Happy 69 Independence Day

जहाँ हर बालक इक मोहन हैं और राधा इक इक बाला जहाँ सूरज सबसे पहले आ कर डाले अपना फेरा वो भारत देश हैं मेरा

Asma My Friend ,,A Chance Meeting

I met Asma or Rishi as she called herself at Ajmer Station while returning from the Urus 5 years back.. I shot her pictures as the train was late ,and as we were traveling to Mumbai..
She told me of her struggle as a crossdresser as a dancer , and her Muslim parentage , how she overcame all this and worked hard to give her parents a home her brothers a shop and invested wisely ,, but she was headstrong and though there was much opposition from her conservative relatives she did not budge , worked with dignity and I met her accidentally after so many years at Bandra Hill Road,,

Once she and Ritu a hijra had come to my place to meet my family as men , and my wife could not believe they lived another life as women.  Ritu is a transgender , but Asma decided not to live or become a hijra .

We spoke of old times and she was wondering what happened to my bulk load of picture on the Hijra community I told her barring a few I had disabled the rest from public view completely ,,I have no regrets ,, the public is not ready for hijras in India sadly the Hijra is nothing but a sexual commodity , and being homophobic the public uses them abuses them and there is no hope for their emancipation or salvation with the anti human law Article 377 hanging over their head as a Damocles Sword,

Asma is a dedicated devotee of Khwajah Garib Nawaz.

apani aazadi ko ham haragiz mita sakate nahi sar kata sakate hai lekin sar jhuka sakate nahi

Happy Independence Day To All My Friends

A Day In The Life of a Photo Blogger

posted at Facebook first ..

Unlike most of you who post updates without a picture or some GIF or share another persons picture as your update ..I simply cant do it ,does not work for me here at Facebook , so I went to my Flickr archive bought forward a picture changing the Exif data from June 2015 to the current date ,,this post is blank at the moment at Flickr I shall cross blog it from here to Flickr .
In the evening at about 6 pm , I went to Bandra SV road to get bloodworms for my flowerhorns I have some exotic ones about 8...after I bought the worms I decided to go see my ear cleaners friends Nabi , Kassim and Raju..
I was carrying my DSLR too, I met Kassim bhai , he was grumbling business was bad as a guy perhaps a drunkard had drowned at the Talao the pond ..he was fished out by the cops ..and there is no security , kids come and fish here , the BMC cares a fuck.. to put it more aptly ..dead Indians are the best Indians .
Well I decided to bring a smile on Kassim bhais face I sat down to have my ears cleaned and shot the proceedings on my HTC Desire 826 ..I paid both Kassim bhai and Nabi too , Raju the third earcleaner had left home early because of the death of the drunkard at the Talao.
After I had shot the video I said goodbye to them , walked back home on the way near Jain Mandir Road Bandra is a new South Indian joint, they make the best rasam idlis I decided to fill myself ,,and shot a few pictures but I got an urgent call from my client who stays at Orbit Heights Grant Road I was needed urgently before 9pm.. it was 7 pm.. I rushed home showered took a cab not much traffic I reached by 8.30 pm.. I finished my work and walked through the Grant Road vegetable market , nobody recognized me as I was in ordinary attire a white linen shirt and black breeches I bought some vegetables ..and decided to return by train.. the Grant Road station at about 9.30 pm was packed with the homeless folks kids moms and the drunk husbands ,, I had no heart to shoot them and with a plastic bag of 10 kg of vegetables shooting on the mobile phone is not easy.
Well the real adventure began in the train.. I sat in a corner it was a Bandra train no rush.. as such but it was crowded and when the train started a guy began to sing some old numbers I decided to shoot his video, and record his voice ..he was a Muslim dressed neatly in a kurta pajama I gave him money and he moved away back near the entrance ,, there he started another song I carried my heavy bag near the door and began to shoot the second video... and he had pain in his voice he sang passionately of a strange longing that mystically bound me ,, as he was about to finish his second song and Bandra was approaching I talked to him on video.. he was from Hussainabad Lucknow going through very difficult times he loves singing and thus he earned his living I told him I was from Lucknow too..and I felt sad he will go to meet his family in Moharam ..I told him my Lucknow connection , when I got off he had disappeared into the crowds leaving behind a memory that I add to the eve of 69 Independence day ,,without Congress under the auspices of Mr Narendra Modiji...the wait for Acche Din and most of all without sarcasm or satire a genuine hope for Sab Ka Sath Sab Ka Vikas ,,
Dal Dal Par Soneki Chidiya Karti Hain Basera Yeh Bharat Desh Hai Mera ,,
I will upload the videos of this Lucknow singer from Hussainabad but the pictures on my DSLR can wait ,,
I use Facebook as a blog platform.. and I pimp the soul of my blog on Twitter ..

Sit, be still, and listen, because you're drunk and we're at the edge of the roof.”Rumi

Sometimes I Prefer My HTC Desire 826 To My Canon DSLR 60 D

Nerjis Street Photographer 4 Year Old

Do you really need the camera to shoot the streets ..because I dont carry my DSLR when I go out on my walks or take my grandkids for tennis lessons I shoot mostly on my mobile phone HTC Desire 826 ,, the best phone for my kind of pictures still or video..

Nerjis spotted the drunk sozzled in his dreams and knew I would shoot him so she began posing in front of him and winking at me too ,, that she had spotted him and shot him all be it without a camera ,, this is what I taught Nerjis since she was 2 year old ,,unlearn photography ,,

She is highly observant much quicker in her reflexes than me she has not picked up my DSLR for a very long time now ,, but it does not matter ,, if you have the camera in your head working the camera in the hand is redundant ,, it is merely a tool ,, nothing else ,, it can neither override the cosmic eye in the center of the head or give an opinion..

I could have given my mobile phone to Nerjis to shoot it too, but her mind was at the tennis court , and the joy of getting away from our house ,,the same toys the same faces and the same monotony ,,,because children are very perspective , their range of understanding is totally fine tuned .

After the tennis session I did not take her to the park next door as it was wet and soggy due to the rains .
I bought her an ice cream and two small packets of wafers .. that made her happy ..and when we reached home her ma and Marziya were out shopping , my wife was out too. she took her clay and got busy with it ,,not interested even in seeing the video I had shot of her .