My co-passenger

'My co-passenger' is a series in which I capture the portraits along with brief stories of intriguing co-travellers of mine during my journeys.

'My co-passenger' - 1

Nagaraju is a farmer from a small village near Mandya, that is on the Bangalore -Mysore highway. He was practising agriculture until 3 years ago, when there was a huge water scarcity which forced him to discontinue agriculture. Now he has shifted to Bangalore and sells tender coconuts on Magadi road. Everyday morning he goes to one particular farm, climbs up the trees and plucks around a hundred tender coconuts. He sells them at his regular selling spot. He is now known among his loyal customers for fresh tender coconuts. The hundred or so coconuts get sold out by noon. Nagaraju has three teenage children.

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'My co-passenger' - 2: The Mango Man

Janardhana Raju is a farmer from Chittoor, which is in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. He grows 3 varieties of mangoes – Bagampally, Neelam and Totapuri, once every year. During the non-harvest season, apart from maintenance of mango groove he likes to travel and experience different agricultural places. When his finances permit him to.

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'My co-passenger' - 3

Family portrait of Sharanappa, a farmer from Bijapur, on his way to Mysore for a small trip along with his family.

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'My-Co-passengers' - 4(1)

Mr. Prasanna, a retired banker from Chennai. Him & his wife are visiting his son, who works at an IT company in Mysore. After chatting with him about the present banking system, demonetisation and life in general. I realised what a simple man he was. The posture of his feet showed his humility.

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'My-Co-passengers' - 4(2)

Mr. & Mrs. Prasanna. Portrait of Humility.

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'My co-passenger' - Seat no. 73

When I booked my train ticket one day earlier, seat no. 73 in D1 coach (window seat, always my preference) was allotted to me. Naturally I always go sit in my confirmed seat. This time I recognised my seat from a distance and saw this person sitting. Immediately something stopped me from approaching him and taking back my seat. Hence, I settled down one row behind so that I can look at him. Fortunately this seat was empty. Glancing at him, he reminded me of so many fictional/non-fictional characters from the books of my life. As I kept imagining about his probable stories, the train reached the destination…

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'My co-passenger'- 6

Mrs.Shantamma is an octogenarian from the temple town of Tirupathi. She was born in Krishnapuram village, Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. Got married to Mr. Srinivasa when she was 18 years. Settled in Tirupathi since then. When asked about the richest temple of India at Tirupathi, Shantamma said “the richness should not be measured just with wealth, the real richness is in the reverence towards spirituality. Its because of that richness we all could have a happy and content life…”

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'My co-passenger'- 7

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'My co-passenger'- 8

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'My co-passenger'- 9

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'My co-passenger'- 10

K J PAVAN

My co-passenger

Copyrights K J Pavan
2024