Shooting Moharam In Chennai ,, Ashura 10 Moharam

I began shooting Moharam about 15 years back after I took up Photography as a hobby..

My genre was documenting the various cultures rituals in my city Mumbai.. and being a Shia has nothing to do with my shooting Shiasm..
I shot Shiasm mainly to showcase to my non Muslim foreigner friends the world of a Shia during Moharam. and soon it became a passion I tried to shoot the main Moharam days  Ashura Chehlum  in Mumbai.

Than in 2003 or 2004 I shot Moharam in Hyderabad both Ashura and Chehlum  , later shot  Athvi a very important day when Moharam ends in Lucknow and Eid E Zehra the happy Shia day also known as Navi .

I shot Kolkatta Ashura , Hussain tekri Mehmoodabad , Chennai this series in 2010,  and Delhi Ashura with my close American  friend Dr Glenn Losack.

I shot Lucknow Ashura and Chehlum too big huge Shia days in the city of the Nawabs ,, A Shia citadel Nakhas and Kazmain.


This year an eminent French photo journalist wishes to accompany me to shoot Ashura inHyderabad , another Spanish photographer too has shown his inclination , I have no issue as culture should be shared as a human perspective emotions feelings more than its unique religiosity .


And Chennai Ashura is a intense chapter in Ghame Hussain , adults kids bleeding reminding the world of their 1400 year old protest against spiritual terrorism in Islam by the Umayad dynasty under Caliph Yazid .. the accursed butcher of Karbala ..

Aviary Still Does Not Save My Pictures To Flickr

And I will not go cry at the Flickr Forum , it edits to my satisfaction , serves my purpose , I download it as a PNG image , and upload it again as a new post at Flickr ,

I type with one finger so it is painful.. but I am seeing emotions in new light..Ashura for the Shias is an intense moment of pain , a collective memory of the genocide at Karbala . the barbarism of the early Muslims and this barbarism is genetic to Islam.. it will always be there .. and this genetic flaw creates monsters like the ISIS Jehaddists , this misplaced martyrdom serves them well, looting raping , decapitating and showing it to the world this evil visual imagery is the worst form of Terrorism..

If they had not killed the Americans or the Western captives you think the world would have bothered , who cares , the Boko Haram carry on with their killings kidnappings and they should dismantle the eunuch UNO.

And so Moharam Ashura the  Shia chant of Ya Hussain continues protesting against the oppression of Yazid the original father of Terrorism, along with his father Mauwiyah ibn Sufiyan of the Umayad dynasty.

And Muslim youth will be influenced by all this trying to change the world make it entirely Muslim ..and you are the product of your parentage , your ancestry ,, we as Indians  Muslims dont have this evil trait and yes in most cases it comes from the Rogue Mullah too who teaches kids at the madrsas.. to some extent , they is a lot of bigotry racism and hate for the Kafir or Non Muslim,, the flaws are within the Islamic system of thought corrupted by the custodians of Islam but it is easy to blame American Israelis and the Muslim minorities.

Personally the few  places in the world where Muslims love killing Muslims is  Pakistan Afghanistan and the Arab belt of Syria Iraq..

I am happy I  was born in India and have no attachment with Arab thought or its barbarism..and this is Ashura the day we mourn for the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain grandson of the Holy Prophet , this was murder  but it has been condoned and written of as a a political event ,, this was the precedent to justification of killing anyone who does no follow their form of Islam be it Salafi Wahabbi ,, or any hate festering one ,,

And I have removed the color of blood we shed .. made it stark black and white ,, as a photographer documentarist I hate text words but sometimes it is needed to explain the symbolism of our bleeding heads bleeding backs and chests.

I bring you Karbala the moment of Karbala through an image ,,  a series shot in 2010 ,, revisited again through a faulty editing tool at Flickr ,, called Aviary..

Thank you Aviary.. I am astonished at my moderation,

The Wordup Indiblogger Meet Blue Frog My Flickr Set

Word Up Set Flickr

The Indibloggers Neigbors Envy Renies Pride

About Me As A Blogger .. The Beggar Poet

I began blogging first at Buzznet 2004 - 2005 as Photographer No1 And Commentator No1 ,,

Than I joined Blogspot again as Photographer No1 ..

Than Fotothing and Xanga and Webshots .

Than Fan Art ,,

Had a problem when my Buzznet site got hacked .. deleted my Buzznet accounts .. I was helped here by Tom Andrews .

I started Word Press both platforms than my Shia site Wordpress got hacked I gave up Wordpress for good ,, wont ever touch it with a bargepole ,,,


I joined Flickr as Firoze Shakir Photographer No1 in June 200 thanks to my friend Deepak Amembal Magic eye and my son Asif Shakir who gifted me a Pro Account ,,

Views on my Photos Flickr   32,788,990
My Flickr Images 305786

I have a few blogs on Blogspot

1 firozeshakir.blogspot.in/

2 shahasthussain.blogspot.in/

3 firozekumbhmela.blogspot.in/


4 marziyashakir.blogspot.in/

5 nerjisasifshakir.blogspot.in/

6 zinniafatima.blogspot.in/

7 photographerno1.blogspot.in/?zx=7f1404844dfd71ac

I have an active Tumblr Blog

www.tumblr.com/blog/firozeshakir

twitter.com/firozeshakir

I have deactivated my Facebook..,,

I am on Google + but I use it via GMAIL to pimp my Flickr blogs

plus.google.com/u/0/101088207970638509137/posts

Thats me in a nutshell for new readers and viewers ..

