Old City Market, Bangalore

<p>I did my Sunday walk today off Avenue Road into some ethnic traders’ lanes after a browse outside the KR Market. The old city is formed by different ethnic groups of traders who settled here in various periods of history in the past 400 years. One can still perceive the ethnicity dominating the trade preference. For example, the Muslims trade in hardware, The Surat Gujaratis trade in jewelry and diamonds, the Andhra traders sell stationery and related items, the Rajasthanis trade in textiles, paper and a number of wholesale items. Many ethnic communities have changed their trade patterns over the recent decades. The eating places also cater to these ethnic tastes; so one can walk around and taste different ethnic snack varieties in the old city.<br /><br /><strong>Camera used</strong>: Praltica MTL3 w/CZJ Tessar 50mm <br /><strong>Film used</strong>: ORWO UN54 ASA 100<br /><strong>Developer</strong>: Home brewed. [Modified from X-Ray chemicals]<br /><br />Here are some samples from today’s walk.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

<p>I bought this camera &lens recently from Ebay-UK for about BP6.00. It was functional and arrived with the original Pentacon case. Someone had sprayed it with white paint all over the case and the camera body. I had quite time cleaning it. Luckily, everything works including the meter. It is a pleasure to use.</p><div></div>

<p>Many small traders [hawker-vendor types] stay around the wholesale market. The farm vegetables and fruits are shipped in by middlemen/wholesalers. They control the market and the prices. The farmers get very little, especially, when they grow a surplus. The retailers pick up their needs everyday starting 4 a.m., and carry their stuff to the various neighborhoods. Many small vendors work on a day to day basis borrowing money from loan sharks at rates of interest around 10% per day!</p><div></div>

<p>This is one of the most un-organized sectors of the economy. Both the farmers and the retailers are at the mercy of the middlemen and the financiers.</p><div></div>

<p>A traditional Muslim gentleman with a beard, the long shirt and the cap.</p><div></div>

<p>On paper and map this road has a right of way of 66 feet. Somehow it has narrowed!</p><div></div>

<p>This lane and trading places are predominantly Muslim. They seem to specialize in hardware items, tools and the like, here.</p><div></div>

Wow. Interesting facts about the culture in that area. That's the stuff one can't learn from textbooks or college courses.

And as always, Subbarayan, excellent images to go with an informative post. Great restoration job. That camera looks

new. Thanks for posting.

<p>Notice the "Cap Mart".</p><div></div>

<p>The narrowing is kind of progressive. I have not yet found out how, why and when this narrowing happened.</p><div></div>

<p>In my childhood years the kerosene stoves used to be made of Brass; a famous name brand was "Primus." In the recent decades brass has become very expensive. So welders and fabricators invented these stoves locally by welding steel plates to make cylinders and frames. Only the pump and the pressure gauge are factory made of brass. It makes it saleable to the Below Poverty Line [bPL] households who get subsidized kerosene.</p><div></div>

<p>Hope you liked the ethnic flavour. Thanks for viewing and your comments. Regards, sp.</p>

<p>Great post, Subbarayan. Thanks for sharing. Your home-brew seems to have nice contrast in some challenging shots that have a wide range of values. The last shot is my favorite I think as it captures so much and has a certain symmetry among the general chaos. Enjoyed your insights as well; amazing development going on there. Cheers!</p>

<p>Splendid document of the street market and its environment. You seem to have scored with that Praktica!<br>

There was a Primus stove in my house when I was a child. I was very proud when I learned to start it by myself. In wintertime, people would put a brick over the flames and use the ensemble as a poor man's heating radiator.<br>

I was thinking of recommending you to try the Beutler mix, it could be just the ticket for your strong contrast scenes and your ORWO film.</p>

<p>Nice images Prasana, always plenty of interesting scenes to document well done.</p>

<p>An interesting view into your world, thanks.</p>

<p>Thanks for posting SP, Old City Market seems to be the place for bargains.</p>

