The strange thing about the Shia community in India they have never tried to reach out to Media to spread the Humanity of Hussain..and I am a blogger I shot Shiasm initially to reach out to my foreigner and Non Shia friends who wanted to know more about Imam Hussain and the Battle of Karbala and its lifelong effect on our spirituality and our lives .
The dumbest thing I found was people among the Shia community with pea brain s thought I shot this to sell pictures and if there was someone who would buy my entire 55000 plus Shia images I would give it willing and give the entire money not to build a mosque or a madrsa but to the poor of India irrespective of caste color or creed because Hussainiyat counts hearts not heads and I am an Indian first ..
The poor of my country are very poor in childrens homes in widow s homes the aged the homeless .. but I know those who hire Shia photographers to shoot clips in most cases is for Noha albums.. and sadly I am not part of that aspect of my religiosity ,
Every man be it a Nohakar or even the Maulana earns professionally but it is the photographer abused humiliated the most in Shia circles specially in a city like Mumbai that I dont shoot Shiasm .I shoot all religion and that is why God saw that I was born in India the land of my Karma and my Dharma . Yes I use Hindu metaphors with due respect to my cultural inheritance my land is India my roots are Indian..
Some distastefully to mock me call me Hindu Shia and I am proud to be part of a Hindu ethos and a being born in a Shia mothers womb.
My upbringing has been very different I cant change that to your blinkered convenience I had great parents and they taught me the true meaning of Humanity ,, living mutually respectfully among Hindus Christians Parsis Buddhists and a few Jews too.
I had my schooling in a Baptist Protestant school later in a Catholic convent school and I am still part of my Faith and a good Muslim .
And I shoot Moharam away from my city to show you the pain that effects us all we call Ghame Hussain.
And my Shia friends in Chennai left no stone un turned to let me shoot their Moharam.. I am thankful to Mir Ashfaque BHai who connected me to MIr Meesaq and the rest is over 1200 images I shot and to Dr Abbas who let me stay in his house and took me to Jigedevi near Dharmapuri to shoot the Ag Ka Matam walking on fire ,
My Moharam in Chennai can be seen fully at Flickr if you are a Flickr member as some images of children head cutting I have restricted from public view .
I am updating this set with new thoughts new hope ,, I dont know if I will ever go back to Chennai to shoot Moharam it all depends on Bibi Fatima who leads me with her hanky all over India to shoot her greiving followers lovers of her son Imam Hussain , Labbaik Ya Hussain.
