Lesson No. 1
Firoze Mohomed Shakir (left) |
Firoze Mohomed
Shakir lives in Mumbai. I have been haunting
him like a ghost in some vague quest for quite a time in the virtual places
I was permitted access. His photographs, for example. What drew
me to him initially was his poetry which I used to read via indiblogger.in. The poems were entirely
different from the ones I had ever come across.
They looked initially like prose broken into arbitrary lines. As I focused more I realized that secularism
has as much hope in India as Sufism. Below is his latest poem that I have copy-pasted from his
status update in Facebook. The
postscript also belongs to him.
[Dear Firoze, I hope you don’t mind my using you as
a lesson. Personally, I’d rather be a Hindu (to use your words) than be
religious!]
I Would Rather Be a Hindu Than Be a Wahhabi
yes
i would rather be called a kafir
than be a wahabbi
i would rather be a hindu
than be a wahhabi
both options
close to humanity
one with
my cultural inheritance
of peace and brotherhood
mutual tolerance sanity
no i distance myself
from your hate filled
religiosity
a shia pandit
i am
hussain
is enough for me
these are my thoughts
you dont have to agree
at least here in india
my lord is not
held in captivity
i would rather be called a kafir
than be a wahabbi
i would rather be a hindu
than be a wahhabi
both options
close to humanity
one with
my cultural inheritance
of peace and brotherhood
mutual tolerance sanity
no i distance myself
from your hate filled
religiosity
a shia pandit
i am
hussain
is enough for me
these are my thoughts
you dont have to agree
at least here in india
my lord is not
held in captivity
I say this with
pride I am a good Muslim simply because my parentage , my country my friends
made me so.. I distance myself from those adherents that allow one Muslim to
kill another Muslim.. yes I am a Hindu Shia.. A kafir and proud of what I
am.....
Even I am fond of Shakir sir's photography, his prose and poems. He's off Indiblogger now and I tried catching up with his work on Flickr. Thanks for sharing this one. He is a gem as a human.
ReplyDeleteRoohi, you are my lesson no.2 ...
DeleteI don't know why Shakir Saab chose to leave indiblgger. But I have managed to extract a permit to visit him when i'm in Mumbai :)
Cheers to Harmony
Thank you Tom you are our teacher too...we love you .. unconditionally .. thank you Roohi and all my Indiblogger friends ,, take care ,, thank you Ranvin Renie
DeleteI learn from you all. And am grateful.
DeleteThoughtful & courageous.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Ravish, I would love to have some of our politicians acquiring some of this thoughtfulness.
DeleteI am a great admirer of Firoz bhai ever since I came to know him some five years back. And I'm not talking here of his photography alone, it's more about the grand person that he is! Wish there were more like him in India, on second thoughts why only India? People like him are a need of the hour the whole world over! My love, regards and gratitude...
ReplyDeleteThank you Tom sir, for presenting him here alongside that wonderful poem of his!
ReplyDeleteA great tribute indeed!
He deserves much more, Amit ji, as you're aware.
DeleteA wonderful poem Matheikal and a very deep thought too ..
ReplyDelete