It was a fine Saturday afternoon on January 19, 2019. I was part of an internship program with the first ever company I was going to join fresh out of college. Needless to say, I was pretty bored. So I decided to walk around the area, explore the streets, and pass some time with street photography.

I found this construction worker quite soon, as the site was pretty much just beside my place. He seemed curious as to why I was clicking a picture of him out of the blue.

After I had taken the picture I went to him and showed him what I had captured. And out of everything he could have said to me, he goes —

“Bhaiya, aap akhbar wale ho kya?” (Brother, are you from some newspaper?)

I explained as best I could that I was clicking pictures of interesting things and people. At my response he looked at me odd, and asked me, “Kya mai aapko dilchasp laga?” (Did I seem interesting to you?)

Being the introvert I used to be back then relative to now, I didn’t know how to reply to that. So I just nodded and changed the subject and asked him about the work he was doing.

He was part of a group of seven people who were currently working on the site, pouring concrete. They had just finished work for the day and were leaving to go back home. He lived nearby, so he was just sitting there. He told me he would smoke a bidi (a cheap type of hand-rolled cigarette) after work most days. Then he would head home.

After a couple of hours, I came back, having taken enough photos and having walked quite a bit. I was editing the pictures that night when I remembered the moment with this person. I seemed impossible that I was the same person who talked to acomplete stranger on the streets like that. When on the first day of my internship, I was close to stuttering when another fellow asked me my name. He was a complete stranger too.

I may be wrong about this. But I am quite sure that because I had the camera in my hand, something I felt relaxed with, it let me bypass the introvert filter. Even for a small moment.

---

You can check out more pictures from this evening here.