Foot Path Bazaar

Foot path bazaar [market] N K Srinivasan I am an inveterate street-walker of foot paths in Malleswaram ,Bangalore. Malleswaram, as you may know , was one of the inner villages that became the central part of Bangalore city. It is just about 3 km from the Bangalore city railway station,about five kilometers from Vidhana Soudha..…so, it was not the outskirts of the city , but an outer hamlet in those days. Malleswaram is justly famous for its tall trees, especially a long avenue of ‘margosa’ or neem trees and plenty of peepul trees. These trees are seen abundantly near the Ganesha temple, the Malleswara temple , the quaint Malleswaram railway station which still retains the character of a village station…..and the Government boys high school in 18th Cross that marked the outer limit of the village.---Beyond that is the Indian Institute of Science, fondly called ‘Tata Institute” by the locals. The Malleswara temple is a national protected monument—I find a small blue-enamelled metal board at the back entrance.-may be, our mussalman friend Tiger Tippu or his father Hyder Ali visited those places---may be to rest his horses or to plunder the temples…[There are also anecdotes to state that Hyder gave lands to Brahmins and temples near Bangalore..God knows.] With all those trees , granite crags and small hillocks, now barely seen features, Malleswaram was called “kadu malleswaram”—‘forest malleswaram’---now a bustling part of inner city!’--- the “kadu” is barely noticeable for old-time walkers like me. The famous writer R K Narayan made Malleswaram a household name by coining “Malgudi” for his village in novels---malleswaram plus basavanagudi making ‘malgudi’,. The Foot-path bazaar [market] about which I started to write, is a statement of middle-class society of this place—trying to climb into upper middle class or even imitate elite sections of our society, thanks to software industry jobs bringing easy cash into modest neighborhoods..…. Malleswaram was mainly the hamlet for middle class or lower middle class Brahmins who prided on their high learning with penchant for Sanskrit words, intellectual arrogance and musical talents…Yes, Malleswaram Sangita Sabha , which held concerts in Ramamandiram 1

Hall is pretty old—more than 60 years..I used to listen to many masters like Madurai Mani Iyer , TR Mahalingam [flutist] and MD Ramanathan in that hall in the early sixties.! The Sabha was indeed the focus for Sunday evening activities and gossip of most Malleswaram women. Malleswaram still retains the Brahmin culture and tendencies , though people of other communities have increasingly bought apartments here. There was a saying that Malleswaram Brahmin landlords would not let out rooms or houses for minority community…I checked on this ,---this is largely true, they will politely refuse under some pretext….But Nature has its own cruel vengeance on these pious ,orthodox folks; one of my friend , Narayana Iyer, is an austere ,brahmin from Tamil Nadu settled in a narrow lane of Malleswaram for the past fifty years. His ‘bahu’ [daughter-in-law] is a charming, fair complexioned, plumpy Kerala RC [Roman Catholic] girl, brought by his beloved son. The young couple live in the upstairs apartment of his house. Though my friend, Narayana Iyer never climbs the stairs, his wife Visalam makes two trips a day to her son’s apartment to dote on her lovely grand-daughter….Gone are the days of such austerities insisted by Iyer-like Malleswaram old residents. Slowly and surely, Malleswaram is acquiring a cosmopolitan outlook, though not so fast as Koramangala or even RT Nagar.! One finds lot of north-Indian folks, who own small shops, residing here, as well as a sizeable Bengali group which even runs a Bengalee Association with office close to our bazaar Incidentally most of the shops and petty businesses [fancy stores selling trinkets, cosmetic shops, ready-made garments for children and ladies are mainly owned by northies, who have been malleswaram residents for more than fifty years;..their children speak excellent Kannada. Many roadside vendors are from muslim community who own a mosque at the northern end near K G Hospital. Well—I have not yet come to the bazaar and its foot –paths so far. The bazaar proper is a small stretch of about 100 meters [300 feet] called 8th Cross , with one end at 4th main road and the other at link road. The two parallel roads that cut across this 8th cross are Margosa road [with the avenue of Margosa or neem trees still surviving in the polluted air of belching buses that run along] and the Sampige Road… To recall, Sampige road was full of flowering plants once upon a time..brimming from the low compound of bungalows in that road,

