<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: "Riches in Rags"
excerpt: "A short, photography journey through the market street of Madiwala"
comments: true
share: true
categories: photography
author: krishna_gogoi
tags: [photography, street-photography, markets, bangalore]
image:
  feature: feat_madiwala.jpg
  credit: <NAME>
  creditlink: http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/Alvina_Joshi
---


Alvina had her 18th birthday last month and I decided to surprise her by gifting her
a camera lens, because she desperately needed one since last year to get out of the
kit lens territory. The lens I gave her, after quite a bit of research and asking
around, is the **Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM**. I'm no camera or photography expert, but
everyone suggested that I get her a prime lens and the lens mentioned above seemed to
be the best buy for value and utility, and had pretty good reviews almost
everywhere. Which also means, this isn't a review post about the lens.

She's been learning the ins and outs of the lens ever since she got it but we went
out for an actual field test recently in the busy and bustling streets of the
roadside markets lined up at Madiwala, Bengaluru. She wanted to write a photo-essay
for a competition in her college and decided the scenes of Madiwala would be the base
for the essay. Madiwala is a pretty busy place if you haven't been there first-hand.
Numerous stalls selling things from fruits and vegetables to flowers and meat to
seafood are lined up in four to five extremely long rows. It's a pretty interesting
contrast, considering the fact that there's a huge shopping mall right next to this
busy street-side market.

All the photos in the post are taken by Alvina, I was there mostly for company and
guard duty with an umbrella, just in case someone tried snatching her camera bag. I'm
pretty formidable with an umbrella.

This was also first time for Alvina in terms of interaction with people. She's had a
bit of street photography experience previously when she was in Stockholm, but
interacting with people and such was a whole new thing for her. And it's India, so
naturally things are a bit different here; street photography to most people is
pretty much synonymous to journalists taking pictures for a news paper or media
outlet, so things could get a bit saucy. Also, interaction with the people was
important for her because she ultimately would need information to expand upon on her
essay. If you're an introvert or have social anxiety issues or just hate having
people around you like me, this probably is a huge barrier. I remember being
pleasantly surprised at how smoothly Alvina handled the situation and sailed through
without any problem.

We started our little trip near the shopping mall after gorging down on ice
creams. It starts with mostly vegetable stalls at that end of the row, plenty of
onions where we started off.

<figure>
	<a href="http://i.imgur.com/2uVFrrp.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2uVFrrp.jpg"
	alt="image"></a>
	<figcaption>Starting off with Onions</figcaption>
</figure>

At this point, we were inside the market. She seemed a bit nervous at first about
asking the onion seller if she can take a picture of him. She even asked me to go
ahead and ask him, which of course I replied with my ridiculous "are you kidding me?
these are people and talking to them is socializing" stare. Also, I didn't know the
local language and I didn't want to go, "*Anna, piyaz ke bhaw kaise chal rahe hai?*"
(Translation: "*Brotherly salutation, how have the prices of onions been lately?*")

She finally stepped up her game though, walked forward with no fear and meekly asked
if she could take a picture of him. What surprised both of us here and in the next
few rounds of doing this is that the people were actually pretty enthusiastic and
friendly about being in the pictures. He just perked up quickly, fixed his shirt a
bit and sat up for a serious picture. I was both surprised and relieved at the same
time. We were expecting barrages of questions and such, and definitely tonnes of
rejection before convincing them for pictures. Yet there we were with someone who was
ready for the shot in 5 secs, no questions, no fuss. I could almost feel the sigh of
relief that Alvina let out. She quickly got her camera and clicked this.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/PUrlpg6.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/PUrlpg6.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>The first person she asked for a picture</figcaption>
</figure>

With her confidence getting that boost it needed, she got a few more pictures from
the sellers nearby, who were all pretty happy to pose up for them. I think that the
biggest surprise of the day was how friendly these people were, and eager at the same
time to have a photograph of them clicked. We were worried about nothing. It kind of
provoked a lot of thoughts in me though. I personally wouldn't be so comfortable with
a random stranger taking my pictures in the street, and neither would she. Is that a
news reporter? Am I getting clicked so that I end up in some moral policing article
about couples and public display of affection? Will others make fun of me if they see
my acne-filled face? These are some of the many thoughts that might cross our minds
if a random stranger were to ask us for our photographs (except for HONY, I don't
live in New York but I'm ready as anyone else). It just sort of goes on to show the
various fears of society that we have, which also kind of extends to the media, how
it is portrayed and manipulated and so on. Some might feel like it's an intrusion of
their private life as well, and these are all valid thoughts given the country and
situation. But we were just glad that things weren't so complicated with the sellers
in Madiwala. They were friendly, they gave their best smiles, why not click a
picture?

