Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Once Upon A Time In Ajmer - Heena Hijra

196,047 items / 1,604,567 views

Ajmer is spiritual city of peace love humanity and human emotions , and the Holy Saint of Ajmer Khawjah Garib Nawaz presides over it in total humility, he is King , but not a pompous king he is a king of the poor the needy the disfranchised , he has wealth but it belongs to his people , and because of his true nature as a humanitarian people in pain from all walks of life come to celebrate his annual Urus

I come her barefeet , head bowed for me as a Shia the Khwajah represents Hussain in the most noblest form.. etched on the soul of a million hearts is words embossed at Bulund Darwaza

Shah ast Hussain, Badshah ast Hussain
Deen ast Hussain, Deen Panah ast Hussain
Sardad na dad dast, dar dast-e-yazeed,
Haqaa key binaey La ila ast HussainAnd a rough translation -

Ruler is Hussain, Emperor is Hussain,
Faith is Hussain , guardian of faith is Hussain .
Offered his head and not the hand to Yazid.
Indeed, Hussain is the foundation of La-ilah (the declaration that none but God is Absolute and Almighty) from friend Raza Rumis post

The transgender community of India , too have the highest regards for Khwajah Garib Nawaz , and this is one moment of a lifetime they will never miss, they come here leaving everything behind to start afresh, to revive flagging hopes and much more.

This was shot at Ajmer a few years back, and Heena , was the enchanting spirit of the Hijra community, we met at Peela House Red Light area Hijra cages Falkland Road so many names and its notoriety to fame as the flesh pot of Mumbai...

We became friends , I visited Heena several times and she liked me as I came to her quarters barefeet , just me my camera capturing the pain outside and inside.. I shot her extensively and she was the face with my Hijra Guru Laxmi Narayan at Dus Ka Daum show of Salman Khan the only Bollywood superstar she loves for his humanity ..

She would call me many a times update me on her life her dreams her hopes , and than one day the line went dead.. this year I met her Guru Lakshmi , and this is not the same Laksmi as my Guru , but a pretty lady who is a chela of Ma Madhurima head of the hijras of Park Site Vikhroli..

Lakshmi her Guru told me , that I had made Heena famous with her pictures poems my blogs.. but I think Heena was famous much before she me the day I came here to shoot the rotten life of Indian prostitutes , the only area of human life used abused and the government did nothing to change their lives or their inhuman conditions, I always felt only a Healer at the top of the government can change shattered lives , politicians have no life and it is money big bucks and construction hotel hospitality building hill stations as their priority so why should they care for prostitutes .

And I am a few hours away from Iftar or my fifth fast as I add text to a blank post, most of my pictures are blanks and words come mystically..

I missed Heena both at Haji Malang and at Ajmer , and I have not gone to Peela house I got sick and tired shooting the same street the same pain new faces instead of old , the same cages the same shame my neglect apathy, and now towers will come up and this hijra world world of prostitutes wont exist anymore simply as folklore.


Heena was alway keen on visiting my house meeting my family but it did not come to pass , and being a lover of Hussain she really amazed me with her faith her devotion during Ramzan..

And so I dont know why she came to mind and why I pen these lines for her , perhaps she wanted to poke me Facebook style..she is the only hijra I have given 100 copies prints ,of pictures I shot , normally I dont make prints for anyone.. I hate prints , they are minus the soul of the person I shot..

This year I took a pledge became a Dam Madar Malang with my dear friend Marc De Clercq and we both shoot Malangs and the Hijra community , and I learn a lot from Marc , we climbed the mountains visited the Graves of the Hijra Saint and his biological son this year after our Taragdh sojourn , and I climbed the mountains barefeet.. a moment I will never forget all my life .. my barefeet too wont forget this feat..

Bloggers digress there is madness inherent in ever word that comes from the inner kundalini of our pathos and pain , so back to Heena , I dont know if I will ever meet her again , because she always wanted to meet a nice guy marry settle down.. and she is well off ..she always told me several times if I was down broke needed money to call her but I would tell just one thing , my name is not written on your money which she took as her final humiliation to her profession as a hijra prostitute..

It was Heena who invited me to Park Site to shoot the ceremony of 40 days Memorial Service of late Ragini Nayak..without her I dare not enter a very private hijra event ,by the hijras for the hijras only.

And so I end this blog with hopes of meeting her with her husband one day , before I shut my eyes , she was one human person who touched my humanity in a very nice way and this is my tribute to her in a Holy Month...

