The Malangs Call Me To Gwalior

I have been invited for an event by Syed Masoomi Baba head of the Asqan Malangs he asked Baba Wahid of Kolkatta to call and invite me and thus I tried to get ready for this trip... but I had a lot of work till last night that I was trying to complete .. I did .
Now I am waiting for my train ticket I am fascinated with the Malangs more deeply as a peoples photographer I can just go on shooting them non stop ,.. and as I was initiated into the fold by Masoomi Baba I am very close to his main Malang Syed Rafik Ali Baba ,, we both are Malang bhais ,,
I am perhaps nothing but a speck in the malang hierarchy ..I mean nothing most of them see me a a photographer but Rafik Ali Baba knows me very well he calls me Maulaiee follower of Imam Ali ..
He speaks highly of me to the other Malangs ,, as very few know my background ,,so thanks to him I made some good Malang friends Liaqat Baba ,Amin Baba Razzak Baba and others ..and though I try to make it to the Urus of Zinda Shah Madar ,, I somehow am unable to make this momentous trip..
I will be going there with a French world famous photographer a humble being ,, have known since 2007..
I have earnestly tried to document the Malangs , the Madarriya Order a very strong active and indomitable part of Sufism in India ,, the malangs are like the fakirs of yore ,,austere and inclusive ,, they hardly mix ,,but sometimes they visit the Dhunis at Mahim or Abdul Rehman Baba Dongri..
My granddaughter Nerjis and Zinnia call me Malang Dada ,,,
I never expected Masoomi Baba to call me at this huge Malang event ,, so I feel humbled all the same ,,their spiritual abode is 25 km away from Gwalior ,, if my ticket comes through I will reach there tomorrow ,,, if not I remain in Mumbai,
The Dhamal of the Malangs includes Qalandri Malangs and Rifais ,,mindblowing acts of zarb.. or body piercing performed by both the orders ,, but than it includes Sawali Malangs who beat themselves with a hard whip.. till their wish is fulfilled at the gates of the Dargah where they demand a wish from the Holy Saint..
Basically this is a genre that I like to document and there are Hindu families who felicitate the Malangs in their villages offering them food , clothes and other tributes and invoking the Malangs to pray for their good crop, family welfare etc.. I was at one such felicitation and the host bought tears to my house when he washed my hands feet ,,,and touched my feet when I told him Om Namo Narayan..
And this is the undivided India this love beyond caste color creed or spirituality I try to shoot and share with all of you ,,

Some Great People

I Try Not To Unnecessarily spam people with Republic Day messages .

Earlier I took both my granddaughter s Marziya Nerjis to shoot the flag sellers but this year I stayed at home nor did I go for my walk ..however I am posting this picture of a man who walks on crutches at Bandra Reclamation he walks a step at a time sometimes he gives me a smile and I encourage his spirit of fighting back with a smile too.
We have never talked but while I was coming back from the sea link end I saw him doing his exercises he was in dialogue with god as I shot this image and from my soul saluted the resilience of the Indian ..and God created the Indian in his own image ..and I like all of you am proud to be an Indian born in the womb of Mother India .

This is a memory I metaphorically impose on you without spamming you harshly ..I use my own images to tell the story of life ...

Jai Hind Jai Maharashtra.

Mathieu Boisvert From Montreal Visits My House

Shot by my wife

I got a message from Mathieu that he wanted to meet me and he was arriving from Montreal ..We met at Lucky Hotel over tea and he told me about himself ,, he is a professor in Montreal University and is writing a chronicle on the Hijras Of Mumbai.. he has had several long 6 hour interviews with the Hijra Nayaks and Hijra Gurus ,,he is writing a history more text few pictures ,, detailing their life struggle and their future ,.
As he was leaving the same night for Montreal I took him home from Lucky showed him my private documentation of the Hijras in India shot by me for last 20 years ... he was highly impressed .
He did not have lunch but is returning back from Montreal to shoot Haji Malang .. so I connected him to my dear friend who is one of the caretakers of the Holy Shrine .
And I told him those bigshots that have documented shot the Hijras have done nothing for the community ,, the poor in the hijra community are still waiting for God in Man to accept them as Women of Substance .
I normally deny access to people on social media if they try to ask me about Hijras,, I once shot them I still shoot them but all my images are marked private ,,
And I can say with sheer innermost humility nobody has ever shot the Hijra as humanly with respect dignity and dedication as I have .,.. but sadly in India the average Indian considers the hijras as a sex object and denigrates his poetry of life , his will to live humanly among humans and survive .
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Pablo Bartholomews Exhibition 60/60 at Sakshi Art Gallery

