FIRST DRAFT : (By, Shruti Anand, Rhea Khanna and Sharanya Aggarwal)

                                          SHIVAJINAGAR REVEALED...

 Fascinating and Motivating- two words that perfectly describes our journey.

We got off the extremely congested, crowded and a noisy bus ride and started off a little cranky and cynical as two out of three of us had to go to Shivajinagar for weeks, over and over again, to research and document it, for a project. So very lethargically we walked, rather strolled, our way to St. Mary’s Basilica church, our first destination.

On reaching we were completely lost and disoriented. We tried searching for a priest or some help, but the atmosphere was so quiet and peaceful we felt like we were intruding. We realized that one of our group members had done detailed research on St. Mary’s Basilica church and had a lot of information gathered. This was extremely helpful. So going back and reading her notes, we got to know a lot about the church.

St. Mary Basilica was built in the year 1638, 17th Century by Fr. Jean Dubois. It is the oldest church in Bangalore. As you enter the church you’ll see mother Mary’s statue erected in front and many people gathered around it to serve their offerings. If you go in the evening you’ll see the entire area lit up with colorful candles and a lovely fragrance of flowers that floats in the air. The church is very calm, serene and has an extremely positive and pleasant aura. The basilica has been built in the Gothic style with arches, ornamental motifs and stained glass windows. Multiple columns and the tall spires of the basilica can be seen from quite a distance. The beautiful stained glass windows were removed during World War II and were subsequently restored in 1947. The one thing extremely interesting about St. Mary Basilica’s church is that one gets to see many different people belonging to different castes, irrespective of their religion, coming here to pray.

Fr. Joseph Naveen Kumar is the current Priest of the church. He knew a lot about the history of this church and enlightened us with the story of how the statue of Mother Mary, at the entrance of the shrine, came to be known as the “Miraculous Statue of Our Lady”. It is believed to have happened in the year 1832, the church was attacked by a few miscreants and everything was destroyed, except this small statue. He told us that when they tried to pull it down, the Britishers struck blind. Soon the police arrived just when the angry mob set fire to the church. The statue thus, miraculously saved, is the one that is placed in an imposing, flower decked, illuminated palanquin taken in procession during the important days of Marian devotion. It is true that for several years even Muslims were in the habit of taking out in solemn procession, the same statue of Our Lady. We also spoke to Father about his life experience and how he became a priest. He told us about how he had to face a number of difficulties regarding the views of his family towards his profession. But after coming to this church, all their questions and misconceptions vanished. “I believe, I was blessed by Mother Mary”, says Fr. Joseph. The church stands in complete contrast to its surroundings. The inside is so quiet and peaceful, whereas, the outside is a complete contrast, full of noise, traffic sounds and the market buzz.

On having learnt about St. Mary Basilica’s church, we decided to come up with some more open ended questions to ask father and perhaps, next time, also ask the visitors and understand their views about the church.

After having visited the church briefly, our next stop was Russell Market.

Russell Market is a famous shopping market in Shivajinagar, Bangalore. It was started in 1927 by Britishers, and was inaugurated in 1933. It is named after the then cantonment’s Municipal commissioner, T. B. Russell. One of the oldest structured markets in the city, Russell Market, was inaugurated by Haji Sir Ismail Sait in 1927. As one of the people we interviewed said that Russel Market is the carbon copy of “Queens Market”, in London.