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Shooting Hijras Is a Gift I Use To Educate

209,308 items / 1,721,464 views

people with
homophobic hate
hijras are human
vulnerable fragile
women that god
could not create
hijras women
man made
manly
with womanly
traits
bound
to her androgynous
cosmic fate
a word of god
on a broken slate
hijras men
in ladies attire
lady like
girth and gait
used abused
raped
sodomized
by a system
of late
to be treated
on par
with rest of
humanity
a restless
endless wait

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Mr Sanjay Nirupam and Me At Chhat Puja 2009

100,348 items / 615,278 views

I start a new set at my Flickr photo stream, Chhat Puja 2009 ..I shot it this evening, barefeet dressed like a tiger cub no pun intended...the latest flavor and statement post election in Maharashtra.

I shot from one end of the beach to another,Mr Sanjay Nirupams podium was very grand and awesome, the entire crowd was watching the song recital from the beach, I met him took a few frames and left..

I have been shooting the Chhat Puja Festival from the time Mr Sanjay Nirupam placed it on the festival map of Mumbai in a very big way.

I have tried never to miss this festival , and today I was in real bad shape I have not recovered from my viral fever but I made it to the beach...overriding all odds.

About Chhat Puja from Wikipedia

Chhath (Hindi: छठ, also called Dala Chhath) is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity, unique to Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai[1]. This major festival is also celebrated in the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Chhattisgarh. Even in Tamil Nadu, the migrants from the north celebrate Chhath. Hymns praying to the sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the worship of the sun has been described in the Rigveda.


The word chhath denotes the number 6 in Hindi [2]and the festival begins on the sixth day of the Hindu lunar month of Kartik, which corresponds to months of October and November in the Gregorian calendar (a week after Diwali). Chhath is the holiest Hindu festival of Bihar & eastern UP. It extends to four days.


The ancient Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata has references to Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas, worshipping the sun, which was believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and ensure longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders. In addition, it is believed that Chhath was started by Karna, the son of Surya, who became a great warrior and fought against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War.

This is the only holy festival which has no involvement of any priest (Pandit). People celebrates this festival by thier own.

It is celebrated twice a year: once in the summers (May-July), called the Chaiti Chhath, and once in the winter (September-November) around a week after Deepawali, called the Kartik Chhath. The latter is more popular because winters are the usual festive season in North India, and Chhath, being an arduous observance, requiring the worshippers to fast without water for more than 24 hours, is easier to undertake in the Indian winters.

Chhath is mainly a Bihari festival, and so it is celebrated wherever people from Bihar have migrated. This is a ritual bathing festival that follows a period of abstinence and ritual segregation of the worshiper from the main household for four days. During this period, the worshiper observes ritual purity, and sleeps on the floor on a single blanket. The main worshipers, called Parvaitin (from Sanskrit parv, meaning 'occasion' or 'festival'), are usually women. However, a large number of men also observe this festival. The parvaitin pray for the well-being of their family, for prosperity and offspring. They can only perform Chhath if it is passed on to them from their older generation. However, once they decide to do it, it becomes their duty to perform it every year. The festival is skipped only if there happens to be a death in the family that year.

On the eve of Chhath, houses and surroundings are scrupulously cleaned. One the first day of the festival, the worshiper cooks a traditional vegetarian meal and offers it to the Sun God. This day is called Naha-Kha (literally, 'Bathe and eat'!). The worshiper allows herself/himself only one meal on this day.

On the second day, a special ritual, called Kharna, is performed in the evening after Sun down. On this day also, the worshiper eats his/her only meal from the offerings (Prashad) made to the Sun God in this ritual. Friends and family are invited to the household on this day to share the prashad of the ritual. From this day onwards, for the next 36 hours, the worshiper goes on a fast without water.

The evening of the next day, the entire household accompanies the worshiper to a ritual bathing and worship of the Sun God, usually on the bank of a river, or a common large water body. The occasion is almost a carnival. Besides the main worshiper, there are friends and family, and numerous participants and onlookers, all willing to help and receive the blessings of the worshipper. Ritual rendition of regional folk songs, carried on through oral transmission from mothers and mothers-in-law to daughters and daughters-in-law, are sung on this occasion. The same bathing ritual is repeated on the following day at the crack of dawn. This is when the worshipper breaks his/her fast and finishes the ritual. Chhath being celebrated at the crack of the dawn on a river bank is a beautiful, elating spiritual experience connecting the modern Indian to his ancient cultural roots.

