4 X 4 WHEEL COVERS

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I live in a different world of man women , prose and poetry, till I ventured into the outskirts and found an androgynous world populated with the actual children of a lesser god.

I decided to tell their story through my camera spinning it on a loom a fabric that is more than just weft warp sexually entwined in deathly embrace.


And you need dollops of luck to shoot the hijras of India not from a distance but from their boudoir of pain desire and longing,luck shooting hijras is like wheels it adds motion gravity comes by itself.

Strangely I shot hijras as a community first at Haji Malang many years back, I had come to shoot a Sufi body piercing group called the Chancawalli Rafaees ..

Hijras meant nothing to me dancing in the narrow lanes of Haji Malang.

I met Laxmi Narayan Tripathi by chance dressed as a woman I knew her only as a guy we were both connected to Bollywood I had done her costumes for Indra Kumars film she was to act ,I guess it never happened ..the producer was the other Anil Sharma a relation of the director..

My tryst with the hijras began , I shot pictures never posted them they lay on the CD..till I posted them after a few months..

I would shoot the hijra hardcore whores near the Matunga slums close to Dadar market , I would shoot them from a distance .. but I never thought I would be documenting them with a divine passion. The slums where these hijra whores lived was demolished and a few pictures my earliest remain as memories .

Than I shifted my workplace off Waterfield Road and I began shooting the Turner Road traffic signal kids that had stiff competition with the beggar hijras and so this was the start of my hijra adventures and stories.


I would meet hijras they would fall like rain on my cameras consciousness , and I went on shooting them I still call them Hijdas but than I began tagging them as hijras transgender.. of late..

It was the All India Hijda Sammelan at Park Site Vikhroli that pushed me into their hijra world of mysticism , I befriended hijras I would later meet at Ajmer Sharif and again at Haji Malang ..

On the 40 day ceremony of late Ragini Naik at Park Site , I was invited by Heena Hijra I had shot her when I had gone to shoot the red light area Peela House Mumbai Cages..she was related to Ragini Nayak though her Guru another Lakshmi whose Guru was Ma Madurima now my other Guru too.

This was the beginning and now so many years like water under the bridge I am still shooting hijras over 17000 images housed at Flickr.com along with Hijra poems I wrote ..

I shot Hijra bawas I shot hijra kids .. eunuchs and I dont have to add a disclaimer but I shot them purely as human beings I am not enamored by their sexuality or their sensuality.

I shoot I dont ask personal questions I dont even ask their names and most of them have fictitious names for obvious reasons.

And another thing that comes to mind the first hijra person I met was Guru Nargis she wore green clothes and was connected to Kuldabad Sufi shrine her adopted daughter had married Sulaiman bhai who deals in rare antique coins I was a collector old cameras rare books manuscripts at that time,not anymore I sold away all my stuff when bad times came knocking at my door everything went way in a distress sale I have no regrets I sold my entire 250 camera collection with flash accessories to Suresh Bhai Doshi another collector for Rs 17000 , that was a sad day of my life..

Back to the hijras , time passed and to save me from racist bullying hijras Laxmi Narayan Tripathi my dear friend took me under her wings as my Hijra Guru.. and this was my protective shield I never misused.

Her name saved me from difficult situations , but now I am able to meet hijras on my own terms as most of them know me because of these blogs, my pictures and poems.

My grand daughter Marziya 3 and a half year old can spot a hijra , and shoots them too during feast days when they come to our area.

My grand daughter is well known as the hijras have always liked her and the only person yet to see Marziya and my new granddaughter is my hijra Guru Laxmi Narayan Tripathi.

Khushi too will be coming to my house as she wants to see both of them thats what she told my wife..she is the only hijra lady I love respect and hold in the highest esteem, she performs the namaz and is very religious , she is the greatest hijra dancer of all times with beauty and brains.


So on Facebook when people from my community add me I am hesitant I owe no explanation but as a blogger a photographer I am not only a Shia I am a Hindu Christian too, I am every religion I shoot..

This is how my parents bought me we were not rich but those days my dad illiterate paid Rs 50 in 1958 to have me educated at Private European School Colaba , studying with Admiral Nanavatis kids Jimmy and Tanaz and the Kuruvillas..

So I cannot change my parentage or be what you want me to be.. and because I was fed up of Shia bashing other abusive

I am so thrilled to be in this swap. It's been a while since I was in an organized swap. And I'm happy that Missing Knits Fran is sending me stuff.
Foods you like, despise, can't eat (allergies, etc.)
I'm a big foodie & love pretty much everything, except liver, hazelnuts, eel, salmon. I adore Fage yogurt (chobani is an abomination), local honey, cheese, dark chocolate. I like spicy hot stuff (Thai, Mexican, Indian). I love cinnamon red hots. When I travel, I pretty much plan things around what I'm going to eat & where.

Coffee vs. tea?
Both. I drink coffee in the mornings, tea the rest of the day. I intensely dislike flavored coffee (hazelnut makes me want to hurl) and don't like fruit flavored teas (remind me of hot jello). I like most herbal teas and spicy chai.

Where do you live? I live in NJ about 35 miles west of NYC. I grew up in NJ & spent my teen years sneaking into NYC to see punk shows, buy records, etc. I've lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn & Queens. Even though it's been years since I lived in Brooklyn (Red Hook) I still miss many things about Brooklyn.

Favorite yarn(s)? I love tweedy heathered yarns, hand-spun, solids & semisolids. In sock yarn, anything goes (except cotton). I like variegated yarn but am not trying not to buy it anymore. I have lots of it in sock yarn.

Crafty pursuits - knit, crochet, spin, sew, quilt, any of these or others?
I pretty much 99% knitting. I know how to spin and used to have a wheel but I sold it. My spinning mojo is pretty dead. I can barely sew but have a sewing machine and a decent stash of fabric. One eof my goals is to become a better sewer. I would love to be able to sew simple clothes for myself & make quilts.

Hobbies/pursuits/proclivities/passions (other than the aforementioned crafty ones, obvs)
I collect bad art. Not deliberately bad, but just painted by someone who has passion, maybe a little talent. Mostly portraits but I'll buy whatever makes me gasp. I also love to go to thrift shops, antique malls, yard sales and auctions. I love old and unusual things.


What do you do in life? (job, career, school, family, etc.) I have a pretty dull job working in-house for an insurance company. I'm a lawyer by training although I hate conflict & arguing. I frequently fantasize about ditching it all & opening a yarn shop or doing something more creative than pushing paper. But most of the time I like my job. I have a 10 year old son, a kick ass huzbeast, and the best dog ever.

Random favorites -- colors, flavors, scents, books, movies, tv, genres, time of day, motifs (bees, squirrels, owls, beavers, mushrooms, bats):
I love color and tend to gravitate toward green. Lately I've been hoarding acidy yellow yarn (think malabrigo Franch Ochre). I'm not a purple person. For the most part if it's a deep saturated color, I like it. Flavors: lemon, coconut, cinnamon, citrus are favorites. Scents: lavender, balsam pine, coconut. I don't like sweet or cloying scents. I love reading fiction & nonfiction. Mostly depressing southern fiction. I'm currently reading the cockstand series, which is not the type of book I would usually choose but I'm enjoying this series immensely. On Tv, I watch mostly crime dramas (Law & Order, The Shield). I've got a big list of shows I want to watch on hulu or from Netflix (Lost, Mad Men, Breaking Bad). Favorite movies: Goodfellas, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jaws, Dodgeball. I don't really have any favorite motifs. Lately though I have been thinking about art deco style owls (there are some on a building near my office) and how that might be an excellent tattoo.