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Photographer No. 1 - Bandra Hill Road

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Bandra Hill Road

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The New Face of Hill Road Bandra – 64 views

The New Hope for Tomorrow – 52 viewsTher was a laundry shop called Bambi and some old building skyrocketed into a super store..kissing Hill Road and is a new construction.. but the heritage sites have to go to make way for commerce..
Tags: bandra[x], hill road[x], trios[x]

The Heritage Heart Cutting Hill road – 44 views

Broadening of a Hell Road – 56 views

St Josephs Convent .. – 55 viewsThis is the extra land that was taken by the municipality from St Josephs Convent that has shops come up on it with municipal licence too .. I dont know the details but this the way things happen in an urban landscape , peoople do their job and other people come and usurp the land in collusion of course..
I am not a social crusader we all have to wake up and show our solidarity , every raised hand against corruption counts.. and people should sign in their protest..
I was given my press card by Clarence Gomes of Bandra Samachar and this is the Bandra Samachar .. that Clarence would like all you guys to know..and help in this Cause that affects the future of our generation next,

The Hafta Syndrome – 53 viewsThe roadside hawkers pay a clandestine premium to various agencies of the civic department to set up illegal stalls and hefty sums are paid to the man at the bottom and the money is pushed upwards.. everybody knows it but every body pretends that it is a figment of a fecund mind..
The bribe and corruption is what the British Raj gave us and we wallow in it it is like the dermis under the layer of our thick outer skin.. calloused and insensitive to pain..
The hawker mafia takes communal overtones and the majority of the hawkers are Muslims at Linking Road and at Bandra Hill Road and they have support of their respective political parties and they are immune to social norms.. and some of the hawkers are rude foul mouthed and anyway Bandra is becoming another Manish Market and Musafir Khana .. what with muscle power and money power..
And the authorities wake up when the water has risen beyond redemption..
And how could multi plex like Globus been allowed to be build knowing that it would create traffic snarls and bottleneck.. and Bay City and Trios and so many to name just a few.. they have affected movement even if they have their legality in order..
today churches and schools and fire temples have to pay for bad planning and bad governance..and administration..

The Great Bandra Hell Road – 51 viewsSays the Municipality .. we are in a culling process no sportsmen for the Gen Next we want the future kids to all become Politicians .. the best healers of a country, politicians dont need sports grounds at all..
Politicians start from grass root level talk swadeshi , vande matram , the best slogans , and take the country forward.. imagine a world without politicians .. it would become a morgue.. that is becomes one later after politics is not part of this blog curriculum..And politics has become the main force that strengthen the caving walls of religions , education and hospitals.

Every minister has his own Educational Institution is coincidental to this article .
Politicians play game , mind games dirty games and we dont need sports grounds.. and honestly where there are sports grounds they become havens of political jamboree..every party wants to show its political strength.. Politics is about freedom fighting , going to jail taking caning from cops and later on shunting the same cops to Naxalbari regions.. they come back in empty caskets .. body yet to be found..

So Fr Larwrie has to do a rethink the municipality is also a political arena.. it calls the shot at grassroot level...Youth wings that kill professors in cold blood, blacken the faces of their not too favorite teachers.. attempt to rape case on celibate principals..How can you not groom more wilier and more crooked politicians.. imagine a few years from now the best politicians all from St Stanislaus school.. What happened to those green grounds and the sprinklers and the cavorting of the crows... that is now a road the great Bandra Hell Road..and what about St Peters Road it is a flyover connecting Bandra Reclamation.. via Waroda Road Veronica road and Chapel Road..
And what happened to Mehboob Studios .. it is the new college of Municipal H ward Politics..and Patel stores has become Poor Stale Stores .. Good Luck restaurant .. there luck ran out...

St Stanislaus School and Fr Lawrie Ferrao – 76 viewsFr Lawrie Ferrao the Jesuit Principal of St Stanislaus is a fighter of a just cause , he is a straight forward , no beating around the bush man, excuse the american pun it was unintended, he is a disciplinarian but also inculcates talent and is an ardent supporter of sports.

St Stanislaus has produced some fine Olympians hockey players , generals and ministers and those that dont study here but come within shooting distance of this institution become great photographers.

I studied at Holy Name High School but such is my love for this school that it has become an accepted fact of life that people think and believe I am an ex Stanislaus , though I must confess here when we shifted to Bandra in the 80 my kids failed their admission test here.. and had to be happy with St Theresas boys school, though I have whispered into Fr Lawries ears to be a bit lenient when my unborn grandson enters the portals of this great school.. and honestly I think the convent school made me a better Muslim than a Muslim school would have ever done with a kid with my range of a mind..