The folk songs sung on the eve of Chhath mirror the culture, social structure, mythology and history of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Nowadays, modern Chhath songs, largely Bollywood film remixes have caught on, but the old tradition still goes strong with a great degree of sanctity. The three main linguistic regions of Bihar: the Maithili, the Magadhi, and the Bhojpuri, and all the various dialects associated with these, have different folk songs; but have an underlying unity in their dedicated to Chhath. The minor nuances of the Chhath rituals, such as in the Kharna ritual, vary from region to region, and also across families, but still there is a fundamental similarity.
[edit] Yogic Viewpoint

As per the yogic view point word Chhath is a compound of two words; Chah means 6 stages and Hath refers to the science of Hath Yog (austerity). The word Chhath refers to the process of consciously obtaining the solar energy through 6 stages involving the methods similar to Hath Yog. Hath here refers to the austerities like fasting, standing in water, etc. This entire process has been termed by the yogis as a Conscious Photoenergization Process having 6 stages.

Stage 1: Fasting and the discipline of cleanliness leads to detoxification of the body and mind. This stage prepares the body and mind of the Vratti (devotee) to receive the cosmic solar energy.

Stage 2: Standing in a water body with half the body (navel deep) in the water minimizes the leak of energy and helps the prana (psychic energy) to move up the sushumna (psychic channel in the spine).

Stage 3: Cosmic Solar Energy enters the Vratti’s pineal, pituitary and hypothalamus glands (Triveni complex) through retina and optic nerves.

Stage 4: Activation of Triveni (tri-glandular complex) Pineal, pituitary and hypothalamus

Stage 5: A kind of Polarization of happens in the spine, which results in the Vratti’s gross and subtle bodies getting transformed into a cosmic powerhouse. This can also lead to the awakening of the latent psychic energy popularly known as the Kundalini Shakti.

Stage 6: The body of Vratti (devotee) becomes a channel, which conducts, recycles and transmits the energy into the entire universe.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhath

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A Gift To Shri Balasaheb Thackeray From A Barefeet Blogger Of Mumbai

176,921 items / 1,386,311 views

not only
the hindus
hirday samrat
a samrat
of all indians
beyond caste
color creed
or community
most sought
holistically
healing
the poor
mans lot
trying
to save
mother india
from scams
corruption
inherent rot
those who rob
this golden pot
will never stand justice
will never get caught
he does not hate
muslims only
the anti national bigot
time of calamity
always on the spot
a message
i send from one
poet to another
a flower of peace
my camera lens
captured
as a poem
somewhat

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Dear Honorable Chief Minster

176,501 items / 1,382,915 views



flowers on
his body
now turned
as heavy
as chains
on the soul
of Christianity
in Amchi Mumbai
blows that rain
crosses fall
demolished
blood flowing
down the drain
dear hon
chief minister
for once
be human
feel our pain
dont politicize
it as a plank
for your next
election campaign
so much
to your electorate
you have to explain
why are your
people so cruel
inhuman
is the refrain
through such
heroics
of demolishing
heritage structures
what do you attain
illegal structures
rise like
towers of babel
do we complain
silently
watching
the beak dance
of democracy
what it contains
so dear sir
once just once
be humane
together
for peace
progress
humanity
honor retain

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Another One Bites the Dust

falling in love
with her was
a great mistake
she was as original
as she was fake
my ass with
my clothes on
she did take
love for loves sake
a lot moment
a lost flake
on the soul
of the poetry
of my life
another
earthquake
although
i have deleted her
from my fucked
consciousness
her memories
our incomplete
pillow talk
our poetic love making
only a keepsake
for another
heavenly endowed man
my love she did forsake
from my bent bough
a taste of love
she did partake
in business parlance
she retired me
with a golden
hand shake
one sided
failed love
biting the dust
eating shit
in simpler words
a fucked
heartbreak

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The Whites and The Blacks

the haves
the havenots
back to back
silence
on the soul
of a street drama
as sound track
a picture
that could
hve been shot
more effectively
by glenn losack
my guru my mentor
to mother india
one day
will come back
for his lady love
buy some
turquoise
some Indian
artifacts
knickknacks
the American Jew
a shia pandit
beyond all
racist attacks
a nikon d 90
for marziya
he will unpack

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