The Tap of Wisdom Runs Dry

children in gaza
searching for home
where now rubble lies
every bomb that falls
from heavenly skies
another one bites
the dust another one
dies ..a nation that
promised never another
holocaust has created
a holocaust lord of the
flies.. freedom at what
a costly price Free
Palestine Free Palestine
sitting on the bodies
of his mother a little
child cries the world
powers watch the mayhem
shut eyes ..freedom is dead
freedom arise,,,

The Street Cobbler Ajmer

I come barefeet to Ajmer my soul is taken care by the Holy Saint of the Poor Garib Nawaz Hazrat Moinuddin Chishty Al Sabri.

I shoot the streets starting from my arrival at the station till the time I reach Ajmer Sharif. I shoot simple things , simple things people in complex situations , outside Ajmer Staion are a lot of drug addicts and as most of the pilgrims with light baggage walk to the Dargah area, the entire stretch as beggars in all deformity shape and size.

This guy is repairing his rubber slipper he will pay Rs 2 to the cobbler a princely sum he is poor and it is the poor that come here to be touched holistically by Khawajah Garib Nawaz.

I am touched by people I shoot , people nameless just faces etched on my consciousness as a poet of sorts.

I only visit Ajmer during the Urus never before never after , sometimes I have been broke sold my camera lens to make this trip ,,and God gives me pictures ..pictures that I share without profit or gain.

As I am dressed as a monk a lot of hapless people ask me to bless them they give me money , and I give all this to other impoverished beggar families ,,and this is my Ajmer Urus story board .

I shot the beggars , the rifais , the malangs and perhaps the only photographer who shot the transgender hijras prolifically ,at their lodges and in transit residence.

I shot the hijra shamans , hijra kids hijra goddesses and some of the most unusual hijra Tantrics and Fakirs.

All this over 17000 images documentary is not for public view ..including hijra poetry.

Ajmer Sharif is an amazing place during the annual urus absolutely crowded , very expensive but thanks to Peersaab Fakhru Miya of Hujra no6 my host I lived at his home in his private quarters without paying a cent as he considers me his etended family.

I became a Dam Madar Malang in 2011 ..thereby strengthening my spiritual roots with the city of Ajmer Sharif.

She Is Dreaming When She Will Travel More Comfortably And She Does Not Mean The Bullet Train

acche din for you
is bullet train
but minsterjee
have you ever
taken the virar
local from bandra
or any other sardine
packed train
the stench of
 putrid armpits
overpowering
your nostrils
a journey in vain
ministerji come
down to earth
hear our complain
improve rectify
 the infrastructure
of the existing trains
before you shove
in our tight fisted ass
your bullet train
ministejee before
you open your
fish like mouth
use your brain
metro mono rail
first stop the rains
as the passengers
get soaked ..
through their
pantaloons
the water drains

to an old friend from colaba RC

If Ever God Came Down As A Human Being He Would Dread Traveling By Indian Trains

This old lady is sitting outside the filthiest unwashed Indian Railway train toilet , I think if I did shoot the train toilet you guys would puke entrails out ,, Indian shit is a very difficult subject to shoot and needs real wide lens , a panoramic shot would be like shit from asshole to eternity .

Most of the toilets are used by drugaddicts those devotees of the Holy Saint of Ajmer that go there to smoke enjoy cut pockets steal and rob.. there are others who are compulsive smokers local dons and they use the trains like their fiefdom , blaring  Qawwalis and rowdyism , it is a bad tragic scene.

If you get into an argument they will beat you black and blue and this is their idea of a holy pilgrimage ..it saddens me .. people who have valid seats tickets are pushed out of their places and  half a dozen kids will occupy it , teasing the girls womenfolks ,, and you will never see a cop or even a TC ..a Tc never comes in these compartments he is shit scared of the rowdies and besides there is no money to be made.

Most of these guys travel without ticket ..

This is my Ajmer trip re visited as a storyboard ,, hold on before you slip out of the train..

Indian Government Or Even Indian Railways Dont Really Care For Spiritual Tourism

I have been to Ajmer Urus for many years , and though they have extra trains running it is not enough , and it was the same during the Maha Kumbh the utter chaos at Allahabad Station .

And honestly Indian Railways is the most incompetent transport authority , and nobody cares , the crooks in and around railway stations , the corrupt Ticket Checkers  the useless manless Railway Cops they are never there when a lady is being molested or someone is thrown out of a running train.. and I have never seen them yes I do see them vividly when they are at the  Charbagh Station or at VT making money from hapless migrants giving them a seat and everyone knows it but we are born corrupt it is in or blood and wont ever go..

We spend a fortune making our kids doctors lawyers cops etc and most of them forget that sacrifice .. to get a good posting you have to pay , no proper outsourcing its a living tragedy we appease on caste minority never take merit into consideration.. we have to grease the palm of officials traffic cops octroi agents and with money you can do anything .. you need money to get money.

And this family has a  valid ticked but they are on waiting list so they are sitting by the doorside of the Ajmer train.. this life I have sat there many a time.

Seeing my Press Card my age a good TC would offer me a seat ..this is the great travel tragedy of India I have shot all my trips on the train , the pain .. and to whom does one complain , the shitty food the toilets with passengers traveling in it , the drugs , the booze everything you can see on trains..