And I think what can we learn at Kangaroo and Billabong that we cant learn better in school that add to our all round growth.. and today education is all about money in college the snooty Cathedral and Campoin kid at St Xaviers might me sharing meals with the Jamadars son.. or is that saying too much...
So back to the issue .. the municipality wants to extend and broaden the Hill Road which because of hawkers and illegal encroachment is also known as Hell Road.. and so the school has to give away portions of their sports ground and the school bordering wall and St Peters Church loses portions of its graveyard where I spun some great East Indian yarns in my earlier posts.. And Fr Lawrie is spearheading this campaign.. I stand by him and wish him luck...

because my unborn grandson would want me to fight for the rights of his future school..

St Andrews Church and Fr Stephen Nazareth – 67 viewsOnce as a child I had run away from my house at Colaba as my dad had beaten me severely for having robbed green plantains from a neigbors garden , I walked all the way to Churchgate travelled ticketless and from Bandra station I arrived at the doorsteps of the St Andrews Church, as a priest who was at my school Holy Name High School had been transferred to this parish and he was a Singing priest Fr Stephen Nazareth, who was someone we all liked and revered..
Fr Nazareth heard my side of the story gave me 10 bucks and told me to go home .. and I think it was that 10 bucks that may have changed my life.
I met Fr Stephen Nazareth a few years back at the RC Church where he lives and he is about 90years old.. and he remembered me but did not ask me to return the 10 bucks..
And this is my relationship with Christianity as such.. and I am involuantrilywriting all this as though my hand is being guided by a God..who lives behind stained glass windows that also weep when it rains heavily in Bombay in the hearts of all human beings..
And it is time someone told the Municipality to lay off ..
It was Fr Stephen Nazareth who wrote in my autograph book

The world is full of darkness
so we must shine
you in your corner
I in mine..

Thank You Father.

The Protest at St Andrews Church Bandra – 81 viewsThese are the forms on which the signatures are being collected...against the land grab by the municipality , the St Andrews Church loses land including portions of a grave yard .. of their ancestors the original settlers of Bombay called East Indians,,
And this Church was awarded the Urban Heritage award..and has ancient heirlooms interwoven with the history of this Church.

Bandra the Queen of the Suburbs Dead – 77 viewsYesterday morning Samiya my daughter was asleep and had been in fever all night a fever that continues unabated and is of a viral nature and all test show malarial dengue chikungunya negativity, I could not bear her pain so I thought I would go to Carter Road for my walk on the way I saw this poster at St Andrews Church, paid of the rickshah guy and shot a series of pictures of a calamity that hits all of us , minorities so to speak.

Urban development is essential and important, but not when it hurts human sentiments of ethnicity of a religious culture..and the city fathers should have foreseen all this to appease builders illegal encroachments were allowed allegedly a lot of money changed hands and there is a boom in real estate in Bandra .
The St Josephs Convent to gave up its land and found the municipality has allowed shops to come up on this land. I have shot pictures to prove their point.

The Christians of Bandra are a peace loving community and most of us would not be speaking English had it not been for them, and the Jesuits, specially that we can speak and write better in a language which is not at all our mother tongue..

So this calamity of broadening a road does not guarantee the end of traffic snarls or bottle necks and yet for the sake of development churches and schools and the fire temple have to be brow beaten where as new shopping centers like Trios sit on the road at Hell Road , and more shopping centers are coming up.. its disheartening to say the least , there have been signature campaigns and mass protests that I have not covered because of my daughters deteriorating health..
I do not feel like posting pictures but I am doing this simply because Bandra has given me much.. and though this is my adopted home , I am a Colaba Strand Cinema boy..
I have grown roots here my sons Asif and Saif studied at St Theresas Boy School Bandra and my daughter Samiya at Apostolic Carmel Bandra.
I have friends in the Catholic community Clarence Gomes the conscience of Bandra Bazar Road,
Fr Gerard Fr Jaun St Peters Church, Fr Lawrie of St Stanislaus who is spearheading this campaign as their grounds that have given much to the country in terms of national sportsman will be losing much of their sports grounds..

