#DelhiVotes

Aj Ki Taza Khabar
Kisi Ko Milegi Zindagi
Kisi Ki Banegi Kabar

Lord Ganesha At Hindmata Dadar .

Every time when I come to Hindmata Dadar for work I am pulled  to this sculpture art form..I dont know why ..I try to shoot it but there are many obstructions a wall a gate and mind you he is completely hidden from the public away from the main road in a side lane .

I can enter the compound take him fully but because of my attire I avoid any confrontation I shoot from outside very few people here know my Sufi background and this is a predominantly Hindu locality where people dressed like me are looked at with suspicion and I dont blame them

But the shopkeepers a few blocks from here know me well I have been dealing with them since several years .

Lord Ganesha is a designers beloved God , he metamorphoses as artistic form and a God of auspicious creativity ..he adds to the flexibility and transforms himself to the fingers of the artist or the sculptor and holistic clay loves him most of all.. he is the ultimate conjurer and likes to be conjured by the deft fingers of creativity .

I have seen him being sketched by artists, by designers and molded as Lord Ganesha by sculptors like  Khatu and Rawal..

And I have shot the sculptors workshops before the Ganesha festival at Bandra Parel and Ganesh Gully and I could go on shooting forever .

One of the reasons I took both my grand daughters at different times toshoot this magical form , but Marziya than perhaps 3 year old wanted to paint him too .

Nerjis was 2 she was very scared of his form but gradually with my assistance began shooting the Great Ganesha .

However both the kids like to shoot  Goddess Durga because of her beauty and feminine form that identifies with their own.

And Marziya shot the Pandal for a few years and last year Nerjis 3 year old shot all the major Ganesh Pandals in Bandra I took a back seat as I felt while they shot it was my finger directing the shots in their minds .

And if we respect our neighbors religion his culture as a child than I dont think bigotry or hate can ever enter the mind as adult.... so similarly I made both shoot Ram Mandir and St Peter Church Bandra ..And both know Ganpati and Jesus in the same breath .

And as I dont shoot Moharam in MumbaiI am a Shia I feel sad I cannot take them out and let them shoot the street processions but I think it is better I dont want my grandkids to be insulted humiliated called names by Shia bigots ,, we have so many that I d rather shoot Shiasm in Lucknow or Hyderabad or even Chennai..And than you have a curse like Whats Up where the bigot groups defame us as Akhbaris .. and shit all figments of their Minds .

The only Shia aspect of my Faith I shoot is the Annual Majlis at our house during Moharam.

And I shoot Sufism .. Rafaees Chishtiyas and the Maddariyas .

I shoot a lot of eunuchs too their faith in Khwajah Garib Nawaz is incredible and I try to shoots this holistic connection, I shot the Eunuchs at Maha Kumbh but I have locked away all these images from public view as the general Indian considers the HIjra to be a sex object something I refise to believe or endorse and what has religiosity got to do with one sexual preference this was the first time after 4 years actually I shot the Gay Pride ..

Even my Maha Kumbh pictures a very rare documentary I will lock up from public view it is merely visited by Flickr members  for the Naga nudity.. My Guru is a Naga Sadhu from Juna Akhara and I stayed with him and his chelas at Sector 4 .

And after many years , being troubled by my diabetes and lazy since the internet came into my life I decided firmly I will start walking again I used to walk at Carter Road once.

I walked from my house at Bandra Reclamation at 3.30 am till the far end beyond ONGC quarters a long brisk walk and walked back home at 4 am.

I hope to walk everyday ,, my waist was 34 now it is 39 no exercise only blogging and hogging.

And you folks must join Ello it is a huge creative site , great  photographers , artists travel blogs , and designers , a site without adds or Facebook hangups ,, no fucked pokes no fucked walls .. just be You ,,

And Flickr has taken giant steps the Camera Roll is a great achievement and addition I only hope Ms Marissa Mayer as a Hanukah gift to me rolls back the Gift of Pro.. we poor photographers were in much need of this impetus .. where our rich friends gave us a lease on our Flickr Pro shelf life.

And sometimes even a single street picture can outreach the limitations of a talking Mind ,

St Michael Church Of Mahim

St. Michael's Church is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Mumbai. The church is situated in Mahim, located at the intersection of L.J. Road and Mahim Causeway. Due to its location, it is also informally known as Mahim Church.[1] The church is famous for its Novenas on Wednesdays, which is visited by thousands.[2]

The church - one of the oldest existing Portuguese buildings in Mumbai, originally built in 1534, was rebuilt a number of times; the present structure dating to 1973. The church also served a refuge to popular icon of the Virgin Mary from Our Lady of the Mount chapel, Bandra from 1739 to 1761. In 1853, the Church witnessed a showdown between vicars Apostolic and the Portuguese padroado order for the control of the Church. In recent history, on 27 June, 2008, thousands of devotees visited the Church to see a reported "bleeding" Jesus Christ's portrait, which was termed as a "miracle" by devotees. Though on further investigation, the red spots on the picture showed no traces of blood.
Not only Christians, but also adherents of other faiths congregate to pay their respects to the Virgin Mary and attend mass every Wednesday. Devotees believe that visiting the Church on nine consecutive Wednesdays (Novena) will grant their wishes. They offer floral garlands according to the Hindu customs and repeat prayers before the image.[1] Some of them offer wax figures of what they desire, for example, a wax house. According to Father Hugh Fonseca, around 40-50,000 devotees visit the church every week.[3]

