Religious Tonsure Documenting Street Barbers of India

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

Flickr

450,333 Photos At Flickr Since June 2007

When I began my lifes adventure as a photographer at Flickr achieving 5000 photos was a moment of joy and it was blessings of friends followers wellwishers I reached the landmark of 100000 ..it could have not been possible without all of you ,

But I must reiterate I have cut down my photography  I used to shoot all the Shia events in Mumbai but its been 5 years now I dont shoot Moharam in my city at all for personal reasons .

As a blogger it was Flickr that was the origin of all my blogs street blogs poetry blogs and religious blogs so at times I wonder what spark of enlightenment made Ms Marissa Mayer buy Tumblr with that money she could have made Flickr better and she has done a good job..that should b mentioned too.


I have been on You Tube since 2008 but it is only from 2014 that I began shooting videos being a puritanical photographer I did not care much for videos ,,,but now I shoot videos and stills combine them with my limited knowledge of video editing and upload them at my YouTube channel.. 7 million views in 3 years no porn... lol .

I find very few people that I shoot really know about Flickr ..so shooting videos of their faith culture events gives me a greater visibility at You Tube but those who manage You Tube dont know their rectum from their elbow ,,,very poorly managed and the shit that people upload makes me puke on my shirt front ,

The You Tube editor was an insult to a creators intelligence and the entire Video Manager needs a total up haul but sadly Google is good at self destruct be it Google Buzz or even Google +and their most regressive monolithic Blogspot ,,, th same hackneyed templates and horrendous pretentious Blog platform.

I dont blog anymore the Blogger in me committed Hara Kiri and I was once again reborn as a opinionated photographer and storyteller .

Even Flickr needs a team of photographers to manage it and not nerds or dimwitted robots that use human intelligence from the backside of their pompous pedantic ass.

A photographer like Thomas Hawk or Jeremy Brook or someone of that standing status should be part of Flickr management and Mabel is a an entire Flickr Forum personified .

Change should come from within but than Yahoo was such a brainless self suicidal venture imagine your pictures are stolen and you contact Yahoo Copyright that puts all the onus on you and and Yahoo could nver be Facebook or Twitter as a matter of fact Flickr curators are so vacuous in their heads they dont know how to use Twitter lol ..

I am not a cybernetic genius nor a very good photographer but I am 65 I have been a businessman now a monk I know how the cookie crumbles .

I stopped using Twitter I cant be on a platform that is an institution that promotes Hate via retwets bots and trolls .

My Twitter grave exits and my tweets are protected ..and my account was never verified because Twitter India hates Muslims like me that promote Hindu Muslim amity and Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone live in Ivory Towers one caught in a Square the other in a Circle of Confusion.

I refuse to be on a platform where the death of Gauri Lankesh fills bigots right wing Hindus with joy at her Murder ..

I cant be on a platform where political leaders head of state follow bullies and women haters .

I prefer Flickr ... my pictures talk sometimes I talk to poetically or mystically in metaphors .

Happy Morning From Bandra ..

With Malice to None ..
A 140 word poet of Twitter on the Run
A Father Grandfather and a Son ..

An Ode To Buffalo Meat

My wife says I have gone crazy shooting buffalo meat.
She says why don't you shoot fish mutton or whatever the government  wants us to eat

Meat that will one day become our national geet  soon we will be eating soybeans  and wheat. Our life depends on what you Tweet

Man  Ki  Bat Man  ka Meet

She said if Twitter was a highschool the same class with Trolls 15 times you will repeat Jack  Dorsey  from register  your name will delete

Biz Stone a generous man might just give you reprieve absent without leave.

Luckily you won't be tied to a jeep because shawls you do not weave

Pelting stones of Retweets

Demystifying The Essence of Photography .

posted at Facebook

Having a camera you shoot pictures , post it on Facebook , Flickr ,,[I dont use Instagram ] or post it on Twitter ,,I too used to shoot pictures when I crossed over from analogue to digital.. once I began posting pictures on the internet I was unwittingly baptized as a blogger early 2004..For me the Gods of blogging those early raw novice years were Brandon Stone Photoblogs Org I think and Biz Stone co founder Blogspot and Twitter ,,

Now after blogging shooting pictures to be showcased online ,, a lot of changes happened thanks to Flickr the source of my photoblog , my archive and my coming of age as an incorrigible prolific blogger ,.. I was a fish among bigger fish at Flickr they still call themselves photographers I call myself a blogger ,,

I dont shoot pictures I shoot unfinished incomplete stories ,, you decide the end you dont see my picture you read my story as words silently embedded in the soul of my blog.. and a picture story hardly needs language ,,but because I am on an International platform I use English to poeticize the pain within my story.

I may have shot with my peers ,foreign photographer even Indian learnt unlearnt something but I followed my own heart , I dont expect you to trigger shoot like me .. but you must be fucked crazy to even imagine I will shoot like you ,,NEVER.

I think shooting pictures is easy with the aid of the camera but shooting stories adding it to a story board is where the mystification comes in.. I shoot seasons religion .. religiously I become part of the religion I shoot ,,I shot the story of Ganesha than told you the story of Mount Mary through the eyes two Muslim girls age 4 and 7 Nerjis and Marziya both my granddaughter .. daughters of my eldest son.. a Shia scholar , a tutor a conservative and modern as a web designer ,,when I say conservative I mean traditionalist.

I taught both my granddaughters to shoot stories ,, normally before the advent of Bakra Eid or Eid Ul Adha I shot the goat markets near JJ Colony Bandra ..simply that people should buy goats from these sellers Bandraites locals instead of going all the way to Deonar .

So this evening I was at Puma store some work , than I got off at Bandra Talao video shot Shiv Sena Shaka Pramukh Mr Sudesh Dubeys Ganpati Pandal at Bandra SV Road ,, and cut across through JJ Colony met a friend buying a goat shot his picture to make the butcher happy and someone was tugging my breeches I thought it is a goat turned out to be this little girl in the picture ,, I saw her soul reflected in her eyes .. she wanted money I gave her something..

And this is my story,, festivals bring happiness to all, those who will do Qurbani.. go for the Eid Al Adha Namaz and this feast on a lesser note than Ramzan brings happiness alms to beggars ,, Ramzan is big time charity ..and I wondered why I had not come earlier but than the last time I shot here was the demolitions of the illegal stalls ..this time there are not many goat stalls ,,for the same reason..the butcher who sold the goat to my friend once when to hit me during Ramzan when I was shooting the food pictures I was fasting I kept my cool .. but today the same butcher is a good friend , misunderstandings happen .. but he surprised me he said Sir please dont forget to place the picture on Twitter and than I realized Fuck Yes Twitter is miles ahead of Facebook with 140 words in Davids sling hitting the Goliaths of the World..

So this is a picture story I blogged at Facebook and will now copy paste to Flickr pimp it on Twitter cross blog it to Tumblr and than Blogspot it....

I dont use Ello anymore ,, my pictorial presence out there is a marker on a gravestone ,,,