Fun with Vegetables

All Photographs by K. L. Kamat
First Online: August 26, 2000
Page Last Updated: February 17, 2024

 
Introduction

"Your father's lust for life is reflected even in the vegetables he buys" -- my mother wrote to me once. A significant portion of the life of my father K. L. Kamat has been spent negotiating, bartering and buying vegetables and fruits. He has visited the vegetable and fruit markets of Malleswaram  everyday for the last thirty years! He is known to the street vendors as "the man with dirty shopping bags", "the Sir who buys cracked coco-nuts", "the poor dude who can only buy vegetables on sale", "the twin-banana lover" (see in India, the bananas are sold by count, and my father discovered that a twin-banana is counted as one), "the late night restaurateur" (a daily visitor, and bargain hunter must be a restaurateur!), "the kind Sir", and after he photographed some of them, "the photo Swamy".  The merchandise he buys is also story-worthy and as you will see in this series, picture-worthy. 
-Vikas Kamat

Table of Contents

• The Indian Summer -- vegetables on Kamat's kitchen counter on a hot summer day.

• The Bimbal Fruit Bunch
• The Bitter-gourd Vegetable
• Cashews with their Nuts Intact
• Curvaceous Carrot
• The Fruit of Rama
• Fruit Offerings to Lord Krishna
• The Garlic Couple
• The Golden Tuber
• Green Eggplant
• The Guava Fruit
• The Horny Carrot
• The Jack Fruits
• Juicy Variety of Bananas
• Moving into Adulthood
• The Musambi Fruit
• No wonder we are called as the 'Egg Plant'
• The Papaya Fruit
• Passion for Photography
• Pictures of Bear Fruit
• Pictures of Ber or Jujube Fruit
• Proximity Increases Intimacy
• Ready for the Palate
• Ready to Pluck: A Ripe Cashew Fruit
• The Seetaphal Fruit
• Spice of Life
• Tropical Fruits of India
• A tuber called 'Kesuvina Gedde' (Alvamaddi) is a delicacy used in curries and dishes
• 'Vali Bhajji' (Basale Soppu) is a popular green vegetable among Konkanis
• The Virgin in Waiting
• When Lord Ganesh Reincarnated as Knolkol
• The Yellow Fruit
• Young and Naked

See Also:

• The flowers of India -- photographic exhibition of use of flowers in daily Indian life

• Kamat's Animals -- Real, Mythical and fantastic animals

• Street Vendors of India -- Photographic collage of unique Indian merchandise for sale

• Street Vendors of India -- Index of pictures

• Kamat's Clouds -- When there was nothing to photograph, Kamat discovered the myriad of clouds in the sky.

• Passion for Photography -- Kamat's endless hunger for pictures