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/w22ZnJT.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/w22ZnJT.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>A busy seller on a busy day in Madiwala</figcaption>
</figure>

By this time, news about a cute lady taking pictures of the sellers there spread
through the streets like wildfire. Most of the sellers were now posing for pictures,
a lot of them even called her to their side to take their pictures. Once she took a
picture, they would ask the seller in the next stall to get a picture clicked as
well. Any nervousness she had by now just evaporated into thin air.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/u7OEzpL.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/u7OEzpL.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>Just waiting on some potatoes</figcaption>
</figure>

Some of the scenes in the area looked very picturesque even without any people or
signs of a crowd nearby. Alvina took out some time to capture a few of these while we
were resting in between.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/QJGneuZ.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QJGneuZ.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>She personally loves this one a lot.</figcaption>
</figure><br><br>

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/dWSWXUN.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/dWSWXUN.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>An abandoned cart, maybe?</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Mh7RDJL.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Mh7RDJL.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>I like this personally :3</figcaption>
</figure>

Towards the end of our trip, we ran into a bunch of old guys who had already heard
the news about the cute lady taking pictures. They were ready to be photographed and
she was all too happy about it. Which led to this picture, my favorite from the day.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/CQl5TRS.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/CQl5TRS.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>Knives and a puff</figcaption>
</figure>

After a short avalanche of pictures with the nearby sellers, we finally arrived at
the seller who gave us the feature image for this post, and is also one of her
favorite photos from the day. Scroll up to the top of this post to see it!<commit_msg>Fixed an image and removed line breaks - Riches in Rags<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: "Riches in Rags"
excerpt: "A short, photography journey through the market street of Madiwala"
comments: true
share: true
categories: photography
author: krishna_gogoi
tags: [photography, street-photography, markets, bangalore]
image:
  feature: feat_madiwala.jpg
  credit: <NAME>
  creditlink: http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/Alvina_Joshi
---


Alvina had her 18th birthday last month and I decided to surprise her by gifting her
a camera lens, because she desperately needed one since last year to get out of the
kit lens territory. The lens I gave her, after quite a bit of research and asking
around, is the **Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM**. I'm no camera or photography expert, but
everyone suggested that I get her a prime lens and the lens mentioned above seemed to
be the best buy for value and utility, and had pretty good reviews almost
everywhere. Which also means, this isn't a review post about the lens.

She's been learning the ins and outs of the lens ever since she got it but we went
out for an actual field test recently in the busy and bustling streets of the
roadside markets lined up at Madiwala, Bengaluru. She wanted to write a photo-essay
for a competition in her college and decided the scenes of Madiwala would be the base
for the essay. Madiwala is a pretty busy place if you haven't been there first-hand.
Numerous stalls selling things from fruits and vegetables to flowers and meat to
seafood are lined up in four to five extremely long rows. It's a pretty interesting
contrast, considering the fact that there's a huge shopping mall right next to this
busy street-side market.

All the photos in the post are taken by Alvina, I was there mostly for company and
guard duty with an umbrella, just in case someone tried snatching her camera bag. I'm
pretty formidable with an umbrella.

This was also first time for Alvina in terms of interaction with people. She's had a
bit of street photography experience previously when she was in Stockholm, but
interacting with people and such was a whole new thing for her. And it's India, so
naturally things are a bit different here; street photography to most people is
pretty much synonymous to journalists taking pictures for a news paper or media
outlet, so things could get a bit saucy. Also, interaction with the people was
important for her because she ultimately would need information to expand upon on her
essay. If you're an introvert or have social anxiety issues or just hate having
people around you like me, this probably is a huge barrier. I remember being
pleasantly surprised at how smoothly Alvina handled the situation and sailed through
without any problem.

We started our little trip near the shopping mall after gorging down on ice
creams. It starts with mostly vegetable stalls at that end of the row, plenty of
onions where we started off.

