Ring Road Cluster, South Bangalore

<p><em>The camera</em>: <strong>Zorki 4 </strong>& Jupiter 8, 50mm<br /><em>Location</em>: Ring Road, South Bangalore<br /><em>Time</em>: 9:00 a.m. plus On Sunday<br /><em>Film</em> : ORWO UN 54 ASA100<br /><em>Developer</em>: My home brew<br /><br />I packed my Zorki 4 this morning with a Jupiter lens and film and drove to this place about 8 kms east of where we live. I acquired this lens as a junk item from Ukraine for a price of US$ 1.00. Mr Yazdhani of Kamera Werke, Calcutta, restored this lens for me. In those days I did not know a thing about opening and cleaning lenses. And the KW people repair a lot of optical instruments and have the equipment to calibrate them.<br /><br />I got the camera body for about US$ 7.00 and restored it by myself. Today, I made bold to test this lens. Till now I have been using only Industars; this is my first Jupiter.<br /><br />The locality was developed only during the 1990s with a skeleton road arcing the Southwest of Bangalore. Most properties were residential. In the past 20 years, most of the residential properties along the Ring Road have become commercial. Older people who built retirement homes here are very annoyed at the development. It has destroyed their quiet and peace. Most others have sold or leased their property to developers and business houses and made a fortune.<br /><br />The ambience is a big change from those of my recent posts. Most businesses in this locale are modern, secular [non-ethnic] and carry the multi-national tags too. It is indicative of the income levels prevalent in the surroundings. Here are the samples.</p><div></div>

<p>Newer Multi-national retailers are opening shops every other day. There some regulations in retailing. So the MNC's are registered as Indian companies and make their goods in India too. There is political conflict between the local retailers and the networks. I am often reminded of the IGA in the US, the dairy cooperatives and the big corporates.</p><div></div>

<p>The next one.</p><div></div>

<p>KFC prices are exorbitant, compared to local food places. There is a class of customers who would buy from KFC like places. It survives only is such places.</p><div></div>

<p>Was hyped much for its under $2000 price. Of late, it i snot doing well on the market. Sales are sluggish. Tata's are said to be revising the design.</p><div></div>

<p>One may be surprised at these names, Levi's, Wrangler, etc. It is, probably, a natural consequence of the supply side. Indian Textile mills have been producing most of the Denim for the world market in the past 30 years. Good enough reason!</p><div></div>

<p>The native food places have modernized a lot with steam kitchens, gas ovens and other equipment. Most follow a cafeteria approach or stand up counter to save on costs.</p><div></div>

<p>The Chinese places in India are most likely to be Tibetan-run places. mainland Chinese are rare since the conflict of 1962.</p><div></div>

<p>This mostly due to the expansion in the IT industry. People seem to learn computer languages faster and with ease. they do not seem to learn English so well. Also, the new economic growth has witnessed many migrants from other parts of the country. English is necessary as it is the legal language.</p><div></div>

<p>These are not multi-nationals; they are regional and national networks. They look like MNCs, though.</p><div></div>

<p>Thin line being a Sunday.</p><div></div>

<p>Their margins must be high. They advertise on TV with highly paid models.</p><div></div>

<p>Look at the number two wheelers with hot cases for delivery. These are things that increase the cost of the Pizza.</p><div></div>

<p>I like this lens and, of course, the Zorki 4. Thanks for viewing and your comments. Regards, sp.</p>

<p>Great photographs as usual SP.<br>

The sharpness of the lens really shows in all of the photos.</p>

<p>Another nice tour of the developing areas, SP. The Jupiter is doing quite well, you would appreciate it most at higher apertures for DOF work.</p>

<p>It is impressive to watch the MNCs encroaching in India.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Wow, the pace of change in India...Another great series, <strong>SP</strong>,with Messrs. Zorki and Jupiter stepping up to the mark again. Good crisp images, and the home brew seems to be giving some nice tones. Despite the commercial encroachment, it's good to see so many trees surviving, softening the impact of the brash new buildings and advertising. Thanks for another installment in the continuing saga.</p>

<p>Very nice series again <strong>SP</strong>. Have you thought about building a website with all your posts? I'd imagine it'd be interesting for both camera repair junkies, people interested in home brews as well as social scientists interested in development in India.</p>

