Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Traveling Goldfish Salesman










Enough about gunmen and grenades. One of the things I love about Pakistan is the ingenuity of the people. I still need to take some time and do a photo shoot of all the things they manage to transport by bicycle or donkey cart, because if you don't live in the subcontinent it will just blow your mind. The other day while driving to a friend's house, I saw this guy, the Bicycle Fish Salesman! I couldn't get the best photo because there was just a ton of stuff going on in this scene, but look at the way he's made his bicycle into a traveling goldfish store! You can't see it in this photo, but on the back there's even a large fish bowl with two 8" fish in it.

2 comments:

Smorg said...

Now you've made me wonder what it would be like to be one of those gold fish... sort of floating inside this transparent bag of water. That would be so weird to be traveling around on the ground, do you think? With the immediate surrounding being held up and you aren't being carried around directly. I wonder if the fish realize that the dry world outside of the bag is... dry? ;o)

Heather said...

Hmm good questions. I have no idea how the fish feel inside those little bags. God forbid the fishwala gets into an accident and the bags pop!

I was SO happy to get this photo. My husband was dropping me off to send a friend, and I saw this man on the way. I insisted on stopping, but alas he didn't stop. God was smiling on me that day, because almost an hour later my friend and I found the goldfish man right at the end of her street, which is at least a kilometer from where I had first seen him. I jumped out of the car, obstructed traffic and just had to meet him and get a photo. He wouldn't even accept any money, and insisted I give the 10 rupees to the little boy nearby instead. I happily obliged and left with many shukrias.