And this is train travel .. in the chalu dabba ordinary class it is worst .. I was scared to travel because of my camera equipment ,,the fear of it getting stolen.

Indians Have No Time To Feel The Pain Of Other Indians

They wake up get sensitized when something hurts their religious sensibilities or if someone in their community is raped , or their temple mosque shrine has been demolished for whatever reason ..but as Indians they seldom re act .. and much of the division is caused by rogue elements politicians to destroy the unified fabric of a  Greater India beyond caste creed and sectarian priorities.

We think regional all the time , we are overtly vociferous as Muslims to the treatment of Muslims in Assam  Burma or Gaza but we treat our own  poor Muslims as a bag of shit.. I have pictorial evidence .We protest mostly during Ramzan , whether at Azad Maidan where the organizers are still laughing all the way to the bank while the youth that carried out the heinous acts while in Roza is something even God wont forgive , molesting women cops , targeting our public structures is totally Anti Islam and an upright police commissioner had to pay for their sins by his removal, had he ordered a police firing on their hooliganism there would have bee riots in Mumbai..And nobody condemned their acts it was the organizers that should have been sent to jail not just the youth but than our erstwhile justice system and our political machinery work on an appeasement level Muslim votes are vital to stick to their chairs.

Even the Lucknow protest during Ramzan for whatever partisan reason was not for Gaza nor for the Shias Christians being massacred by the ISIL.. it was for one upmanship ..

As a senior citizen of India living in Mumbai I am alarmed at the insensitivity of our youth I will never post a picture of a dead child dead bodies it is the duty of the Press , I will not provoke an already burning issue.I feel for Gaza Palestine nt only as a Muslim but as a citizen of the World .. one can blog , but writing abusive condemnations is not going to halt this madness .

Back to my picture post this was the second shot of the man lying there and I was shooting in the dark from the train going to Ajmer .. and to tweak this picture originally color to BW via Aviary has taken me 9 hours .. I refuse to use Photo Shop or Pic Monkey as a Pro Flickr member I use Aviary  as a Flickr editing tool and neither  @Flickr Help Or @Aviary on Twitter are any Help anyway.. The Flickr Forum is usurped by overzealous Flickr intelligentsia that has no love for lesser mortals here who type with one finger to blog their pain.

I use Flickr as a blog platform I dont need to showcase just my pictures and my grandchildren both Marziya Shakir 6 and Nerjis Asif Shakir 3 shoot more sensitive pictures than a lot of blank profiles on Flickr.

Lovers On A Cart ..Two Bodies One Heart

I am your moon
and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden
and Your water too
I have come all this way
eager for you
without shoes or shawl
I want you to laugh
to dispel all your worries
to love you
to nourish you
Oh sweet bitterness
I will soothe you and heal you
I will bring you roses
I too have been covered with thorns.
The springtime of Lovers has come,
that this dust bowl may become a garden;
the proclamation of heaven has come,
that the bird of the soul may rise in flight.
The sea becomes full of pearls,
the salt marsh becomes sweet as spring rain,
the stone becomes a diamond from the mine,
the body becomes wholly soul.
Rumi

Indians As Indians Dont Really Care For India Or Indians

Were it not for
the excess of your talking
and the turmoil in your hearts,
you would see what I see
and hear what I hear!

Rumi

Majority of Indians I have seen having lived in Mumbai almost 59 years are mostly Hindus or Muslims or other religious denominations ..the spirit of India comes for a short while during our Independence day or Republican day a farcical show like Valentines day to appease our Flag and the chalk faced politicians .

Here in Mumbai people dont feel or see they just charge home from work or from work to home , they tell me wow you shoot great pictures and I only shoot what they fail too see , our so called Indians are immune to beggars , accidents on the road and so many other things,

But God spare you if you come in the way of the Indian in his car in a hurry , you dent it accidentally you will be beaten black and blue and when you really hope a cop will appear he will be discussing the weather down the road with the cobbler .

I am a photo blogger I see a lot of pain on the streets and I wonder why others dont see it or feel it , there are some who feel only for dogs and cats but never for the little child that was bitten viciously by a dog.

I mean how can we fight with our neighbors and because of a loudspeaker that disturbs everyone's ears ,end up with an uncalled riot beats me .

Still I think Mumbai is more sane as compared to some cities in Uttar Pradesh.. and now i wonder why I am writing all this ,,
I shoot pictures from moving trains , taxis rickshas but I do capture the ethos and the gist of a situation.

And this was one picture I shot from a Mumbai train going to Ajmer Sharif.

The Biggest Pain In The Ass At Flickr Is The Aviary Editing Tool

most of the time it does
not work takes 3 hours
to process and than makes
me feel like a bloody fool
"there was an error saving
please try again okay "
the shittiest editing tool
at first i thought it was
uber cool tweets to
@flickr help @aviary
no response very
cruel..i feel i am
back standing on
a bench in school
the most inefficient
aviary editing tool
the indisputable
flickr forum queen
says use pic monkey
adding fire to fuel
a kick up my colored
ass from a stupid mule
i sit like a dog in a
manger motions
running stools

RIP
Aviary editing tool
accidentally drowned
in a swimming pool