<p>The pace of development on the Ring Road is amazing. I remember going to school in Yellahanka and passing a sign for the "proposed" Ring Road. It pointed to rice paddies as far as the eye could see. That was it.</p>

<p>Very nice as always. I like #10, Waiting for the Bus.</p>

<p>The Jupiter 8 seems to be a fine lens, if you take the time to clean it and adjust your rangefinder for it (mine is off by 1/4 turn on all my bodies). I usually just stop down and zone focus, as I don't want to change all my cameras for one lens.</p><div></div>

<p>It is a very fine lens if it works with your camera. I find the quality to be outstanding around f8-f11. Lovely pictures as ever from you.</p>

<p>Nice, really nice to have you back posting too.<br /> Of the Leica types from the USSR I've personally had better luck with the FEDs, but maybe I need to try another Zorki. Clearly you're doing very well with them. Most of my USSR Zeisses, however, are in Kiev mounts.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>cafeteria approach or stand up counter</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I remember seeing this in Sweden back in the early 70s because labor costs were so high.<br /> I have had some very nice chats on the phone with technical support people in India, but certainly the subcontinent. Most speak English (some even fluent American) very well. I wonder if "real English" is British or American or Indian?</p>

<p>My father was born in 1895 and saw a Wright flyer before WWI during which he was in the US Navy (on the Great Lakes, mind--by a strange coincidence my older brother in the US Navy in WWII saw only duty in the Pacific-- not only Japanese were interned and looked on suspiciously you know). My Dad lived to see men walk on the moon, I think he would have loved the internet, Google™ and all.</p>

<p>It really is one world if we can keep from screwing it up.</p>

<p>As usual, great photos, Subbarayan. Those developing areas look impressive. Your photographs are excellent documentation of the development process. BTW, it looks like you've really perfected the film/home brew developer combination. Thanks for posting.</p>

<p>Thanks <strong>Richard, Julio</strong>, your encouragement keeps me going. I am enjoying the FSU Range Finders and lenses, really. <strong>Julio</strong>, Indian MNCs are also investing overseas, now. It is a fair exchange. <strong>Rick</strong>, the Tree Act helps in the preservation, despite the “tree mafia” that trades in illegal felling. Thanks <strong>Kayam</strong>, I have been thinking about it; I have to sit down and edit a lot of things before such a display. Perhaps I shall get to that in the future.<br /><br />Yes, <strong>Jody </strong>and <strong>Starvy</strong>, I found the same problem that you describe with this lens. I have several Zorkis and Feds, but the Jupiter would fit only this body to focus correctly. Strange really!, though Maizenberg warns about this in his book. Thanks <strong>Mike</strong>; the brew does seem to be getting better with my experimentation.<br /><br /><strong>JDM</strong>, the “Real English” is an unidentifiable thing, here. A couple of decades ago the Central Institute of English in Hyderabad offered a whole series of books, tapes, grammar texts etc., on what they called the SIE, Standard Indian English. Now their tapes and books are not found on the market. Instead, we have the BBC Linguaphone taped lessons and some other versions. The IT people are influenced greatly by American English, because of the OS Windows and the Word processors. The demand seems so great that every neighborhood corner seems to run English classes, for school kids, adults, homemakers, etc. Regionalisms have cropped up and people use words of their own freely, too. Examples, like “botheration” for “bother”, “soonly” for “soon” keep happening often. In many cases, people tend to translate idioms from their mother tongue; it takes some time to comprehend them. Regards, sp.</p>

<p>As I may have said before, the <em>Story of English </em>TV series, some years ago, detailed how Vietnam and some other SE Asian countries were sending their people to or hiring teachers from India in order to have a non-imperialist version of English taught to their citizens.</p>

<p>I picked up a reprint of the Hobson-Jobson Anglo-Indian dictionary a few years ago. It's amazing how many Indian-origin words have made it into American English, not just British English. Common stuff like bungalow and khaki, but other less appreciated ones as well.</p>

<p>In Nigeria, too, a national Nigerian English is growing up quite naturally. Beautifully enhanced by words from many of the main indigenous Nigerian languages.</p>

<p>It's clear that English as a language has completely escaped from the clutches of those who would control and stunt its growth, not that such people ever had a chance anyhow.</p>

<p>It's hard to find a gap in the market round Bangalore, <strong>SP</strong>,but so far I have not seen a cinema or camping shop. Thanks for the post.</p>