As we entered the market we were completely mesmerised by the roses available in the most beautiful hues of red, peach, pink, white and yellow. An exotic variety of daisies, lilies and tulips were also found. Our senses were completely intoxicated with the gorgeous colours and the lovely fragrance of the long tube roses that surrounded us. Although having entered the market and having had to stand there for a while, the smell of fruits and vegetables mixed with the smell of fresh meat, sweat and dirt, made our impressions of the fragrance for Russell Market change like the seconds on a clock. We were a bit confused as to where to start, so decided to start with the first shop we saw. The first shop was a flower shop called “Sri Vinayaka Flowerist”, run by Sunder Baba and Raju Baba. Sunder Baba, was a dark complexioned, old, untidy looking man who sat cross-legged on a stool, smoking ‘beedi’. When we tried to approach them in the manner of a student “researching” on a “project”, they seemed to be completely disinterested in non-prospective buyers and the rejection was clearly visible on their faces. So we tried a different approach, that of customers wanting to buy flowers. We bought a beautiful fluorescent orange rose and the fragrance immediately cheered all of us up, putting us in a good mood. The shopkeeper too was satisfied and the agitated expression on his face shifted to a calmer, relaxed and to a much sweeter one. Sunder baba sat in a comfortable position and definitely looked like the owner of the shop. His personality clearly exuded the pride that he felt in his beautiful blossoms. Although Sunder Baba did not know proper Hindi or English that acted as a language barrier, very sweetly he called one of his relatives, Raju Baba, who helped us understanding the history and their life and experiences in Russell Market, so far. He was a little hesitant but eventually opened up and shared their experiences and views of Russell Market. We found out that Sunder baba and his ancestors have been in this business for the past 80 years and 3-4 generations of their family have continued and worked hard on making this colorful flower shop what it is today . He told us about their business routine. They purchase their flowers and other products from the city market and, if given orders, will get the flowers ordered by the customer as soon as possible. Business, according to them is doing pretty well. Their monthly income is approximately Rs.15,000-20,000. The only problem that is troubling them is the lack of parking space, which when discussed with other shopkeeper’s, was the problem with everyone. Since we were running out of questions we decided to move on. With huge smiles and comforting faces we thanked them for their time and continued walking ahead.

Further ahead, on the left, we entered a dry fruit shop. Here we met Mohd Idrees Choudhary, the General Secretary of Russell Market, he was the most helpful and informative person we met that day. What we gathered from his stories was that Russell Market had been established in the year 1927 after the Cantonment’s Municipal Commissioner T.B. Russell. It is a historical market and is one of the major landmarks of Bangalore. Russell Market is the 2^ND largest shop in Asia. It has around 480 shops, selling all types and varieties of fruits, vegetables, fresh meat and toys. On 26^th February 2012, a major tragedy occurred in Russell Market. A huge fire brought down almost 178 shops and thus demolishing major shops of Russell market. Two acres of land had been burnt down to ashes. It is said that the origin of the fire was a short circuit but the shopkeeper’s views were very different. They felt that the politicians had wanted to destroy Russell Market since a long time so as to create a mall but since the shopkeeper’s of Russell Market were adamant and held their ground, the politicians got irritated and figured the only way to get rid of them was to destroy their shops. Although the fire had affected Russell Market immensely, the shopkeeper’s managed to rebuild it and bring it to its current thriving state.

Mohd ji , I think, was more interested to give us information than we were to gather it. The energy in which he was telling us got us more excited and made us ask for more.

He told us that, Russell Market is a very successful market. Most of the shops supply the main supplies for all the 5-star and 7-star hotels. There are food supplies from all over the world and that too of excellent quality. Many shops have regular customers and buyers and even some foreign dealers. While showing us the variety of dates, he was sweet enough to make us taste the expensive and deliciously juicy dates. With mouths full of dates, we started to ask for more questions but he was so excited that he continued on without us even asking him anything.

One very interesting fact that we found out was that if you dig a 3 feet deep hole in the ground, anywhere in Shivajinagar you will find water. Yes! The whole of Shivajinagar has water under it!

After digesting this shocking fact about Shivajinagar, he came down to the problems he was facing. The problems that were faced by the shopkeeper’s were of no electricity. After the fire the electricity supply had been cut off and now the entire Russell Market was surviving on generators. They are now promised that their electricity supply will be resumed the following week, which further calls for huge celebrations. Also the shopkeeper’s have lost some of their customers as the place has become really crowded and congested. Hence there are no more parking spaces and that is affecting their business negatively.

After visiting this place, we realized that there is much more to it than what is actually visible. There are many layers to it and one has to experience this through their senses to peel back all those layers. Shivajinagar has preserved its old world charm inspite of being just a few meters away from modernity. As they say, artists need to have an eye for beauty. We are glad that we could make some efforts in bringing out its best and the fact that we could find a lot more behind its crowded lanes and busy streets. To us, Shivajinagar is compared to an informal city, which is not prominent but has a great impact on the society.