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.