Over the years that I have been shooting people I have met some strange ones and I shot them impulsively ,, mostly I shot them without taking their permission with just a pleasant smile that worked or failed .
But mind you I knew whom to shoot whom to avoid , and others allowed me to shoot them as they knew I was a Bawa like them barefeet , bejeweled and meant no harm.
But there are those who can be rough abusive and still after taking their pictures I dont delete it just move on.
I shoot faces postures moods , I shoot time and space .. though I have a million shortcomings , I dont talk much , I dont ask questions I dont take notes .Sometimes I take their mobile phone number but I hardly keep in touch.. but with all this I am not an opportunist I have no agenda I dont shoot to sell pictures and if I do write something it is years after I shot them.
I recently got a call from someone , he said he was Babu it was an old feeble voice I told him I was unwell and indisposed .. he wanted to see me , he called me after a few days this time I told him he could meet me in Bandra I still did not ask him from where he was he sounded from Hyderabad .
He came from Ghatkopar and said he was at Bandra Station , I told him to wait for me at Lucky Hotel , its a 10 minutes walk from my house to Bandra Lucky hotel.. and he was a person who used to be very kind to me in Hyderabad during Moharam, always taking care of me .. a Shia gent .
I bought him home offered him meals and after sometime he was about to leave I put some money in his pocket with dignity , he did not say anything hugged me and left insisting I should come more often to Hyderabad so I told him I wont be coming to Hyderabad as I need to shoot different cities every Moharam.. He nodded his head and than I got a call from my childhood friend Dennis Fernandes from Surinam .. so he came over I immediately offered him food , he was very tired he talked about his life we were meeting after 18 years from the last time we met ..
In short I have come to an understand that we only meet people we were destined to meet online offline ,, there is a cosmic connection between souls .
I have met so many Bawas Naga Sadhus people from different walks of life some took my visiting card , I always lost the numbers I took from them as I dont carry a phone diary or a journal I just dot it down and I hate storing it on my phone too tedious and painful.
I recently got a message on About Me ,, from a person I dont know she was talking about knowing me as a child perhaps 7 year old at that time when I stayed at Wodehouse Road Khatau Bhuvan.. she stayed in the next cluster of buildings that was known as Char Bunglow sounding same as the Andheri one ,, but she was not sure if I was the same person..
Her message
lena sent you a message
“
Hi firoze - u luk very familiar - do u have a younger sis named 'munni' were u living in d bldg nxt to 'char bangla' u used to cum to play in our compound n sum kids used to bully u - was ur dad was a tailor - munni was a sweet kid but u always were a bit different in d sense always quiet, brooding type i never knew u went to HNHS cos me n my two bros went der too - their names were Kutty n Ashi, u may remember Ruby n Jassim? May u r not d un or may b u r d un .... shall b glad to know if u r d un by d way my name is Leena
And this is about early 60s ,, and this is the power of the Internet , you are connected , I met so many people I lost touch , and mind you I am not on Facebook.. just Flickr Twitter
Google + I met Glenn , Marc De Clercq, Jean Marc Gargantiel, Reza Masoudi, Kim Viola , Boaz , Francois FO Travels , all via the Internet .some became very good friends some moved away forever leaving no trace but memories tha ar part of my poetic journey of life .
And I am extrovert , but I have no social life no friends I am not part of any group or association,, I have done it all drank took drugs fornicated now I have become humanly saintly I stay to myself.. once in a while I meet people like the Holy Name High School 75 year celebrations .. or during the Sufi Urus , Moharam outside Mumbai, and the Kumbhs .
And these pictures I am reblogging are old images I have tweaked as monochrome , with added new thought , and it is amazing the dimensions you get to add to an old image ,, and I am jumping from one genre to the other as per the images on my CDS DVDS .. which were once my backup.
This Sufi man and his wife sell gemstone as rings prayer beads necklace bracelet , they live in makeshift tents husband wife , cook their meals themselves and sometimes share it with strangers like me ,, he respects me a lot as I wear more chunky stuff than me most of my stuff is original he is forced to sell fakes too.
I have met him at Hussain Tekri Jaorah and most of my trips to Ajmer Urus ..and these are all original content I would get brain hemorrhage if I did take stuff from the net and palmed it as my own.. and duplicate unreadable fucked shit and guys who blog such stuff are not bloggers by any means but web plagiarists ,,I encourage bloggers , I read see their stuff but there are some I pity considerably that when will they realize what they post has no readable value .
And I also copy stuff text from Wikipedia as I dont know the religious background of the images I have taken.
Most of my images are mere title no description , some are accidentally poeticized.
And I have a huge lot of images I am selectively re posting as a new blog adding freshness to old imagery ,,,and the person who is destined to read me see my stuff will do it ,,tag or no tag ..not because of my seniority as an incorrigible blogger , sometimes mediocrity is another form of originality ..
Good Morning From Cool Comfy Bandra
Ps I always moderate my text images before I upload them..I dont kick ass even though use my ass more as a football than a sanguine posterior that thinks too..
The best afterthought on this image I hope it touches all of you I follow know ..
I'm glad you entered into my life on this venue...
Thank you Mind Meld ..
