This is picture from my album Malangs of Ajmer shot last year in the graveyard at Char Yaar Ajmer ..these are the staunch ascetics called Malangs , very severe in their austerity ..I had met them last year requested them for a picture , had tea with them, they have dreads about 30 feet long, they keep it hidden completely, if you wish to see them, than you would have to visit them in their respective Dargahs on some auspicious day when they let down their long hair.
Or you can see it if you pour Attar on the entire volume of their head which is an expensive task, I was not that foolishly rich, for the first time on my recent trip 2006 I was quite broke, these Malangs said to me when I visited them on the graveyard that they were certain I would come , one of them with the white hair reminds me of a Charles Dickensian face in David Copperfield, the boat family..
These Malangs are very different from the boisterous fun loving Rafaees or Body part piercers…I sat quite late on the tombs scatttered on this enclosured Graveyard, was not a bit scared.
The younger Malang gave me his visiting card, but I have not yet sorted out all my stuff posting all the pictures here on the journal does not make sense, so the lot of about 1500 pictures will take me much time to cull, I also met Eunuch Bawas.. I had met them last year too but was not much interested in photographing them, they dont take kindly to being photographed.
This year was good for me at the Chaar Yaar because of Zanjirwale Bawa who carries chains on his body about 80 kg to be exact, this is his vow and penance and his tribute to the fourth Shia Imam Zainul Abedeen sole survivor and son of Hazrat Imam Hussain, he is a featured photo at Buzznet.
I met a young dashing gent called Zaidi whose father was a big personality at the Aligarh Muslim University , Zaidi is a Murid of Zanjirwale Bawa, Zaidi is a Shia like me but wears a coffin cloth insteead of normal trousers or shirts , he introduced me to the dour faced Eunuch bawas who were quite impressed about my gallery on Eunuchs.. this is before I took the 45 km trek into the mountains to shoot the Eunuch Saint his bilogical child buried in Chasme nur near Taragdh.. Fakira Pada..
I dont think I will ever try to miss making it to Ajmer if I live ..there are two more shrines I want to visit well known for exorcism, and devil killing as the locals say..Kadiar Sharif in Uttar Pradesh , Meena Datar in Unjha Gujrat . the Malangs are very similar to the Naga Sadhus .
They call me a Malang too but I dont posseess the austerity ..but I am preintutive psychic..I dreamt a poem last night in praise of My Muse , but it fluttered away like a butterfly , I did memorize it too.. it was not willing to live in my unreal world.. if I had a lap top perhaps I could have saved it.. I am a disaster with a pen flakiness called paper.
Another incident comes to mind before I left for Ajmer, I had left my wallet at home it was quite late , I thought wife would freak if I asked her to send my rickshah fare, we stay on the fifth floor , so I walked in the filth wet barefeet, a young boy caught up with me at Boran Road Bandra, he came very close and said Baba , I want to go to Ajmer but the Devil in me makes my going a scary affair , I dont know what to do, I was quite stumped then he pleaded Baba if you go there do pray for me , many a times I have gone to the station bought my ticket and returned home..he said.
I went to Ajmer and forgot about him..I dont pray …his blessings prey on me.. if an Evangelist reads this he will call me a Devil too.
posted august 12 2006
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