I met the High Priest Mr Dinyar Vazifdar of the Tata Fire Temple and he too feels sad , so many alternatives , but they don t want to spend money or build fly overs or other such means and thus spare the heritage sites that our children’s children will admire and thank us for keeping it alive for them..
I have also put my signature to this protest and the pity is political parties will try politicize this heart burning issue..
It is also alleged some politicians are part of the builder mafia.. and have made crores of rupees, every old building has extra storeys rising from its old body, rampant disregard to existing infrastructure and quality of life.. slums have become political offices.. grab and get encroach is the sad story of Bandra the Queen of the Suburbs..
Bandra the spirit is Alive but the suburb is already Dead..
After I shot the St Andrews Church I aborted my walk at Carter Road .. Samiya was burning my thoughts, I came in this state shot St Peters Church and finally the Tata Agiary Fire Temple rushed home and we decided to shift Samiya to Holy Family Hospital.. It was my wedding Anniversary my 29 th one that we spent in tears and in silently praying for Samiyas recovery..
And Samiya does mean a lot to us.. our cherubic chiprpy girl child who calls me freakazoid and what not..
I miss her laughter and her tears drain both Afshaan and me and her brothers..
We are indeed in the worst moment of our lives..
Today she goes for an abdominal scan..
I am at my shop .

The Fire Temple Bandra Hill Road – 179 viewsThis is a peaceful House of God of the Parsis at Bandra Hill Road almosst diagonal to the Bandra Police Station., and touching the Temple at one end is the lane that s called Chinchpoli Road that snakes intowards De monte Street .

Fire temple
courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agiary

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Fire Temple (also Dar-e Mihr in Persian در مهر, or Atash Kadeh آتشکده in Iran, Agiary in India, Atəşgah in Azerbaijani, and various names in North America) is a place of worship for Zoroastrians. It is typically a building with a hall and various rooms or chambers, the most holy of which houses a sacred fire, which laymen make offerings to and priests perform rituals before. In Zoroastrianism, fire is revered as the son of Ahura Mazda, and represented by the Amesha Spenta Asha Vahishta, or "Best Righteousness." There are three grades of fires: the Atash Dadgah, Atash Adaran, and Atash Behram, sometimes called a "Fire Cathedral".

Contents
[hide]
1 Origins
2 Development
3 The Great Fires
4 From Muslim Invasions to Present
5 Fire Temples Today
6 List of Atash Behrams
7 List of Fire Temples: South Asia
8 List of Fire Temples: Iran/Azerbaijan
9 List of Fire Temples: North America
10 References
11 Related links
12 External links
//

[edit]

Origins
The Iranians come from the prehistoric Indo-Iranian group, which included what was to become the Vedic culture in India. Being a nomadic people in the Central Asian steppes, fire was a source of not only warmth, but protection at night. Therefore, it became revered, as can be seen in the Rig Veda, where Agni is the first word and remains prominent throughout the Rig Veda. In Hinduism, ceremonies can still be seen in the yajña ceremony. The pre-Zoroastrian equivalent of Agni was the god Ātar, who was propitiated at the home's hearth and on hill-tops during seasonal festivals, similar to the ancient Greek's worship of Hestia. During this time, usage of familiar ritual implements, such as the barsom, and the sacrament of haoma can be recognized.

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Development
Originally there were no fire temples. There is no mention of fire temples in Zarathushtra's Gathas, nor is there even an Avestan word for 'fire temple'. The only mention in the Avesta of a place for a stationary fire is in the Vendidad. By the time of the Parthian, and possibly as early as the Achaemenid dynasty, the first fire temples were being built atop artificial earthen mounds, but their architecture was open and had no roofs, as Herodotus, Strabo and Pausanias reported. It was the belief of Zoroastrians at the time that the essence of God could not be shut into walls. An example of this style can be found at Tappeh Meel near Tehran, Takht-e Suleiman, and Nishapur. Though four miles west of Isfahan is the Atashgah ('place of fire'), harkening back to the earlier tradition of ascending hills to be closer to the heavens. The oldest archaeological site found of what would be recognized as a fire temple today is the Kuh-e Khwaja, near Lake Hamun in Sistan. The remains suggest an inner sanctum where the fire was housed and corresponds with what the Muslim writer Qazvini observed at the site in the 13th century. Features that all these writers observed which correspond with the Zoroastrian scriptural edicts are the ever-burning fire in a stone ceremonial vessel, the cloth mask worn over the nostrils and mouth to prevent pollution from the breath, a bundle of twigs (barsom) held by the priest, and special silver tongs for tending the fire. These basic features are still prevalent today, though slightly changed.

