At the Truck Stop
India: on route to Agra or maybe it was somewhere else…2004
It’s rare to see buskers like these with their ‘pet’ animals. I’m guessing they are gypsy men as keeping ‘dancing’ bears used to be common among gypsies where ever they might live. When countries join the EU, keeping dancing bears is outlawed. The gypsies, if they want to continue this line of work, are forced to get a monkey like the man on the right in the photo.
This is a sloth bear and is found all over India. It is noted for its long white muzzle (good for eating termites) and its short hind legs. Poor thing! I feel sorry for it. But it didn’t ‘dance’ and so maybe it doesn’t have too hard a life. (To make bears dance, the gypsies used to make them stand on hot coals or maybe burn their feet with lit cigarettes. )
I was excited to see the men with their animals. It seemed that the past had come alive even if we were stopped on a busy highway for a document check. I gave the photo a retro look. One way to do that is to use a white vignette and use a pink/orange filter in Photoshop.
The bear’s face was in shadow and it wasn’t completly clear what kind of animal it was. In order to emphasize that the bear was a bear I darkened the areas behind its muzzle and lightened the muzzle. The contrast of light and dark brings out the shape of the bear’s head. Now even a cursory glance tells us that this is a bear.