This was shot by my wife on 30 Dec 2007..
And from the day Marziya Shakir daughter of my eldest son Asif , was born , I saw her on her second day at Holy Family Hospital I could not stop shooting her .. even when she came home it was my camera that welcomed her I shot every movement of her hands , her smile and it gave me joy ,not as a grandfather but as father reborn.. I had never been so excited or sober so to speak ..Marziya changed my vision of life , she was the tonic of my emotional longevity..she added a few years more to my shelf life..
I was addicted to alcohol when my kids were born just could not get ride of the urge , I thought foolishly stupidly that my sartorial creativity , [I was into Bollywood fashion ] came from drinking and wisely I drank myself to death it was Old Monk Rum.. I needed as fish needs water ..so while my kids were growing I was just drinking ..I never dreamt I would one day give up drinking , I would leave alcohol but would the genie in my Old Monk ever leave me.
However I gave up booze and took up photography , so my earliest timeline was drunken with the camera as the new bottle .. it was that bad I shot like a drunkard anything everything ,, but Marziyas birth gave me a focused view , a new path and I became more adventurous every new day , every new month every new year her birthdays it was Marziya my muse .. I showed her my world , and by the time she was 188 month she had seen so much of the camera that she could shoot pictures while she took the camera strap round her neck I held the camera she began clicking my world , the beggars , the hijra on Bakra Eid , and loving animals cats Lucky Omkar Shelars Labrador was her best friend he would buckle against her moods , she would bully him with her finger and I realized dogs are more intuitive than mankind .If Marziya did not come down he would go into a shell but being a huge dog he would never lick Marziya , never overpower her because her parents like other Muslims have a different view of dogs ,, I felt Lucky knew it and it was Lucky And Marziyas pictures that my old friend on Flickr late Jeff Lamb liked the most ,, and Jeff loved Marziya ..Marziya in Mumbai Jeff in Ann Arbor and my eyes are wet as I write this .. the ultimate power of photography to reach hearts where even even angels fear to resist..
So Marziya Shakir is a 17000 photo documentary of her bbirth and her formative years this was my gift to her , as she grew older she would browse through her pictures giving me pangs of nostalgia , pictures that she saw , she would have never seen if someone had not shot it. I was lucky more LUcky than Lucky to have documented it all .
I made another set on Flickr of her tryst with photography pictures she shot of the beggars , Mr Rajesh Khanna and all the visiting photographers that came to our house , she watched them as they shot her she observed minutely and finally decided that it Viola she would follow and ape , shooting pictures from a sitting position.
She shot the football marathon I had just one camera , I let her shoot running behind the footballers from a safe distance ,,
I took her to St Peter Church and Fr Jaun my godfather became her godfather too made her shoot the Church St Stanislaus School on Republic day and made her shoot Fr Jude Mascrenhas
I made her shoot the Crosses at Bandra the Ram Mandir and I made her shoot Moharam dressed in a hijab.. she shot the scourging boys and ace photographer Habib Nasser .
I got her a Flickr account a Twitter handle and a Facebook that I have deactivated since four years now .
Marziya Shakir is 7 years old now born 24 November ..2007.
She is net savvy like her dad a web programmer , but also religious she recites the Namaz with her Grandma , goes for Arabic classes and religious studies after school at the Bandra Shia Mosque.
Marziya now older wears the hijab when she goes out , and is modern cultured , watched CID her favorite show or Doremon .
And Nerjis is her sister 3 year old .. and Zinnia my younger sons daughter is also 3 I have documented their lives on the net but nor as prolifically as Marziya Shakir .
Marziya is waiting for her passport to visit Karbala with her grandmother , this is her ultimate wish.
So I think sometimes more than the wife or the kids it is the first grandchild that changes the course of the river of Life .
And this post is dedicated to a more adventurous grandfather than me more jovial more funloving .. Alex W ..
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Marziya Pics
Marziya Shoots
