BANGALORE: Some years ago, clicking a picture in front of the monumental Vidhana Soudha was on every tourist’s list. A guide would walk you through the road narrating the history of the building, its significance and the story behind its architecture. But the highlight of the visit to Vidhana Soudha was the picture you took in front of it. Photographers would compete with each other to be the one to click your picture. You could cross the road and take the picture and the photographers would make it look like you are holding the monument in your hands.Take a walk down that road today and the first thing that strikes you is the ongoing Metro construction on that road. There are barricades right in the middle of the road. And these barricades divide the road into two making one side completely invisible from the other side. In one corner near Vidhana Soudha, huddled together, sitting with printers bought from Burma Bazaar, holding photo albums containing photographs of tourists, are the very same photographers. They sit there all day looking for people interested in clicking their picture in front of the building but they say that since the metro construction work began, there are hardly any tourists. Basavaraj, one of the photographers, came to the city 15 years ago from Gulbarga. He came in search of work and chose to be a photographer. “Earlier people used to get off at the bus stop and there were many tourists who came to see the Vidhana Soudha. Now, people drive past the Vidhana Soudha without even stopping in front of it. There is no space for parking and no space on the road to stop and click a picture,” he says.The tourist hot spot has become completely unrecognisable. Guides take the tourists to Lal Bagh, the Visveswaraya Musuem and Cubbon Park instead of the Vidhana Soudha. For these photographers, there is a substantial loss of revenue. “With some difficulty, we manage to find around fifty people in one day. Sundays are better,” he says. Out of thirty three photographers, today, there are about fifteen photographers only and they earn about `150 in one day. Thammaiah, another photographer points out that many photographers have migrated to Mysore to find work in front of the Mysore palace.Tourists today get their picture clicked far away from the main building. The only pictures that can be clicked owing to the lack of space are what the photographers call the ‘side view’ pictures which have one side of the building visible in the background. Despite the compromise and optimism that it will all get better once the metro work is completed, they continue to ask passers by if they are interested in clicking the once famous ‘Vidhana Soudha picture’
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