Textless Red

by Janus

238,702 items / 2,007,996 views

This was shot many years back close to Wazirganj Lucknow I was with my mother in law Wassim Qazilbah, I could not give him a miss I stopped our cycle ricksha made my reluctant mother in law pose for him , she does not like street spectacles specially with a son in law who calls himself Shia Pandit and Shia Hindu ..and dresses and looks like one influenced sartorially by the Naga Babas of Junagadh Akhada.

And this was much before I became a Dam Madar Mang Ali Haq ..

The Jhaptat Street photographer was a humble kindly man and I have never forgotten him I still have the tiny picture he shot of me as keepsake memory..

There was a huge crowd as my brother in law shot these pictures and strangely I never went back to Lucknow ever again the city of my birth but not my karmic destination or karmic destiny..

Mumbai made me a Pucca Mumbaikar ..my genes my DNA firmly bound to Jai Maharashtra .. could never imagine ever living in any place but Mumbai...

And this was a textless post but inspired by the blog of fellow Indiblogger Umashankars Tented Image I added my two bits here ..

And most of my images need no text, they speak the silence of my visual poetry.. I have no mental blocks not as a blogger or a poet but never as a photo blogger .

I can confidently etch words at any given time make old pictures new bring them forward by changing the EXIF data as I have done here and add topicality to an old post.

And in all humility 238,702 items / 2,007,991 views is my bloggers long journey at Flickr.com that began on 10 June 2007..

Deepak Magic Eye another Indiblogger introduced me to Flickr in 2005 an account that I deleted soon after...we had met at Fotohing and Deepak is my oldest friend supporter guide on the internet..

My 4 year old grand daughter Marziya Shakir is net savvy, knows her blogs , and shoots like a Pro without intimidation from guys with beter cameras lenses and attitude too..she perhaps shoots silly pictures but they speak the language of wisdom and street sauciness .

The one year old blogger waiting in the wings street photographer Nerjis Asif Shakir shoots pictures like her sister Marziya Shakir, but she hits the shutter while I hold the Canon EOS 60D for her .

I tried to make her shoot with the Manfrotto tripod but the tripod in its normal state is taller than her and I hate to reach on tripods holding the camera with the strap around your neck ..is photography..

Nerjis Asif Shakir is a born street photographer ..with a cosmic eye that shoots pictures much faster than the Canon EOS 60D .

So sometimes reading another persons blog adds a continuity to his blogpost too..

Thank you Umashankar.

My iteration of a 'The Batman' poster featuring The Riddler

No Text Version

For the Shia Hyderabadis people of Hyderabad, nothing is greater than Azadari e Hussain.

These people rich , poor underpriviliged the Nawab and the beggar have one important ingredient Tehzeeb..call it culture.

Adab or respect.. both these qualities are also a common factor with a twin city of Shiasm called Lucknow.

The Nizam of Hyderabad will never be forgotten, he has built some of the finest Shia monuments , same with the Nawabs of Avadh or Lucknow .

Though Hyderabad has a different dialect which differs linguistically from the sweetness of Lucknow Urdu.. both are exemplary in the devotion of Imam Hussain a unique quintessential quality called Ghame Hussain.

I had literally coaxed my wife a staunch Lucknowi to visit Hyderabad for Chehlum in 2004 Chehlum is the 40 th day of the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain, she loved the people the city of Hyderabad, but opted for a Lucknowi bride for my son Asif Shakir.

I dont blame her but for me Hyderabad is something special.

I love the people their humility and their life during Moharam, the sea of black clothes , the Bargah the Choti Bargah and a Shia policeman called Sajjad Hussain.

However I must digress though my simple hearted wife was very keen on a wife for my younger son Saif Shakir, she hunted Lucknow, inumerable trips finlly to my hearts solace found him a match in Amchi Mumbai.

