During our City tour I mentioned to Arun that I had been searching through photos of Bangalore on the online picture sharing web site flickr and that I had found many pictures of open air markets filled with brightly colored fruits, vegetables and flowers. He informed me that Russell Market, one of the oldest markets in Bangalore, was located within walking distance to my house. He also highly recommended I go visit as it was just one more way to truly experience India.
Excited to try something new I asked a few people at work about the market, mainly fishing to see if I could get a local to go with me. Perplexed, they could not understand why I would want to go to a place like that. They told me it was dirty, hot, and I could purchase everything I needed at local stores. They also informed me that if I did decide to go I should take a local with me as they tend to be not safe. Refusing to except that I should not visit the market I asked a few of the other managers within the office. They laughed at my team’s reaction and told me that I should definitely visit the market while living in India. They also informed me that I should not worry about the markets being unsafe, though pick pockets do frequent those types of locations.
With a few small rupee notes, my phone, and my camera I started my journey to the market. Having looked up the location on Google maps I knew I needed to go up one road and then left .8 kilometers, which is if Google is correct. The roads disappear and close down so quick over here it is always impossible to expect Google to keep up. Oh yea, and don’t forget I am from the States so I have no idea how far .8 kilometers is. But like coming to India in the first place, I wing it. Having walked for about 10 min the scenery has drastically changed. Passing a large bus station the road narrowed and was no lined with vendors and small booths lining the right side of the street. It was amazing; I saw shoes, underwear, baby clothes, watches, and toys. You could buy everything but electronics. The narrow road forced the crowd of people to get tighter and tighter and made me realize why the pick pockets swarm this area. Now surrounded with people, I was starting to wonder who was right, those that told me to come to this area or those that told me to stay away. Not sure where I was truly headed, and beginning to become claustrophobic, I turned around and started back home. Making it only about the distance of 1 city block I saw 2 police officers and decided I would ask for directions rather than bailing out of this excursion. Hard to understand, I determined he told me I need to take the first right and then the next left.
Making it to the market the flow of people did not let up. Entering the long barn like structure marked Russell Market I continued my adventure. The building was a crudely structured building divided by horizontal lanes like a swimming pool. The first several rows were packed full of stalls containing fruits of all kinds; watermelons, mangos, muskmelons, grapes, sweet limes, and many others that I have never seen before. The next section was packed full of vegetables of all shapes and colors. Following the vegetables was a section packed full of flowers. As promised by the people at work it was definitely hot, dirty, and packed with people. If the ends of the building had not been open it would have been impossible to jump from row to row.
Entering the final section, which was packed with meats, it began to get real interesting. Passing by the first vendor I stopped to look inside the cages that lined the stall walls. Packed full of live animals there were geese, ducks, turkeys, pigeons, and rabbits. The rabbits were for pets but everything else would eventually be headed to someone’s kitchen table. Exiting and wrapping around I entered a section that had very poor lighting. This is where the mutton was located. Each of the stalls in this section had full, skinned, animal carcasses strung up by their back legs hanging from the ceiling. Here you could approach a vendor and choose the section of meat you wanted. Once you selected the section you wanted he would then draw his machete a hack off what you requested. Based off the temperature alone in this section I would defiantly not be purchasing meat at here. Wrapping around to the back of the building it was lined with seafood vendors. Here you could purchase whole fish, or sections of the larger ones. Local river fish, red snapper, sardines, to oysters and crabs (both already dead and still alive), you could find everything but lobsters. Let me also remind you that I did not see a single item that was properly packed on ice, like that would surprise you by now. Oh and don’t forget everything was covered in flies.
Like everything else this was definitely and adventure. I did not purchase anything today, but one day I will return and stock up and fresh fruit, I am pretty sure I will skip the meat section though. Oh and don’t forget that I have also begun to question where the food I eat everyday is purchased. I think this follows the same principal of not wanting to see the kitchen at your local McDonald's…
"Russell Market" Pictures
Blake
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