<figure>
	<a href="http://i.imgur.com/2uVFrrp.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/2uVFrrp.jpg"
	alt="image"></a>
	<figcaption>Starting off with Onions</figcaption>
</figure>

At this point, we were inside the market. She seemed a bit nervous at first about
asking the onion seller if she can take a picture of him. She even asked me to go
ahead and ask him, which of course I replied with my ridiculous "are you kidding me?
these are people and talking to them is socializing" stare. Also, I didn't know the
local language and I didn't want to go, "*Anna, piyaz ke bhaw kaise chal rahe hai?*"
(Translation: "*Brotherly salutation, how have the prices of onions been lately?*")

She finally stepped up her game though, walked forward with no fear and meekly asked
if she could take a picture of him. What surprised both of us here and in the next
few rounds of doing this is that the people were actually pretty enthusiastic and
friendly about being in the pictures. He just perked up quickly, fixed his shirt a
bit and sat up for a serious picture. I was both surprised and relieved at the same
time. We were expecting barrages of questions and such, and definitely tonnes of
rejection before convincing them for pictures. Yet there we were with someone who was
ready for the shot in 5 secs, no questions, no fuss. I could almost feel the sigh of
relief that Alvina let out. She quickly got her camera and clicked this.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/PUrlpg6.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/PUrlpg6.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>The first person she asked for a picture</figcaption>
</figure>

With her confidence getting that boost it needed, she got a few more pictures from
the sellers nearby, who were all pretty happy to pose up for them. I think that the
biggest surprise of the day was how friendly these people were, and eager at the same
time to have a photograph of them clicked. We were worried about nothing. It kind of
provoked a lot of thoughts in me though. I personally wouldn't be so comfortable with
a random stranger taking my pictures in the street, and neither would she. Is that a
news reporter? Am I getting clicked so that I end up in some moral policing article
about couples and public display of affection? Will others make fun of me if they see
my acne-filled face? These are some of the many thoughts that might cross our minds
if a random stranger were to ask us for our photographs (except for HONY, I don't
live in New York but I'm ready as anyone else). It just sort of goes on to show the
various fears of society that we have, which also kind of extends to the media, how
it is portrayed and manipulated and so on. Some might feel like it's an intrusion of
their private life as well, and these are all valid thoughts given the country and
situation. But we were just glad that things weren't so complicated with the sellers
in Madiwala. They were friendly, they gave their best smiles, why not click a
picture?

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/w22ZnJT.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/w22ZnJT.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>A busy seller on a busy day in Madiwala</figcaption>
</figure>

By this time, news about a cute lady taking pictures of the sellers there spread
through the streets like wildfire. Most of the sellers were now posing for pictures,
a lot of them even called her to their side to take their pictures. Once she took a
picture, they would ask the seller in the next stall to get a picture clicked as
well. Any nervousness she had by now just evaporated into thin air.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/u7OEzpL.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/u7OEzpL.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>Just waiting on some potatoes</figcaption>
</figure>

Some of the scenes in the area looked very picturesque even without any people or
signs of a crowd nearby. Alvina took out some time to capture a few of these while we
were resting in between.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/QJGneuZ.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/QJGneuZ.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>She personally loves this one a lot.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/dWSWXUN.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/dWSWXUN.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>An abandoned cart, maybe?</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Mh7RDJL.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Mh7RDJL.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>I like this personally :3</figcaption>
</figure>

Towards the end of our trip, we ran into a bunch of old guys who had already heard
the news about the cute lady taking pictures. They were ready to be photographed and
she was all too happy about it. Which led to this picture, my favorite from the day.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/CQl5TRS.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/CQl5TRS.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
<figcaption>Knives and a puff</figcaption>
</figure>

After a short avalanche of pictures with the nearby sellers, we finally arrived at an
old seller who was coaxed into getting his picture clicked by the sellers around him.
Alvina really really loves this picture and it's one of her favorites from the day.

<figure>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/rUkJtIc.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/rUkJtIc.jpg"
alt="image"></a>
</figcaption>An old seller - Madiwala</figcaption>
</figure>
{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.06588860071631468, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0032110658268494504, 'mean_word_length': 4.391145139813582, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 126, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 126, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
{'dir': 'git-commits-cleaned', 'id': '976921', 'n_tokens_mistral': 4593, 'n_tokens_neox': 4393, 'n_words': 2540}