Ticket To Success

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“Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.”
(Audrey Hepburn – British actress and humanitarian, 1929–1993)

This is a recent portrait of my childhood friend and “soul sister” Valerie in order to celebrate her
birthday.
It is funny that she is sharing this day with my brother Manish, maybe those things don’t come by chance…
During all our lives we kept on supporting each other with pride and no judgment like brother and sister do.
Time goes by and nothing changes between us.
Valérie is an author, director and filmaker based in Hollywood.

(This year is YOUR year where you’ll be enjoying a well-deserved success…Joyeux Anniversaire…Love you…!!!)

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An Auspicious Day

 

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“Engage yourself in all that is auspicious.”
(From the Sama Veda, the third of the four Vedas / sāman “melody” + veda “knowledge”)

One early morning those ladies came from far away to worship in the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
It was a Monday, Lord Shiva’s day and as Shiva is the God of the city it was an auspicious day for them.
After taking a deep in the river, they washed and stretched many clothes along the ghats.
By the amount of items drying under the sun, it was clear that those pilgrims had a long journey.

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Pursuit of Happiness Photography

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“I have never taken a picture for any other reason than that at that moment it made me happy to do so.”
(Jacques Henri Lartigue – French photographer and painter, 1894–1986)

One early morning those ladies came from far away to worship in the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
It was a Monday, Lord Shiva’s day and as Shiva is the God of the city it was an auspicious day for them.
After taking a deep in the river, they washed and stretched many clothes along the ghats.
By the amount of items drying under the sun, it was clear that those pilgrims had a long journey.

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A Choice

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“Colours have a beauty of their own which must be preserved, as one strives to preserve tonal quality in music. It is a question of organization and construction which is sensitive to maintaining this beautiful freshness of colour…
Colour is never a question of quantity, but of choice.”
(From Matisse’s essay “The Role and Modalities of Colour”, 1945)

At sunrise this lady was drying a few sarees after washing them in the holy waters of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
She was a pilgrim coming from the other part of the country, she was probably staying in one of the ashrams nearby.
Watching her doing her laundry and spreading those bright colours which was a happy moment as it was bringing life to Panchganga Ghat.

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In God’s Hands

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“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess”
(Martin Luther – German Priest and Scholar whose questioning led to the Protestant Reformation, 1483-1546)

Three ladies were performing a puja at Gay ghat at the feet of the big statue of Nandi which stands in front of several Shiva ligams.
We were alone and they smiled at me, the day was rising up among a heavy mist.
I didn’t want to disturb that moment but they insisted that I took some pictures, they seemed to be happy.

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More Than a Woman

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“An actor is something less than a man, while an actress is something more than a woman.”
(Richard Burton – Welsh Actor, 1925-1984)

This is a portrait of Bollywood actress Gauhar Khan.

Gauhar is known for her prominent role in “Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year” (2009) and for the item song “Parda Parda” in “Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai” (2010).
In 2009 she participated in a popular celebrity dance show, ” Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa” where she ended up as the runner up.
Since 2010, she joined the cast of the Bollywood musical, “Zangoora, The Gypsy Prince” at Kingdom of Dreams.
She is also featuring with her sister Nigaar in the popular TV show “The Khan Sisters” which started in 2011.

This picture was shot at her place in Delhi, early in the morning while she was having breakfast, it was during the break between two sequences of the movie in which we were both working together.

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Gauhar in the movie “Ishaqzaade” (2012) 

A life of Bravery

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“Nothing’s more important than having the bravery to live your life”.
(“Daily Inspiration” by Robin Sharma)

This is a portrait of Sunita which I took a few days ago inside her house in a little city located nearby Varanasi (Benaras) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Sunita thinks that she is around 65 years old but she is sure that she joined an hijra community when she was 12.
She was born in a poor Muslim family from the state of Bihar.
As she was still very young she understood that being an hermaphrodite wouldn’t allow her to live a life like ordinary people, she wasn’t a boy neither a girl.
So she happily decided to become an hijra, it was her will then and she has been learning from a guru (teacher) how to perform for weddings and new born babies.
Today she became a guru herself and she introduced me to Shushila, an Hindu hijra who stays at her side and who will become the guru when she dies.
It is nice to see that in this community Muslims and Hindus are living together and respecting their beliefs, their religion.
They are also called to any Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Jain family’s functions in the city, and even Christians call them for Christmas.
A few months back Sunita went to Mecca, on the pictures she showed me she shaved her hair and dressed like any male pilgrim.
She saved money all her life in order to stay there for two months, she says that she is not the same anymore, she feels that she is closer to God.
It was the only moment in her life when she had to act like a man.

While I was leaving her house she walked with me for a while along the railways, she told me that she is respected there and that she is happy with her life.
She insisted, “Tell everyone I am happy” and she gave me her blessings.
Few people are like Sunita, she had the bravery to live her life…

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Shushila, the Hijra

 

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This is a portrait of Shushila which I took a few days ago inside her guru’s house in a little city located nearby Varanasi (Benaras) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Shushila is 35 years old, she was born in an Hindu family of the same town, she studied at school untill the age of 16 and she joined an hijra community when she was 17.
She didn’t become hijra (Hindi: हिजड़ा, Urdu: حجڑا), nor she was forced to be so, she was born like that as an hermaphrodite and therefore she is considered as a member of “the third gender”, neither man nor woman.
Like most of the hijras, she refers to herself linguistically as female, and wears women garments.

Becoming an hijra is a process of socialization into a “hijra family” through a relationship characterised as chela “student” to guru “teacher”, leading to a gradual assumption of femininity.
Typically each guru lives with at least five chelas; her chelas assume her surname and are considered part of her lineage.
Shushila’s guru is Sunita, a Muslim hijra, who has been teaching her to perform religious ceremonies at weddings and at the birth of babies, involving music, singing, and dancing.
Hijras are intended to bring good luck and fertility and they are most often uninvited to Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Jain family’s and even to Christian’s for Christmas.
Hijras are said to be able to do this because, since they do not engage in sexual activities, they accumulate their sexual energy which they can use to either bestow a boon or a bane.
It is said that hijras’ curse brings bad luck or infertility.

One day Shushila will become the guru of her community after Sunita’s death.
Sunita decided that it ill be like that and Shushila will follow exactly what her guru said, she will carry the same teaching with younger hijras.
It is nice to see that in this community Muslims and Hindus are living together and respecting their beliefs, their religion.

As I was asking, she told me that she was happy with her life, she said that in her society she wouldn’t have been able to do anything else so she was enjoying her life as an hijra.

I took many pictures of her, I said that I wanted natural poses, I was trying to show her soul like I did with her guru’s portraits.
With Sunita we tried to make her laugh as she wasn’t used at all to be in front of a camera and finaly I like this one which is far away to what I wanted.
After showing her she said she was happy of the result.

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Close Encounters of the Third Gender

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“The third sex is described as a natural mixing or combination of the male and female natures to the point in which they can no longer be categorized as male or female in the traditional sense of the word.
The example of mixing black and white paint can be used, wherein the resulting color, gray, in all its many shades, can no longer be considered either black or white although it is simply a combination of both.”
(From “Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex” by Amara Das Wilhelm”

Shushila is an hijra, neither man nor woman, she belongs to a third gender, ensconced in tradition in India for years…
She is the chela (disciple) of Sunita, her guru and she will become guru as well the day her guru will leave this world…

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Je Veux Le Monde

 

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“Je veux le monde
Aux larmes citoyennes
La femme est souveraine…”

This is Nathalia performing Solène in “1789 : Les Amants de la Bastille”.

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