Bangalore Vignettes - Church Street
I visited Bangalore recently after a gap of over eleven years. Naturally, I noticed a lot of changes - both big and small. I hope to share some of these through a series of short blog posts.
The metro entrance at Church Street did not exist when I lived there. I loved the colourful mural that it had been decorated with. It reminded me of Studio Ghibli movies.
Church Street/M. G. Road metro entrance building
Close up of the mural
Another new feature of Church Street was these footpath handrails. Upon looking at them closely I realised that they depicted the game of Rock Paper Scissors!
I didn’t think such a thing would have been possible, but Church Street seems to have gotten even busier! It was always a popular destination but with all the foot traffic that the metro station exit now sends and the many seemingly unregulated street-side vendors, it felt really crowded. Especially in the evenings.
I was sad for many of my favourite old haunts that were now gone, but also happy to experience the ones that were still around. The magazine store from this blogpost was (inevitably) gone. So was the jazz/western classical CD shop that I used to frequent. I was half hoping they’d have found a way to ride the recent vinyl record revival and survived. But the second-hand book store Blossom was still there and doing well. It now has not one, but two new branches on Church Street itself. That place calls for a blog post of its own. The Indian Coffee House had moved from MG Road to Church Street and it was around too! The liveried waiters still serve the usual affordable fare of butter toast, potato cutlets and their signature sweet coffee with a distinctive flavour.