I consider Pablo the Cosmic God of the Camera ,, he is humble and highly gifted ,,This was his second exhibition in Mumbai I was attending ,,
A lot of celebrities photographers painters artists and Ad Gurus were there to felicitate Pablo who has a lot of nostalgic memories of Mumbai.
I shared some moments in the past with Pablo when I did a short stint at Mudra Communications doing Kabir Bedis Vimal campaign for Reliance ,,, as a fashion designer,,,and met Pablo who was closely associated with Mr AG Krishnamurthy .

This is my new set at Flickr of that special inaugural day of his exhibition on 22 Jan 2016 .

From Kashmir With Love Hope Humility

He hails from Baramulla Kashmir , and he was begging for food ration in the slums to feed his family ,, most of these Kashmiri migrants live at Bandra East end in makeshift tents ,, I have never been there but I have been shooting these families for over 20 years now ,, Kashmiri migrants turned beggars ..they beg outside mosques dargahs and mostly at Mahim Urus with their wives and beautiful cherubic kids ,,

It is sad but begging is the only alternative as they wont get jobs ..people are scared hiring these migrants ,, I dont need to elaborate ,, but you all know the reason.

Once They Had A Home ,,, Now They Live On The Roads

This scene is from my Demolition diaries ,,, these are the survivors of a demolition of their shanties off Rang Sharda Hotel Bandra Reclamation ,,

When these illegal shanties were being built not a single person nor the police or Municipality took objection..and when it became populous noisy adding to the urban chaos the bulldozers rolled in.. and these few families are still living with a hope ,, their kids study in nearby Municipal schools ,, husbands work as daily wage earners ,, or the older kids do odd jobs rest move around as vagrants .

And now a road is being built here I was told connecting to the sealink so work is going on.. there are lots of slums on either side of this road ..mostly migrants contract laborers ,, I really dont know much about them I see them as humanbeings ,,and feel sad for the kids .. who come hovering around me to take their pictures ,,,

The women wash cook do their domestic chores on this road ..sadness written on their faces ,, somebody who set them up here to build their homes in collusion with rogues in the authorities must have taken huge sums as protection money illegal electricity water connection... leaving them high and dry.

I have shot a lot of demolished communities Mahim Mori Road , Byculla and as Mumbai is a integral city of Dreams they come ,, in hordes to try out their luck.. failed youth get into wrong society become drug addicts drug peddlers ,,some end up as scavengers collecting dry garbage ,..for plastic bottles and beer bottles other junk.

Bandra Reclamation is the saddest place filthy ugly and will never be slum free ,, slums were created here by the politicians their sycophants as vote banks ,, some became rich now have number of rooms in the slums that are given out on hire to the rickshawalas .. after Gazdar Bandh Santa Cruz .. we have the largest number of auto rickshas and not a single toilet from Nargis Dutt Nagar till Lilavati Hospital.. so the migrants use the seafront off the Bandra Reclamation Promenade ,, most of the politicians are aware of all this but some are opportunists ,, and have caused this state of turmoil in the first place .

Lot of petty criminals , anti social elements live in the Lal Mitti belt ,,robberies at Bandra Bazar Road .. happen and crime continues ,, the criminals are certainly not scared of the cops ,, and what do you expect when you read cops taking to crime involved in blackmail extortion rape and custodial deaths ,,

And nobody wants to sensitize the cops ,, there is no Police reforms .. long hours of duty on stretch , potbellied cops .. and once when we were young we though Mumbai Police was better than Scotland Yard.. police has been politicized ,, and these are my personal views I dont belong to any political or religious party..but it saddens me as an Indian ,.. our religion has become politicized too.. we run our lives via Facebook Twitter hellbent on propagating our bias our faith .. on the soul of our Nation.. we are badly divided as Congis Leftists Bhakts and Sanghis Aptards ,,

We are hardly Indians anymore .