Diamonds in a Vegetable Market (1992)

• 76%
• 1992
• Nilita Vachani

Sellers crowd India's inter-state bus terminals, selling wares as variegated as their own life stories. From foodstuffs and necklaces to juicers, general knowledge books, pills and potions. The list is endless, the items cheaply priced, often useless. The work is hard, the buses overcrowded, the days long and relentless. The sellers know that it is not the product that sells but their performance. And so the aisle of the bus transforms into a stage where the sellers are the players. Nurtured by fantasies of Bollywood, these actors who will never be, briefly hold the limelight and eke out a living.