Subir Roy: Tim Mitchell's Bangalore

OFFBEAT

A great city makes friends of those who come calling and Bangalore performs this with a panache that does not diminish with repetition. The latest foreigner to pay tribute to the colour, life and vibrancy of the city, that has put India on the new map of a world gone flat, is Tim Mitchell.

I met Tim when I landed at the door of his Princeton-based firm, Sarnoff, which is as blue-blooded as you can get in the technology business. Sarnoff was in Bangalore to better deliver globally its main offering "" innovation services. Inevitably, technology and innovation are embedded deep in Tim's psyche. He also loves to walk with a camera in hand and sensitivity inside.

The result is a book The Fabric of Bangalore with loads or pictures and a few words stringing them together in an integrated thought process. He calls it an admiring view of an outsider. I vibe with Tim because I am also an outsider and admirer whom only fate could have deposited in the city past mid-life. Tim's encounter with Bangalore actually began with his father who was there during the second war: "He remembered with pleasure his time in Bangalore "" a different place from the one we know today. My first visit was in 2003 and I was immediately captivated by the people."

Tim's story of Bangalore is really that of its people. Many of them are poor, all of them are enterprising, some are captured in the midst of their rich personal legacy. Interestingly, there are virtually no techies, maybe because not many of them have such memorable faces like the roadside vendor or construction worker.

Tim sees Bangalore as it is "" full of immigrants, new and old "" who work hard to earn a living. When they have accumulated sufficiently they acquire a vision which really comes into its own through the secret sauce of innovation. Tim's view of Bangalore is of hope and the dignity of those who strive hard by it.

My particular pleasure was to find in it people and places that I have come to cherish. There is the youngest Mr Welling in his photo shop on M G Road, just round the corner is Koshy's which my wife says I have made my tiffin room, there is also the real one MTR on Lal Bagh Road, as is the one and only Select Book Shop.

But perhaps the greatest pleasure was to find Bob Hoekstra, the Dutchman who headed Philips Software till a year ago, and who was able to put his finger on the pulse of the city in a way that many locals would love to do. He and Tim are kindred people, both discovered the city in a relatively slow motion "" Tim on foot and Bob on a bicycle. Tim's sensitivity is greater than his photography. As an amateur photographer myself, I can understand his difficulty in leaving out many of his pictures. It would have been better to use fewer, but blow them up more. However, a few memorable ones are there in sufficient detail "" like the one of the dhobi khana with the temple in the background, or the cemetery with goats resting in the shade.

And of course there are those memorable faces "" the girl carrying mortar, the old woman with glasses held in place by a rubber band, the smart young security guard who is the embodiment of youthful optimism, and the young girl all dressed up to go where hope takes her. Tim, next time blow up at least the last one; it's got sufficient detail.

sub@business-standard.com