<p>I wonder if you find the MTL3 meter accurate, you never seem to miss any shots due to wrong exposure.</p>

<p>One of my favourite camera / lens combinations, though I still prefer the Oreston / Pentacon over the Tessar. I really admire the spare, minimal lines of the MTL3 and the distinctive "pebble" finish; as you say, the camera is a delight to use. Great series, <strong>SP</strong>, with lots of great detail from the Tessar and some nice tones from your brew. Just out of interest, I have a "Primus" fold-up camping stove tucked away somewhere, with lots of brass and a heap of ingenuity...Marvelous old gadgets!</p>

<p> I like the Vespa in the last picture. But when getting older it's tilted to the side which mount the engine because the suspension worn-out. Beautiful pictures and TFS</p>

<p>One of my all-time favorites as well, though like Rick I sometimes prefer the Oreston, and then again often the Takumar f1,8. I think "Narrower Lane" (last photo) is one of my favorites from your work.</p>

<p>I really like this series, Subbaryan, Great compositions, lovely development, and of great interest to an anthropologist. It inspires me -- maybe after it warms up a bit here I'll get out and shoot some of our ethnic communities here. As a university town, we have many flavors of people from all over the world. There has been some tendency to separate out residentially, but that is less visible. However, people who stay here and start up a business have created small pockets of different flavors, literally, of food. We don't, of course, have the choice of a big city like Chicago (motto: "second largest X city in the world after the capital of X").</p>

<p>I think Primus was an international brand. When I was a tot, many of my relatives out on the farm had Primus stoves.</p>

<p>I think Primus was originally Swedish but has become a generic name for these type of paraffin pressure stoves, like "Hoover" and "Frigidaire". What a super series of pictures and text, and I love the way the different ethic groups seem to co-exist each with their special areas of trade. I'm intrigued by your fascination with the road narrowing from "66 feet on paper and on maps" - do you have some axe to grind here?</p>

<p>Subbarayan , I really enjoyed your post, I beliee that you really know a country in its market and you made me feel I was there. That is a handsome camera nad suited for your purpose. Thanks for sharing yourf Old City.</p>

<p>As always a real pleasure to look at your walks through everyday India.</p>

<p>Thanks <strong>Steve</strong>, I am glad you liked the post. <strong>Julio</strong>, yes you referred to the Beutler’s formula a few weeks ago. I looked in <em><strong>Digital Truth</strong></em> and Anschell’s <em><strong>Darkroom CookBook</strong></em> for the details. Surprise!, I found that my brew was pretty close to Beutler’s. Only I have tried to lower the pH value to between 8 and 9 by adding Boric acid and extending the development time. Thank you. <strong>Robert, Steve, Alan</strong>, Thanks; yes the meter is good and agrees with my hand held selenium meters, Gossen and Leningrad 7. However, in this series, I did not use the meter as I forgot to load the button cell! Yes <strong>Rick</strong>, I agree that the Pentacon/Oreston is of a different class, on a par with the Pancolar and Helios. But they are much later [double Gaus] designs.<br /><br />Thanks <strong>Minh, Jody</strong>, the walk itself was enjoyable and your comments, very encouraging. Thanks <strong>JDM</strong>, I did some studies on the morphology of urbanism in this area with several students. Since the formation is historically spread over Centuries, it is difficult to fully unravel the causes and details. That makes it interesting, though!<br /><br /><strong>John</strong>, my axe is nothing personal, more sociological and institutional. I was a Court appointed Commissioner to investigate and monitor road expansion projects in Bangalore. In the process we received grievance petitions from affected people, under the Planning Law, when we got to know about many of these formations, encroachments of public spaces by private interests and the like, especially on the main Avenue Road. The older ethnic lanes are interesting as anthropo-morphisms of different historical eras.<br /><br />Thanks, <strong>Moises and Starvy</strong>, glad you found it interesting. Regards, SP.<br /><br /></p>