most inventive Rafaees , his specialty nailing his cheek to a stool that I shot at Haji Malang many years back.

There were many Rafaees who broke of from the main group , Faiyaz Ali , Hassan Ganda and Farukh Rafaee , I meet them mostly at Ajmer Urus and we talk of old times over a cup of tea.. and it saddens me immensely ..

However they are happy that I became a Dam Madar Malang .

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The Malang

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He is a fakir, a spiritual mendicant sits in a hollow of a mountain on the way to Haji Malang Shrine , I know him since the first time I climbed this mountain that was almost 10 to 12 years back.

You cant miss him , he sits without uttering a word , in silence he begs , he does not demand .. he merges with the stark backdrop of his harsh surroundings.

Once in a while he comes down from the Mountains of Malangad to attend the Makdhoom Shah Baba Urus Mahim.

I have not seen him at Ajmer but I am sure what he saves by begging serves him to visit such places of Sufi importance.

When I met him this time I told him I had become a Dam Madar Malang and he felt pleased , and I shot his pictures .

Haji Malang is a peaceful place , a place to reconstruct thoughts hope and emotions.

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The Malang



the flesh
ages
the soul
remains
young
the cosmic
silence of
of a sheepish
tongue
poetic
paroxysms
heaving
lungs
once
bitten
twice shy
of being
stung
a living
corpse
rising
amorphous
from
the dung
holding on
forever
to her
memory
his mind
unsung
a heart
she had
nurtured
than one
day out
on the
streets
she flung
among
razor sharp
bristles
of pain
a weed
newly
sprung

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