Walkabouts: A Simple Pleasure

It seems like forever ago that I took my first walkabout here in our Besant Nagar neighborhood, accompanied by Gopi, our temporary driver. I recall how sheepish I felt on first raising the camera to photograph a woman sitting crosslegged in front of the nearby Tirupati Gangai Amman Koil temple. Until that moment, I hadn’t a clue as to the reaction I might receive as I intruded on people going about their daily rounds, yet her open, genuine smile delighted and disarmed me.

As Gopi lead me around our neighborhood, we turned from the relatively major Annai Velankanni Street–otherwise known as Mahatma Gandhi or MG Road–onto the narrow Maistry Street, with its patchwork of filter coffee stalls and dosa shops and jasmine stringers, I had to pause to try to absorb it all. We stopped and chatted with a clear eyed shopkeeper at his stall,

and I photographed a corporation man (municipal employee), in his distinctive blue and saffron uniform shirt, washing his hands at the street pump–those hand pumps are ubiquitous on most blocks throughout the city–who has become a regular smiling connection even though he speaks no English and my Tamil is probably worse than none. Our connections are always confirmed when I’m able to greet someone again and give them a print of their photo.

I finally got to introduce Sarah to him a couple weekends ago after we returned to Besant Nagar and enjoyed our morning newspaper walk together to fetch the Sunday edition of The Hindu for all of 12 rupees (18cents). (BTW, the paper’s book section is wonderful and you can access it online.)

Anyway, my love of walkabouts started to bloom. As the year progressed, I managed to get out most weeks, usually alone, but with Mani, our regular driver, sometimes assisting and guiding me, and I explored our neighborhood–still my favorite–and well beyond. I even managed to snag a first in one of the fstoppers photography website’s weekly contests for a shot at the Thiruvanmiyur veg market. Yet even today, those initial clicks of the shutter on a fresh walkabout are accompanied by a brief hesitation, a hint of doubt, until I get into a rhythm. Until I connect.

But this year, so far, my walkabouts have been fewer since I’m volunteering at AISC two and a half days a week doing photography and a bit of content writing for the Marketing Team. So I’m clicking the shutter more consistently than ever and learning a ton—like shooting in manual and targeting subjects and situations and lighting I wouldn’t personally choose; to posing folks for environmental portraits; to working on little (okay, sometimes zero) advance notice to shoot an assignment; to meeting deadlines to upload, select, edit, and publish photos, plus writing the caption for the social media platform; and to seeing my photos on Facebook and Instagram and even, gods forbid, Twitter! Thus, my personal blog has taken a bit of a back seat so far.

But I did manage recently to get out and explore another one of the iconic sites in Mylapore, the Sri Ramakrishna Math, along with one of my favorites, the lanes around Kapaleeshwarar temple. Sri Ramakrishna was a 19th century Hindu mystic whose chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda, introduced Hindu concepts including yoga to the US and England in the 1890’s. (Extra credit for anyone who knows the connection between Vivikenanda and Walden Pond!) I loved the near solitude of the Sri Ramakrishna Math followed by the vibrant enterprise of the market along Mada Street.

Of course, Dorothy said it best: There’s no place like home. So I also managed a few short walkabouts and to make some new connections along the lanes and by the beach in our own Bessie.

Next up: Koyembedu veg/flower/fruit market (one of the largest in India) and Kasimedu Fish Market with a stop at the Burma Bazaar where over a thousand stalls selling every trinket and bangle imaginable line the street.

Oh, and BTW, one of the benefits of my volunteer gig at AISC is that sometimes those sudden assignments can turn into a unique opportunity. This week, I interviewed Paul Salopek, whose Out of Eden Walk is a ten year trek around the world for National Geographic. But that, of course, is another story . . .