After getting down the bus and squeezing our way through the
hustle bustle of Shivajinagar, we found ourselves at Commercial street, a
street which is any girls eden. A place where you can buy shoes to cars, it’s a
place where shops have been setup since the time of the British raj. Entering
such busy streets with whispers, cars, products all around I saw some
hesitating yet noisy welcoming faces, whispers and shouts of vendors and people
creating soundsscapes on the busy street. Footsteps of people walking down the
streets which were just showered with the unexpected showers of Bangalore,we
came across Mr Satish who has been a vendor of night gowns on commercial street
for the past 30years. He said that back then commercial street was not that
commercial, it wasn’t the same as we see it today, and this reason affected its
sister streets in the same neighborhood.
Shops that date right back to 1869, KC Krishnachetti
jewellers set up their shop on commercial street back then and were the first
to do so. Today they are run by their 9th generation of the family
and is a corporate run business model.
Moving along I met one of the most interesting person I have
ever come across, as I was treading along Jeweller’s street I came across a
trophy shop, it had old Victorian interiors and an old man sitting right
alongside the counter lost in tranquility of his Tamil newspaper. At first I
was afraid of meddling with his afternoon peace time. But I went ahead and
asked him whether I could chat with him and ask him about the vicinity. He was
overwhelmed by the fact that somebody actually came up to him and asked him
something more than just trophies. From the very first moment he was enticed
about the fact that I was from a school of art and design and was keen to know
more about it. His shop had a pale white shade and there were cracks all along
the wall, on asking him I came to know that his shop was seven decades old and
that it was a family run business.
The fact that amazed me was that he being 75 years old, was
a retired professional chartered accountant who still practices it in his free
time, runs his father’s trophy business as well as ran an old age home in the
locality of Shivajinagar. By this time we both had become comfortable talking
to each other and this was the time that he offered me to show his house. So he
immediately locked down his shop, the sound of the creaking iron doors echoed
down the whole street.
We walked through populous and narrow streets of Shivajinagar
and finally arrived upon a majestic building gleaming with its old yet
magnificent architecture. The house had a old Victorian style look where as the
interiors were very Indian. He told me how his father & his uncle had
purchased the house in 1913 and then just like any old folk tale, how because
of some dispute his father and his uncle divided the house in two parts with 12 pillars on one side of the house and
4 on the other. The house was 100 feet in length and 40 feet in breath, with
the lambency of the beautiful chandelier distributing the suns ray in all
directions.
Moving on, with slow step trying to capture each and every
detail of the streets in my memory, wandering around looking for people to talk
to, trying to make instant connections. I entered a shop a tailoring shop of
Mrs. Hseem Taj, an independent and a very confident lady, whose main objective
behind setting up this shop was to be financially independent and to do
something for her children, for her the developing Bangalore was the reason she
was allowed to set up her own shop, for her turning of Bangalore into a global
city made their life more easier and lessen down the restrictions. Again I was
in the busy street gazing at mannequins dressed up in different variety of
bridal wears, with colours enveloping the whole streets, and just then I began
to experience the most amazing thing…raindrops. I was standing under a huge
titan building and just then it started drizzling, I gazed towards the sky and
saw an enormous black cloud, it seem that a huge smoky black monster is trying
to swallow the whole street, it frightened the earthly creatures to such a
large extent that they started running and looking for shady place to save
themselves, cars zooming on the lanes creating chaos and there I stood calm and
peaceful, enjoying every single drop dropping on me and evoking all my six
senses. Just when I was out from my imaginary world my gaze settled upon a man
standing right across the street under an ice candy shop, I approached him had
a talk with him for about half an hour came to know that he is a habitant of
Assam and came here to Bangalore 10 years ago to find a job, he had seen
Bangalore growing with his own eye. Remembering his earlier days in Bangalore,
language barrier was one of the difficulties he faced but now according to him
as many people are settling here from all over the place most of them can
communicate in English and as well as in Hindi. Comparing Bangalore with his
hometown, it is much safer and secure here and even during the nights the cases
of robbing and mugging are relatively low. And due to these reasons of security
and pleasant weather a person never wishes to leave this city. Bangalore city
nurture and satisfies the needs and demands of every single soul stepping on it,
and eventually convince them to stay here forever.
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