A Funkaoshi Production

Bangalore — Jan 25th - 27th

   14 March 2010, late at night

We left Cochin early in the morning on the 25th. I was still incredibly sick at this point. I didn’t think i’d make it to the airport. Bangalore more or less cured me. The first three days there were spent loitering around and attending a wedding. My pictures of Bangalore on Flickr. (Or IMG VQVZ) I took these notes to myself on my iPhone, hence the strange change in tense, poor grammar, and what have you.

January 25th

Still wrecked. This drive to the airport is probably going to be a disaster. I am anxious.

Made it to the airport. Thank you Ganesha.

In Bangalore. It’s much cleaner than Chennai. Is that a low bar?

I may be on the mend. Again, my bar for ‘on the mend’ might be really low at this point.

Traffic in Bangalore is horrible. It’s worse than Madras. I’m not even sure how that is possible.

I should photograph this ridiculous sari shop. Holy shit it’s packed. Our salesman is so pushy it borders on impressive.

Watched two little school kids cross the street. I think sissy-Western parents would have a fit. I wonder what the infant mortality rate here is due to traffic accidents.

This hotel is strange. It has a thin veneer of being upmarket, but it’s still kind of ghetto. One problem is the bathrooms have small open windows to street, so they end up grimy looking. A real waste of granite and marble.

Jan 26th

Not wrecked. Slept through the night.

Went to a non-veg restaurant about 20 minutes away — near MG Road. (Only in India would non-veg exist as a category of restaurant.) We are staying in what I think is some sort of Hindu district — it’s full of cows, anyway — so it’s all veg here. Having meat after so many days was so good.

Going to a wedding in my wedding outfit (day two) and my dragon beard sneakers. Apparently no one will care. Will see. Forgot there was a Brahmin wedding to attend. Technically I should have brought three days worth of nice clothes, and not just jeans and t-shirts.

Reception was people sitting on lawn chairs chatting; the bride and groom on a stage taking pictures with the guests. There was really good food. It was all quite casual and nice.

Jan 27th

Wedding! That was awesome.

Breakfast to start, served by topless Brahmin men on to banana leaves. Since it’s a Brahmin wedding, Brahmins have to cook. Food was great.

Wedding was a much like the reception. People sitting around on lawn chairs chatting while a wedding takes place in the background. We arrived at 9:30 and left around 2:30; the ceremony was taking place the whole time, and it started before we arrived and continued after we left. That’s a long wedding.

Lunch was more structured than breakfast. You sit and a stream of topless Brahmin men walk by and serve curries and chutneys on your banana leaf. I regret not filming. There was so much food. You have to fold your leaf in half or they won’t stop feeding you.

Part of the ceremony involves the groom getting up to leave because he wants to go on a pilgrimage instead of get married. The brides family pleads with him to stay. Outside, they finally present the bride, who is carried on her uncles shoulders. Her actual uncles back was all broken, so Tintu and Tampi (her cousins) did the carrying. There was also some sort of on the shoulder garland fight between the bride and groom I didn’t quite follow.

Evening at Usha’s. Doing nothing has never felt so good. That was an exhausting wedding.

Went shopping with my dad in the Gandhi Bazaar market. A papaya and a kilo of bananas was 55 rupees.

Tintu and his brother got in a fight. And then they made up.

India 2010 | Photography