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Sketches from a night fish market!

Half of my night visits to this market had been futile! I mostly returned with dark or blur pictures, often to answer the impatient fisherlady folks that I’m trying again! They almost stopped asking me for prints and I felt dejected. But there’s something that takes you back to this night market – yes, its the women!

night!

Around 20 of these women run this market from around 4 to 1 pm at night everyday in one corner of Trivandrum city, when the middle class city sleeps or work in protected campuses. They deal with the sea, they deal with the night, they deal with the unprotected streets, they deal with the people, they deal with the police if required, and then they deal with their own men and sons back in their homes. Every visit returns a sack of complaints on drunken men in their family and ends with an appeal to the Government to close the toddy shops.

night!

But the bright side of the story is the night itself! Its when I see these women, I feel optimistic about nights for ordinary women, streets for women and beaches for women in our country! Why the rest of us are inside at night?

night!

Nights are beautiful here in the market…kerosene lamps flare, fishes shimmer, men bargain and Maglin sings loud! Actually I spent my previous new year’s eve in this market 🙂

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