While at Yeshvantpur market yesterday, Vasu, one of the Bangalore shutterbuggers, commented that there is no place as colourful as India.

Just take a walk through a busy Indian market and there’s proof all around you.

Women in colourful sarees.

Onions. Garlic. Chillies. Ginger.

Cauliflowers. Brinjals. Capsicum.

Banana carts.

Peanuts.

Piles of multi-coloured flowers – red and white roses, yellow marigolds…

Buckets, mugs and assorted paraphernelia – they probably come in every colour except black!

Chicken. Mutton. Beef. Fish. Prawns.

Silver utensils of every shape.

Spoons. Handles. Ladles. Sponges. Kitchen knick knacks.

Piles of gulal in red, blue, yellow, orange…

Chips made from everything you can imagine (not just potatoes!)

Dhania. Curry patta. Every green saag you can imagine.

Watermelons. Papayas.

Kids with bright smiles.

And the tri-colour flag (in all sizes) displayed everywhere. On top of buildings, cycles, rickshaws, trucks, motorbikes, cars. Even the vegetable and fruit vendor carts had little flags flying merrily in the wind.

There were six of us who ventured out in the morning with our cameras – Vasu, Lavannya, Vivek, Zeeshan, Shankar and myself. We first visited a little school, wherein the kids had gathered in the open centre space and were listening to grown-ups extolling the virtues of the country (I think, as I didn’t understand much of it!). From there, we went to capture the colours of India and what could be a more appropriate place than a market. Vasu decided to adorn himself with a huge flag, so we attracted a lot of attention as we walked around.

I must admit that at 8.00 on Sunday morning, all I wanted was to sleep in. Lavannya’s SMS message (“Come, it will be worth it”) woke me up and I made a dash half way across Bangalore to Yeshvantpur to join them.

It turned out to be a nice way to celebrate Independence Day. After a hectic morning (no dinner/no breakfast) I was starving by lunch time and decided to join Zeeshan and Vasu for lunch at a Bengali place in Koramanagala. Had nice doi-mach and prawns, baingan fry and khichdi.

I’m glad I didn’t sleep through I-Day after all! I hope you had a good one too.

38 thoughts on “Colours of India

  1. this is totally ot, but …

    “born and brought up in bangalore. does not spak a word of kannada unless forced to; has (or claims to have) never travelled in public bus in bangalore.”

    what proportion of the bangalore population would fit this description? i came across a specimen that did, in the usa on training. i was dumbfounded! what would your reaction be?

    – ess bee

  2. Ess Bee: Strange, but possible I guess. Though I would think the person would have picked up at least a few words in Kannada having born and brought up here. But I’d need to be bribed to get up on a Bangalore bus myself!

    Gautam, this one is in Koramangala near Juke Box and KC Das (You have to take the lane on the left after the petrol pump on the Raheja Arcade Road. It’s on the second floor and called Bengaleeyan. Worth a try, but then yóu’d probably want to try other cuisines when you go out to eat 🙂

  3. Me too managed to photograph the I-Day celebrations at a school in a village, a little outside Bangalore. There were little children holding chhota-chhota flags and sitting down and there were some stage performances (no actual stage, ofcourse!) going on! The chief-guest was staring widely at me! 😛

  4. Ah ha !! good for you .. I had an interesting weekend too.. disastrous but interesting… LOL…

    We did an Independence Day ride.. have uploaded the photos too !!

  5. hey anita,

    glad to know you had a great time, i would have been in bed too if it wasn’t for lavannya! remind me to get along the kodak book when we meet next.

  6. Good u made it to the School..hopwe we can get some momentum and contribute in some way to make all the 640 childrem cramped in that lil space a better life

    Shankar

  7. i so agree with you shankar… we should do something better for them….they deserve it..wish our photographs are good enough to spice up something amongst the public like Steve McCurry and Raghu Rai’s photography

    really wonderful write anita… wish i wrote like you did (jealous)

    🙂 :X

  8. I want to see pics! Now! And pls do not crib about the Tata Indicom Connection! I insist.

    🙂 Hope the rest of your world is how you would like it to be…

    Drop me a line… sometime!

  9. Ganesh: That’s nice. Btw, if you’re interested in photography, why don’t you join the BSB?

    Jil: Will go have a look 🙂

    Vivek: Thanks!

    Mehak: Glad you enjoyed it too! Sundays are for enjoying anyway 🙂

    Thanks Paagal.

    Shankar. It will be great if we can contribute in our own way. We can always get our heads together and come up with ideas…

    Lavannya: I am sure your name will be among the ‘greats’one day. And thanks! But I wish I photographed like you 😉

    Nidhi: Can’t believe you actually dropped in. I shall crib about Indicom (in private!)! Hope you’re doing well at your new workplace. Miss talking to you 🙂

  10. Well anita,

    ALL blogs are there…but if you have registered as a player then you need to validate your email and put up their .gif hyperlinked to your php on your blog index template

    Gautam

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