Downtown Bangalore Adventures

Holy Trinity Church

The day started with a visit to the Holy Trinity Church, located at the end of MG Road. The 150 years old church is “a redolent of the early garrison town days of Bangalore” as quoted in the city guide aka street directory. A faded pink facade on the outside, whitewashed walls on the inside, pinned on a noticeboard near the entrance to the church were newspaper cuttings, divulging more information about the history of the church.

The centerpiece of the church is a small brass cross standing in front of the only stained glass window in the otherwise simply-furnished church, against a painted wall in sky-blue and a white peace-dove. Rows of sugarcanes lined the aisle while bags of fruits hang from the center of the arches between the pillars. Memorial plagues of brass and marble adorned the walls and pillars of the church. Engraved on them were names of British soldiers, generals and colonels who died in some of the wars fought in India.

A service was in progress as I entered the church, packed with people dressed in their Sunday’s best, singing hymns in Tamil. Women in sarees glittering with gold threads, men in neatly pressed shirts and pants, young ladies in salwars and churidas of all colours, as well as trendy modern fashion, and children in fancy traditional costumes.

A gentleman asked if it was my first time to the church and invited me to take part in the Sunday fair held by the church. “Join us, breakfast is there. We’re all children of GOD.” he said. I thanked him for his kind invitation and took a little stroll around the compound before I carried on with my journey.


MG Road – Brigade Road – Church Street

Next stop, Mahatma Gandhi Road or MG Road as it is fondly called. Brigade Road meets MG Road in the middle and together they formed one of the popular shopping belts in Bangalore. Church Street runs parallel to MG Road up to Brigade Road and is where the restaurants are.

I walked down the whole stretch of MG Road, Brigade Road and Church Street, taking in the sights and bustling of activities in the area. Autos formed up along the main road, waiting to pick up passengers. “Where you going, Ma’am?” they would asked and I would smile and reply, “Here, only.”

Browsed a couple of bookstores, a wide selection of books they have, checked out the restaurants and finally stopped to rest at the Indian Coffee House. A nice cosy little place, a wall-to-wall full length window looked out to the main road. Posters of coffee advertisements hung from the walls, as well as photos of Mahatma Gandhi himself. The waiters are dressed in white traditional Sikh costume with a red sash and wore turbans. As I sipped my coffee, I took out my city guide and planned my next stop.


Commercial Street

Commercial Street is another shopping street. It seems to me that there is much more crowd and buzz here than over at MG Road. I popped into a few stores selling traditional Indian wear, tried out a couple of kurtas, there’s one which I liked, but they do not have my size. The clothes here come only in one piece per colour and design, and usually in larger sizes. Although they do alteration for free, they would only alter the width and length of the top, and not the shoulders. Maybe I’ll be luckier next time.

There are many smaller lanes that criss-crossed Commercial Street. I decided to check it out. I kept the city guide in my bag and from Commercial Street, I turned into one of the lanes. At the end of the lane stood Hotel Asoka and a roundabout that branched off into many other lanes. There, I was brought into another world…

No more were the English-speaking, young pretty people wearing trendy clothes or modern buildings with billboards screaming names like Reebok, Nokia, KFC, or air-conditioned stores selling imported goods. It looked more like a market place, on both sides of the streets were small and dark provision shops, folks peddling foodstuffs, dried goods, household ware, clothes and such.

I counted at least 3 different mosques since I turned off from Commercial Street. Men wore long kurtas and a white head dress while a high proportion of women were dressed in black and some even wore veils over their head. There was a strong feeling that I had ventured into an Muslim area unknowingly. Suddenly, I realized I’m the only foreigner on the street and I stood out among the crowd. It did not help that I was wearing jeans with a bright pink T-shirt and carrying a haversack. In the sea of people, similar to what we get in Chinatown during Chinese New Year, there’s hardly any free space around me. I was surrounded by people and could only move with the flow.

Feeling overwhelmed from all the hustle, I yearn for a cup of tea at the tea board. I had no idea where I was, as I had allowed myself to roam freely in the area. There’s no way I could back track as that would be going against the massive flow of people and I had walked a long way. With my very limited sense of direction, I took chance and turned into an adjoining less crowded lane. From there, I followed my instinct. Nothing seemed familiar, not the buildings, not the shops, not the street names. I could only keep my fingers crossed and keep walking. Finally, I saw it. Hotel Asoka! It must have been my lucky day.


Autos

I had initially wanted to try out one of the restaurants but I had a sudden craving for Zinger burger. After a satisfying dinner at KFC, I went out to the main road to hail an auto. Autos are a convenient and not too expensive way to get around, but they are a nightmare after sunset.

The first auto I approached asked for Rs10 extra on top of meter fare. The subsequent ones asked for Rs100 flat. Finally, one auto agreed to charge by meter but requested that I visit his shop for a visit so that he could get some commission. I agreed and he dropped me off at the shop selling pashmina shawls and art crafts. After we left the shop, he requested me to go to another shop which is “along the way”. He even offered not to charge me for the auto fare and switched off the meter. I gave him two options, to bring me back to the institute and I’ll pay him the fare by the meter as agreed or I would get off immediately. I got off the auto.

Another auto came by and asked for Rs70. We bargained a little and eventually settled for Rs60. It was already dark and I do not know where I was then. I was feeling tired and as long as he bring me back to the institute directly, Rs60 so be it. I should have taken the first offer of Rs10 extra…

After a long day out, I’m glad to be finally back in the safe enclave of the institute and it’s tranquility…