This is Laxmi Narayan Tripathi at her home at Thane .
She was getting decked up for a lunch invite with Sallu Bhai - Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif at Filmistan studio..
Salman Khan has always been sensitive to the defranchised , the underprivileged and the down trodden.
Salman Khan was highly impressed with the wit and charm of Laxmi Narayan Tripathi..her immense contribution to the hijda cause globally.
I had come to Laxmis house , this was my second trip after two years.
Picture was shot by Atharva , Laxmis Man Friday.
Laxmi has adopted two grown up boys as her kids.
She is my metrosexual Hijra Guru.
She also showed me her picture with Salman Rushdie who had visited her at her house recently..
She said it was a private moment and she refused to give me the picture to post at my site.


She left me in the care of the hot hijda siren Muskan.

I shot a lot of pictures , here as well as at Payal Hijdas house and finally some steaming hot pictures of Muskan at her own house.
Muskan dropped me at the highway from where I took a ricksha from Thane to Bandra.

I asked Laxmi about the connection of the Hijdas and Haji Malang.
She informed me that the early eunuchs of India were Hindus who accepted Sufi Islam for its tolerance and gender equality.
Most of the early pioneers of Eunuchdom were Hijdas influenced by Hafiz and Rumi.
The seven houses of the Hijdas including the eight house from Pune , were impressed with the teachings of Holy Saint of Haji Malang, they bought land here that belongs to the Hijda Panch.
But it is Ajmer Sharif that pulls the Hijdas like moth to a burning flame.
She told me that a German crew is coming to shoot her troupe at Ajmer , Marc de Clercq from Belgium will be there to including Anita Khemka gifted photographer and Laxmis soul mate.
I am relocating my shop , I also am bound to work committment so my chances of touching Ajmer Sharif are very bleak, unless a miracle sends me there on wings of fancy.

Muskan told me a lot of stuff about the HIjdas , her privations and her unfulfilled dreams of making it big.
Many a rich business tycoon want t her as their mistress , but she has refused them politely.
She dances at private parties , begs from shops and collects money from badhai or new birth .
She has a very jealous and possessive boy friend she told me , who hates her being photographed.
He was there but did not say a word to my taking her shots at Laxmis house , as she told him I was a healer and a Tantric Hijda photographer -a heterosexual photographer who shoots hijdas.

The pictures I shot at her house were raw primal and daring and baring.

Tags:   laxmi narayan tripathi firoze shakir laxmis house thane salman khan salman rushdie hijras of india is not for public view gender human people photography

© All Rights Reserved

189,488 items / 1,493,159 views


Marc De Clercq is a lover of Humanity , a very low profile human being a great photographer but hates being photographed , and he tolerates me to some extent as I blog his soul and bring it alive on the Internet.

I dont do it for money or to gain and ingratiate myself with him , he is million light years a much better photographer than me, I am basically a point and shoot artist.

Once Marc did get upset with me at Mahim and brushed me off for asking someone for taking my picture with him , though it hurt me immensely I forgave him the snub.. and we are both close to Laxmi Narayan Tripathi his very dear friend my Hijra Guru.

Marc shoots hijras transgender and recently began shooting living with the Dam Madar Malangs and Malang is not just a Sufi spirituality it is a state of mind too..

Like being called Mastan , Mastan is a spiritually satisfied soul... I am called a Mastan by the Rafaees body piercing ascetic of India.

I have for over ten years or perhaps much less documented the Chancawalli Rafaees , and lived with them , followed them from one Urus to the next , it was the Chancawalli Peer late Sikandarwali Bawa who introduced me to Haji Malang and later I saw Ajmer Sharif very late in life.

I am not a Sufi adherent but I have their peaceful mindset, I prefer them a million times than the neo Muslim .. adherent of Wahabbism or any similar school of thought.. I distance myself from any Islamic school that denigrates anyone who is a believer of Ahle Bayt... nothing more nothing less and I would rather eat dead flesh than eat or drink water from the hands of such man that kills another Muslim for being a lesser Muslim than him..

Well back to Marc..at my house there are two photographers that are as close to our family one is my mentor Dr Glenn Losack MD American full blooded .Jew born bred in Brooklyn and the other Marc De Clercq from Ghent Belgium.


Marc too likes my family and Marziya my photo shooting grand daughter 3 and a half year old gets along with Marc like peanut and butter.

They have an amazing tuning is all I can say..

Marziya has met some of the finest photographers at our house and is our in house photographer for the welcoming guests .

Marc has walked with the Dam Madar Malangs this year too from Delhi to Ajmer on foot rains heat storm, braving all the odds and is now considered a Malang himself..

He speaks fluent Urdu and Malang slang..

Shooting Marc shooting pictures is learning the art of Unlearning photography, when Marc shoots pictures even his left hand does not know that his right hand is holding the camera so I shoot him without him knowing that I am shooting him..

I honed my ability to shoot pictures shooting these guys .

Because we bloggers are point shoot photo artists heavy duty cameras or celebrity photographers dont intimidate us we are bloggers who are not into showing off or competitive photography or fucked awards the government of India gives you when you are an inch closer away from your grave.. and this is not to insult or humiliate Ms Vyarawala or Mr KG Maheshwariji ..but a fact of apathy of life and achievements of photographers unsung who died in penury and need of care.


So I trained my grand daughter the worlds youngest street photographer by shooting eminent photographers who come to my house , by shooting beggars hijras and urchins on the street...

And Marziya has yet to shoot Dr Glenn Losack MD her god uncle mentor and Guru too..

Marziyas Hanukkah present from Glenn was the Nikon D 80 she has been using since the age of 2.. in humility and gratitude...

Tags:   bandra bazar road my house my shop gender human people photography

© All Rights Reserved

125,533 items / 897,958 views

dhanda karti hoon
raste par
main apni kismet
se pareshan hoon
bezuban hoon
bagair bhurke ke
raste pe bhik mangnewali
main ek musalman hoon

This is the irony of life if they whore they are condemned and those with kids on their laps I shoot at Bandra too are condemned , caught in a vicious circle of no escape.

How she came to the Hijra Cages I dont know I never ask them about their past.. its their bleak future that scares me.

She is a very sweet person I have met at her house with Heena and I dont know how or why she allowed me to shoot her naked pain on the streets .


And sadly there is no Fatwa to rehabilitate the fallen and downtrodden woman speaks volumes of the fanatical hate of the clergy for the Womanhood on the streets .

Tags:   hijdas at peela house hijda cages red light area street poetry street photography main rand hoon hijra prostitute hijras of india is not for public view gender human people photography

© All Rights Reserved

Tags:   haji malang 2010 hijras at haji malang 2010 peela house red light area hijda prostitute hijras of india is not for public view people photography

© All Rights Reserved

surrogate motherhood
painful memories
some bad
some ugly
some good
a eunuch mother
babita
of a eunuch child
mona
a fractured childhood
given away to the eunuchs
the same night she was born
because
a eunuch in society is a curse
a thought misunderstood
yet bought up with
abundance of love
a destiny's child
a destiny no good
the hijras lucky mascot
dancing her way
towards life
towards diaphanous
womanhood
doing what she should
touch on wood
a tear drop of despair
unflinchingly
unfailingly
as mothers day
on paper
eunuch motherhood
withstood

Tags:   eunuch motherhood hijra poetry firoze shakir hijra poetry written by firoze shakir poet photographerno1 poems by firoze shakir beggar poet of mumbai firoze shakir poetry hijras of india is not for public view poetry of pain

© All Rights Reserved