The weekly Novena services were started in 1948, when a priest Fr. Edward Placidus Fernandes from Mumbai noticed a similar ritual celebrating Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Belfast, Northern Ireland, during his visit to Europe. Fr. Fernandes brought with him a picture touched to the original Our Lady of Perpetual Succour picture at Rome. On the 8th of September, 1948 - the Birthday of Mary, concurrent with a Wednesday that year, Fr. Fernandes as the vicar held the first Novena services. Initially, only two services were held every Wednesday, but today from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm, the thirteen services are held in various languages: English, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil and Hindi.[4]

The original St. Michael's Church is believed to have been built in 1534 by António do Porto, a church builder of the Franciscan Order.[2] Initially known as San Miguel, it is the oldest Portuguese Franciscan church in Mumbai.[5]

When the Marathas conquered Salsette in 1739, Our Lady of the Mount chapel in Bandra was destroyed by the Portuguese at the instance of the British so that its location remained secret to the Marathas. In this time, St. Michael's Church was the refuge place for the image of the Blessed Virgin from the chapel. The image remained in St. Michael's till 1761, when it was moved to its present structure in Bandra.[2]

In 1853, St. Michael's Church witnessed a struggle between Bishop Anastasius Hartmann and the padroado order. St. Michael's was in control of the vicars apostolic for nearly 60 years. In 1853, a discontented group decided that the control be handed over to the padroado party. To prevent this, Hartmann as the vicars's leader, went to the church and declared that "he would rather die a martyr than surrender the church to the schismatics". Hartmann and his followers stayed in the church with enough food and water for 15 days. Hartmann's opponents had laid "siege" to the church in this period, blocking all entrances. On the 15th day, civil authorities intervened and insisted that the church be reopened. Following this, Hartmann lost control of the church, passing it to padroado order.[6]

In his 1917 book, Sheppard remarks that St. Michael's was situated on the Portuguese Church Street and is one of the four "only known Portuguese buildings; and of these no distinguishing original feature survives, as they were much rebuilt".[7] The present structure of St. Michaels was rebuilt in 1973.[8]

On 27 June, 2008, thousands of devotees visited St. Michael's to see the picture of Jesus called "the Divine Mercy". The picture showed some red spots which were believed to be blood near the heart of Jesus. The spots were noticed on the day at 8.30 pm on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and were termed as a "miracle" by devotees. Not only Chiristians, but also Hindus and Muslims from Maharashtra and the neighbouring states of Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat, visited the Church to catch a glimpse of the picture. The queue to St. Michael's extended more than a kilometre.[9][10][11]

Parish Priest Father Raphael and Father Doneth D'Souza from the St. Michael's church as well as Archbishop cardinal Oswald Gracias declined the miracle claim. Fr. D'Souza explained "It's not a blood stain and it's also not a miracle. Every image of Divine Mercy has a red halo around the heart and in this case, the red colour has run because of the moisture in the air. It will look like a blood stain, but it's not." [9][10][11]

The image was removed and sent to a scientific analysis on the orders of Oswald Gracias. The result of that study was released in the September archdiocesan weekly and it said that the tests “established that there are no traces of blood in the red rays emanating from the Heart of Jesus in this image of Divine Mercy". Monsoon humidity and changes in the air quality were the suspected causes, Oswald Gracias did not explain the exact reasons.[12]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael%27s_Church,_Mumbai

The Mahim Landmark..The Only Church of Miracles

These are an entire lot of street shots ,, I shot them on Canon  7 D a camera with a vertical grip newly serviced that I hardly use , as I mostly shoot on the Canon 60D .

And I always shoot St Michael Church when I pass by in a bus or cab ..here I was in the bus so the framing is tough from the window of the bus ..but it works for me as a blogger I tell my own tale .I am surprised the places I shoot I have never walked there , always taken in vehicular motion..

And I shot this on 4 Feb and there is another lot on the same memory card I shot today while going to Dadar.

There is not much street options unless there is a protest or a feast of perhaps elections ..but I kill time I need to shoot pictures or use my archive or tweak pictures via Aviary and poeticize a moment already dead and gone.

And strange it may seem I know which image to add text make it conversational or which image to poeticize.

And this is my new lot ..

St Michael Chuch Mahim is the most iconic church in Mumbai famous for its Wednesday Novena and  Miracles and the Budh Bazar meaning Wednesday street bazar on the pavement on the side of the Church leading to Mori Road and in front of the Church leading till Paradise Cinema .

Huge crowds mostly burkha clad Muslim-women who just love to shop , it is a infectious disease this shopping and it is huge at Kurla Market too..they will buy every shit thing possible lace , odd and ends fabric jeans children s garish frocks horrible breakable toys , typical Miya decorations , plastic flowers , wall clocks sandals golden shoes , anything and everything and I pity their husbands ..who are not even aware returning tired from work eating and going to sleep.

Mahim has a large Muslim population so the business is great for the street hawkers who pay hafta or protection money to the cops and the municipal goons .. everybody knows it but who the fuck cares ..Paisa Phek Tamasha Dekh..

And during the Uris time and the Mahim Mela the crowds are humongous every Muslim from Mumbara and other areas like Kalyan comes to Mahim Mela and the organizers keep shouting on the mike about lost children ,,It goes like this Reshma about 4 years old  fair long hair crying asking for her parents is here with us whoever is her rightful parent please collect her fro the Mela Offce ,, than another announcement while the mother father are on a Rollercoater ride with two kids the third kid Shahid was found crying with a ice gola he is wearing a red shorts blue tshirt and white shoes ..please .come and collect him fast or we will be dying here soon we cant bear the smell of his shit and he has urinated on the announcers trouser ,  and humor is everywhere you cant miss it its been years I stopped going to Mahim Mela I got lost every time ,,  and they stopped announcing about me as my wife refused to collect me from the Mela office ., luckily the last time I did not shit and pee ...

Optional Title ,, Your Wife Is Fragile Slow Down.. Lol