"Autumn is the mellower Season,
and what we lose in flowers,
We more than gain in fruits."
-Samuel Butler
It is not that I am too fond of fruits; in fact, I
am a very picky fruit eater. I might like something one day and dislike it the
other day. But that did not stop me from going into the wholesale fruit markets
of bara-bazaar on 11th October, even
if it was to only look at the place and see the various activities going on
there. Here I must acknowledge that the fruit bazaar was certainly not what I
had imagined; it was even better.
On entering the fruit bazaar, apart from some
shops where the people were busy in packing and loading and unloading fruits
from the trucks, we were greeted by a very old goat. It must be too soon for me
to say, but the goat seemed to tell me that he had seen everything that
possibly went on inside the mandi
(popular term for the markets) and was probably waiting for a change.
Nevertheless, what interested me was that the
entire place was abuzz with various activities which appealed to one’s senses.
People were busy collecting fruits that had come from the trucks. While many
unloaded carton full of fruits; there were others who sat and maintained
records and finances of the deal. At many corners men gathered around a table
and one person howled prices on top of his voice. Not knowing what it was when I
went to check, I was told by another man that it was live auction at progress
and those auctioneers surely wanted me to leave them in peace.
Delving further into the market one can notice that
the ground had been covered by straws and hays. These were the materials in
which the fruits were brought every morning and they were just discarded on the
floor. This covered the floor into layers of hays and actually one can say that
the ground was hardly visible. One has to walk on the "hay" floor
inside the mandi. Looking up, the
entire market is surrounded by houses- two or three storeyed houses. They were
so old that it felt like they might fall any moment. But I prayed that they
would not, at least not while I was there.
The actual market was a colorful delight. Everywhere
one looked there were stack and stacks of fruits of various colors- red juicy
pomegranates, huge fat pineapples, guavas, lovely peaches, delicious dates,
ripe bananas, green and black grapes and the lot. But what dominated the scenes
most were the green lemons. Everywhere you look there were lemons, lemons and
more lemons.
While I stopped to take the entire feel in, I
realized that this is nothing but an entire colony in itself. People living in
the houses had their occupations just outside their thresholds. Apart from the
fruit dealers proper, there were auctioneers, truck drivers, barbers, people
who owned food shops and many others.
This post would not be complete if I miss out on
the reactions of the people in the mandi.
It was a mostly male dominated place where I could spot an occasional sari here
or there. While most of them were middle -aged, many were also young who helped
their fathers or uncles in this trade. Seeing people with DSLR’s in their area
they became quite thrilled and gave a variety of responses. While some
willingly posed in front of the camera, some started howling at us. Many were eagerly calling us to take their
photographs and one gentleman even posed for a single shot. I was actually
lucky to be able to experiment with various techniques which I had recently
learned from my mentor. Though not everything came out exactly what was in my
mind, nevertheless it left me satisfied, though smelling of fruits and eager to
go back for some more shots.
All in all, the entire trip was worth it and made
me discover a new aspect of Kolkata which I had been negligent of all this
while.
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