Bangalore Portraits – Part III December 16th, 2009
Carrying on from Part I and Part II, here are a few more portraits of the great people I met in Bangalore.
I met this family when I stood watching a Sikh procession in celebration of the birth of Guru Nanak (more on that later). I love the way this picture turned out. The son resembles the mum, and the daughter resembles the dad, and the son and mum were facing the same way, and the father and daughter a different way. And yes, they were all sat on one tiny motorbike. As is pretty much standard, only the father wore a helmet, cause that’s the minimum required by law – the driver of a bike must wear a helmet.
This man I met outside a fruit stall on Brigade Street. He’s a retired aircraft engineer who worked 35 years building and designing aircraft for an aircraft manufacturer with operations in India (the name escapes me). He stood proudly to attention while I took this shot. I understand from conversation with him that he’s dedicated his post-retirement life to his religion.
One of the ladies I met in Cubbon Park. She and her friends were collecting wood.
This is Mubashir. He’s a Muslim Indian from Kashmir who, along with his brothers, own and run a store called Asian Arts Emporium (located on 8 Cunningham Road). They sell some very fine silk (for saris and dresses), and all sorts of interesting arts and crafts. I visited their store twice with friends and made a goodly number of purchases.
We ended up having long and very interesting conversations with Mubashir. I particularly enjoyed our conversations about Islam. It’s a shame that Islam as it should be: one of peace, faith, humility, dignity in the face of adversity and enduring human kindness; does not seem to appeal to the popular media. That’s why the patience and warmth of people like Mubashir is important.
The conversations we had with Mubashir also brought the sheer breadth and variety of India to the fore – he doesn’t speak Kannada, the prevalent language in Bangalore, an requires a translator when dealing with Bangaloreans. The sheer number of languages and dialects spoken in India is staggering. You can find out more here.
This man encouraged the mapseller to stand for her portrait and then happily agreed to stand for his own.
This woman appeared silently while I stood at the gateway to a temple on a street off Commercial Street taking pictures of the temple grounds within. She allowed me to shoot the temple, even invited me in to do so. However, I didn’t wish to intrude and so remained at the gate to snap a few shots. I then asked her if I could take her portrait. She graciously acquiesced, but remained at distance. I was struck by the peace in her kind eyes.
This here is The Park Hotel‘s one and only Raja Gopal. I thought of rendering this picture in black & white. But I liked the colour of his dastaar (Sikh headdress).
Meet the Liftman. This fine chap took me on a few rides up and down in the elevator of a building off Brigade Street.
More pictures coming soon!
Related posts:
- Bangalore Portraits – Part I
- Bangalore Portraits – Part II
- Bangalore Slices of Life Part II
- Bangalore – Slices of Life – Part I
- Signs!
Tags: aircraft, arts, asian, asian arts emporium, bangalore, bike, brigade, brigade street, commercial, commercial street, cubbon park, elevator boy, emporium, engineer, gopal, guru, guru nanak, helmet, hotel, india, liftman, mapseller, motorbike, mubashir, nanak, park, park hotel, people, photo, photography, pics, pictures, portrait, Portraits, raja, raja gopal, sikh, street, temple, the park hotel
Posted in Portraits | Comments (2)
December 17th, 2009 at 12:21 am
The liftman’s portrait is s-u-p-e-r-b
December 19th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Hey Ieva! Thx!
High praise coming from you. Glad you’re enjoying the pictures. 