I USE FLICKR AS MY BLOG PLATFORM .. I AM A PHOTOBLOGGER ,, MAN WHO USES HIS CAMERA TO POETICIZE HIS RESTLESS ANGST..

Wordup Indiblogger Meet At Blue Frog..

I was very tired when I returned from the Indiblogger meet , my wife had already left for Lucknow by the 3.15 pm train,, my phone was on silent I did not say goodbye to her I was all Blogs .

I bought Roshan Sorcerer home from the Meet we chatted a bit than I got busy feeding Marziyas Flowerhorns and Blackghosts .. and than her Java Finches .

Showered had some snacks I was full of Bluefrog delicacies and the most filling lunch.

Later I uploaded the mobile phone pics ..and after a few hours  the camera phone pics that I placed for uploading and crashed , I am up now ..

I have documented most of the Mumbai Indimeets passionately ,,as I owe a lot to Renie Ranvin Father of Blogs ,, he has been a great friend inspiration , and almost family to say the least he and his Indiblogger Hit Team.

This entire set is dedicated to him his core team and all at Indiblogger but hey wait this set is also dedicated to Magic Eye my Blogger Bidu , the guy who pushed me towards Flickr from Fotothing , we have been Internet friends since 2004 - 2005 ..

Magic Eye Deepak Ambebal is on a 70 day trip to discover his world along with another dear dear friend Aaditya Raj Kapoor ..the only humble down to earth Kapoor after Mr Rishi Kapoor .

I hav been very close to the Kapoor family since the time Mr Raj Kapoor Sab use to feed his pet chickens at his DeonarBunglow .I use to style stuff for Chimpu Kapoor ,,, a great big bear hugging Kapoor .

I digress an inherent flaw in my blog that waver between photoblogging and storytelling.

This was the first interesting Indi Meet thanks to Renie and a bigger thanks to Big Rock.. they made water into wine into blogs ,the Big Rock team fro top to bottom was hospitable humble accommodating and condescending ,,in a way they made it happen.. all the best to all of them.

The Bluefrog catering under Firoze was just out of the world I shot his gracious staff too.. the Blue Frog bouncers were fish out of water they could not find anyone heavily drunk on tea to throw out for not asking questions ,, even when Sherry the best speaker of the lot ,, stole our hearts and  attention..though she did cutely mention her fiance that put the Romeos of Indiblogger back to Sleep.

I am kidding but all the speakers hit the Bulls Eye  and even Mr Vinit Goenka of BJP..Though we are still waiting for Acche Din in Blogging too ,, so fasten your seat belts I used my Canon  D after a very long time ,, it was once used passionately by my 4 year old grand daughter Marziya Shakir ,, now  7 and the youngest street photographer in my family , the very youngest is Nerjis Asif Shakir 3 year old ,, both are Indibloggers , have Twitter handles and Flickr accounts and their Godfather Guru of Photography is Dr Glenn Losack from Manhattan New York ,, my last but not the least  2 year old grand daughter Zinnia Fatima uses the Canon 60 D better than she uses her Dads Motorola G for taking pictures .

It is ..6.30 am

For Fuck Sake please dont ask me what is Blogging ,, What is Blog ,,

I learnt all that from Mr Brandon Stone and the one and only one Mr Biz Stone ,,

I am learning photography online from Mr Thomas Hawk ,,,my inspirational Flickr Photographer Top of the Pops ,,,

So Good Morning out there ,,thats the Java finches that blog with sounds in our house ,,

Aditya Iyer The Nameless One future gamer filmmaker deserves an honorary mention,, and Nimmi housemaker blogger seated at my table her first Indi Meet was great company too.

Word Up Indiblogger Meet Blue Frog

word up indi meet pics



This was one of the best Indi Meets thank you Renie Ranvin instead of the BJP speaker you and Big Rock should have had a speaker on Photoblogging .. I surely missed this . why this bias for photobloggers  I fail to understand sadly at Indibloggers most bloggers copy paste articles and hardly use their own pictures .. you could have had a speaker from the Indiblogger member somebody passionate about photography and photoblogging ,

Please take this as constructive criticism feedback from the beggar poet of Mumbai ,,,only because of Renie I attended this Meet missing my wife's departure to her parents by the 3.15 Lucknow Train.. but I am sure my sweet wife will forgive me for this aberration.

This was the most enlightening Meet .

Yes I missed my buddy the one and only Magic Eye Deepak Amembal.. having a ball in Leh.. getting laid in the snow I am afraid ..the flesh was willing the spirit needs an upgrade ..