When or why I started shooting street barbers I dont recollect but Barberism Barbers Religious Tonsure Mundan is a prolific documentary shot by me housed at Flickr .
But there is a incident that pushed me into shooting Religious Tonsure I met a young couple from Andhra they were deeply in love and their parents were not happy they went through hell they came to Haji Malang invoke the Holy Saint if their marriage happened they would give their hair as their homage and the Saint answered their prayers so instead of going for a Honeymoon they came to a street salon and were having their heads shaved I was not into videos those early days so I shot their pictures , the lady was very beautiful and I saw her evolving in front of my eyes as her strands fell at my feet,,both were in spiritual bliss both staunch Hindus .
The guy told me his Love story and today after almost 10 years I am absolving myself for having kept it close to my heart..so I began shooting barbers my granddaughters Marziya Nerjis Mundan Akika .
I shot several street barber stories I shot faceless Billu Badshahs ..I shot barbers in Lucknow Hyderabad Delhi Latur ..it was not a obsession but I wanted to tell their stories and barbers have Shifa holistic healing hands hey touch and bless you ..
I shot barbers on the banks of Ganges Allahabad Maha Kumbh Nasikh Kumbh Ujjain Kumbh.
But the guys that really contributed to my barber documentary were the street barbers of Lal Mitti Bandra Reclamation ..Hindu guys from UP and Jharkhand .
Mostly the street barbers or even barbers runnning street stalls are Muslims most come from Badayoun..and other north Indian cities .
I was close to a Kashmiri barber too,
But Pitru Paksha pushed me completely into shooting street barbers as here on on this auspicious day I could shoot hordes of barbers at Banganga that became a Planet of Bald Heads .
I have been shooting the street barbers on Pitru Paksha for several years I must be the only photographer shooting them barefeet ,..but it was the first time I shot them in the rains and there used to be a few Muslim barbers from Bandra that joined this bandwagon but I did not see them.
As my thread of life that goes beyond just poetry passion and pathos it is bound to Hindu Muslim amity at all costs this is the essence core of my photography and its Indianness ..
Similarly I shot the Muslim kite makers all Muslim that makes kites and Hindus joyously fly them in Mumbai during Makar Sankranti.
There are a lot of stories waiting to be shot all you need is a mobile phone and effort to tell it through your narrative ,,,I think what is essential and fuck blogging is Original Content I would smash my camera move out of picture taking if I had to copy paste another mans picture or his story and I think Facebook LIKE and Twitter FAVORITE s so degenerating fucking juvenile .
But more than Flickr it was Twitter that contributed to my fragmented creativity I had locked up Facebook for personal reasons and the entire Chadiyan my walking trip with the Malangs from Delhi to Ajmer 550 km in 13 days I documented via Twitter .
So though I have taken a sabbatical and also sent a direct message to Mr Jack Dorsey about Twitter a forum of peace I joined in 2008 inspired by Biz Stone the guy who baptized me as a Blogger has now become diabolically a House of Hate .
I have 230000 tweets all photo related.
I moved out of all Blogging forums ,,it is just Flickr You Tube Blogspot ...Blogspot is my graveyard of over 5 blogs ,,,
Th only way of becoming a good photographer is shooting pictures as stories ,, pictures as pictures is is the distance from asshole to eternity ..
Merci