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The Great Fires
Apart from minor fire temples (atash-e aduran), were the three Great fires said to have been brought forth by Ahura Mazda . Over time these became associated with the legends of Persian heroes such as Jamshid and Rustam and miracles were said to happen at them. These fires were Adur Burzen-Mihr, Adur Farnbag, and Adur Gushnasp. Their antiquity is attested to by the fact that their origins had become surrounded by legends during the early Sasanid dynasty. The Greater Bundahishn says the Great fires had existed since creation and had been brought forth on the back of the ox Srishok to propagate the faith, dispel doubt, and to protect all humankind. But the Great fires were also vehicles of propaganda and symbols of the Shahenshah's sovereignty. In addition to Shah's exploiting their symbolism, the priests (mobeds) of these respective "Royal Fires" would compete with each other to draw pilgrims by promoting the legends and miracles said to happen at their site. Further posturing was made by associating each fire with one of the three classes. The Adur Burzen-Mihr’s social status was lowered after the Adur Farnbag fire (Sharifabad) was claimed to be the fire of the highest class, the priesthood; and the Adur Gushnasp was claimed to be that of the warrior class, therefore leaving only the lowest class of herdsmen and farmers for the Adur Burzen-Mihr. But in truth the politics did not change the fact that the Adur Burzen-Mihr remained the holiest and most powerful. These fires and minor fires continued to burn throughout the lands of the Persian Empire until the Arab invasion and the persecution which would follow.

[edit]

From Muslim Invasions to Present
After the Arab conquest of Persia in the seventh century the native religion was driven underground due to aggressive proselytization and persecution. Fire temples were seized or destroyed and so Zoroastrians, or gabr's as they came to be known pejoratively, began worshiping privately in buildings with undescript façades. When Zoroastrians fled Iran to find refuge in the 8th century, they carried this tradition, along with the Iranshah fire (Adur Burzen-Mihr) to India. In India the new tradition of housing the fire in a metal urn called an afrinagan began after the Islamic Invasion of India forced them to transport it from Navsari to numerous places including the Bahrot caves and ultimately to its current location at Udwada. Today, besides the faravahar this is the most iconic symbol of Zoroastrianism. In time they were exporting afrinagans to their co-religionists who stayed in Iran, particularly in Yezd and Kerman.

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Fire Temples Today
The Chicago Dar-e Mihr
Fire Temples today are meeting places for Zoroastrians, as well as housing the sacred fire. Non-Zoroastrians are strictly prohibited from Fire Temples, for fear that the presence of someone not initiated in the faith or of pure Persian descent will pollute the sacred space. Zoroastrians insist though that this is not meant to offend non-Zoroastrians, but point to similar practices in other religions.

The layman will typically enter the Fire Temple, offer a donation, receive an offering of sandalwood, bathe and perform basic prayers before entering the room which houses the fire. This room is sometimes circular, sometimes not; but it is almost always tiled, or of marble, and sparse in any decoration. This is in accordance with the fastidious Zoroastrian ethos, in which the proverb, 'cleanliness is indeed next to godliness' can be interpreted literally. In this room, the residing priests, Mobeds, keep watch over, circumbabulate and perform rituals in front of 24 hours a day, and ring the bell during the boi ceremony five times a day during each gah. When the worshiper enters they will offer the sandalwood (or other sweet smelling fuel, such as frankincense, specified in the Avesta) to the fire. The Litany to Fire (Atash Nyayesh) will be recited in Avestan invoking the holy spirit, and the priest will use a special ladle to proffer the holy ash to the layperson which in turn rubs it on their forehead and eyelids.

Though there is no Zoroastrian equivalent of the sabbath and every day is holy, Fire Temple attendance is notable during seasonal celebrations (Gahambars), and especially the New Year (Noruz).

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List of Atash Behrams
Yezd Atash Behram, 470, in Yazd, Iran
Iranshah Atash Behram, Udwada (est. 720 in Sanjan), India
Seth Khurshedji Tehmulji Desai Atash Behram, 1765 in Navsari, India
Seth Pestonji Kalabhai Vakil Atash Behram, 1823 in Surat, India
Seth Dadabhai Nusserwanji Modi Atash Behram, 1823 in Surat, India
Seth Hormusji Bomanji Wadia Atash Behram, 1830 in Mumbai, India
Seth Cavasji Byramji Banaji Atash Behram, 1845 in Mumbai, India
Seth Dadhibhai Nusserwanji Dadiseth Atash Behram, 1873 in Mumbai, India
Zarthusti Anjuman Atash Behram, 1897 in Mumbai, India
Sharifabad Atash Behram, ?, in Sharifabad, Iran
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