So I wont be surprised its true Marriages take place in Heaven ..and its either one or the other in the menagerie that make it a Hell on Earth.. Divorce Sucks but necessity is the mother of Convention.

This event is the 8 Moharam procession at the seat of the noble Nawabs of Hyderabad, blue blood , royal ancestry and all..

Times have changed at Hussain Kothi , much has been lost to time and tide yet the progeny of the Nawabs keep the Chirag of Ahle Bayt alive with their devotion..both the kids and the older folks leave no stone unturned to make Moharam each year an unforgettable one..

But mind you there are crotchety conservative photography hating Nawabs too..there was this one who picked up my bag to throw it out during a Chehlum procession though I had taken permission from his son..luckily he was not from Nawab Kothi.

Well this is the flip side of Nawabi.. nothing personal.

There was one educated person who said photographs show Shias in a bad light, and the person knew I was all in black and a Shia.. yes I almost threw up.. my morning breakfast.

I dont need to scan old negatives at 6400 dpi, negatives that are badly gone but come alive as memories, thanks to this present of the Epson Scanner V 500 from an American Jew Dr Glenn Losack MD ..who came and shot Chehlum in Mumbai.. drenched in blood barefeet..

I had to literally stop him from using my sword to cut his forehead .

Yes this is an American quality they go berserk and sometimes to do the right thing..

This has got nothing to do with the choice of Vice President by Mr Mc Cain.

Dr Glenn Losack MD is an eminent psychiatrist from Manhattan New York but loves India immensely, he shot Moharam for the first time , he is very keen on shooting Moharam in Hyderabad, Lucknow and Hussain Tekri too.

He is the godfather figure of my 9 month old grand daughter Marziya Shakir.

His first present to her was the Powershot G9 a brilliant camera.. and Marziya was only 4 month old.

I use this camera till she grows up to to shoot with it too.

This was a textless picture but I elaborated it for a Flickr member Plasma Theory..

To show him my world beneath the emulsion as a Photo Blog..

I hope Rene from Indi Blogger has read this too..

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178,553 items / 1,401,453 views

I dont know but I prefer shooting people from the back, their body language is their attitude towards pain , I try to read their pain through body language , when the beggar lady with her child began fading out I impulsively took this shot , this was her last trip , her last round she was going back to her hometown..

She is mother two more daughters in the hometown and though her husband cannot manage his family she begs , what is their future and goal in life.

If I was a woman I would have asked her but I try never to get familiar with people I shoot I clinically observe them as subjects only..I dont talk I shoot and move out, some curse me some think I am mad some think most of the time I make money at the expense of shooting their pain.

Such far fetched observations they have of me and those I shoot like this beggar will never see the internet never read my thoughts , or did they read my thoughts much before I shot their picture.

My life is not shooting beggar pictures or hijras but than I am a street photographer beggar poet I am not rich enough to shoot what I really would want to shoot..I am not going to go to Saudi Arabia or to Iraq.. my Holy place is my homeland my God lives here.

And so I blog my stray thoughts randomly reminisce or let my pictures do the talking I am a point shoot amateur photographer my pictures are textless unless I add words.. but the silhouette of silence speaks eloquently too.

I cant shoot landscapes , flying flamingos I cant shoot the good things of life I shoot the beauty that nobody loves to shoot in ugly environment, so I shot the red light areas I shot whores I shot hijra gullys I shot made up hijras selling their body and soul at Peela house.

The traffic beggar hijra Laxmi, the poor Laxmi of the streets invited me to her shanty in Dharavi she is a hardcore devotee of Lord Balaji but I politely refused.

Photography made me a blogger and a beggar poet writer of sorts , I just write as fluids flowing out of my rusty corroded system..and some read me.

And I want to be aloof so I locked myself in my dark chambers I connect through the in box at Facebook or Flickr..

I never interacted with people either on Wordpress or Blogspot...or Twitter.

update

i moved out of facebook for personal reasons i am now on google plus