2

with Bougainvillas and jasmine flowers....Now there is no tree in that road that exudes any fragrance. The bazaar is not a planned one ,like City Market or Russell market;this just grew, like most things in Malleswaram.That is the charm of this place. This stretch is full of small shops, one Devi [Goddess Parameswari] temple, one bank [State Bank of India’s big branch office],,a children school at one end and large cloth stores including brand shops like Raymonds, Arrow,Sculler…What is more , there are couple of homeopathy medicine stores, one Ayurvedic medicine shop, several rich saree shops and photo studios. This stretch is a marvel in convenience shopping which no mall in the USA or Walmart type store can match. There are two opticians and two large watch shops—very fancy ones. There is a famous coffeebeans shop for fresh-ground coffee and also serving a hot cup of coffee at times. Of course, you find a couple of shops selling ‘pooja’ materials for religious functions with flower sellers at front and also two shops of ubiquitous stainless steel vessels and plastic wares. You feel tired and want to eat something---the usual idli/vada and dosa fare--there are several small food stalls, selling these and also other delicious modern fast foods like local brand pizzas and sweet corn. Of course, there is a medium size hotel --- ---for the general populace, as the name states…---nothing fancy about this hotel..just the old style Udipi restaurant wherein servers [waiters] still serve food clad in native cotton dhoti and coffee in steel tumblers and tabara [flat saucer].. This hotel is one of the noisiest places, like most restaurants are, and crowded on week ends. People even wait for 10 to 15 minutes to get a place in the ‘family room’ –a dingy small room with poor ventilation. Yet this is the favorite place in 8th Cross ,for young and old. You can meet your old friends or even class mates there, waiting behind your back! There are small food-carts making chat-style food stuffs with only a few buckets of water and a gas burner, thronged by youngsters in scooters. You walk a few yards down the road, across the Sampige Road. You will find village-style hardware store, with pots, pans and ropes hanging from the hooks. On the floor, you find lot of mud pots, clay choola [cook-stove ] and even a small clay money box for children! Next to that store, you will find a modern stationery store selling text books of all schools, for state/CBSE/ICSE syllabus. There is a cart peddler with china ware, cups and saucers and glass tumblers. You 3

find some youngsters –real pirates ---with a small folding table, with CD’s of latest movies stacked on. There are a few bakery shops selling cakes and pastries here. I also like to mention the ‘juice shops’ with various fruit juices squeezed before your eyes;…ignore some flies that may occasionally get into the electric mixer and add to the flavour of the juice. The latest competitor to the fruit juice vendors is the sugar-cane juice seller--gone are the days when sugar cane was crushed by a large handoperated crank by a boy.; now they have sleek electric crusher in which small pieces of cane are fed…what is more, the seller adds ginger/neem/ mint flavors to the frothy juice. There is one printing press for quick printing of cards and wedding invitations right near the temple. And a couple of lawyers and a dermatologist on the first floor offices.There is also a clinic with “cowurine therapy” sign! Sorry friend---I was carried away by the density of business going on in the shops in 8th Cross that I have not told you anything about the foot –path vendors. The business acumen and resourcefulness of these vendors beat me. They would excel any Harvard Business School MBA drawing more than a million rupees a year. They open their footpath shop with a few large bags of goods. The ready-made garment fellows bring small steel frames and fix them up in a few minutes. Quickly they hang a few hundred salwars and overcoats for ladies in a fine display that would be the envy of Fifth Avenue [New York] shops. Close by you find another steel rack buttressed against a wall with hundreds of ladies hand bags or chappals [sandals]…You may hear all the brand names mentioned!…Note that they fold their foot-path shops at night around 9 PM in a matter of a few minutes and retire to their hovels in another part of the city. Incidentally , you notice a mobile coffee-walah who carries a large thermos with hot premixed coffee; the jug has a pump -- he presses a piston and the brew flows into a small plastic cup---just for Rs 3/only. The shop keepers and vendors get their hot drink at their doorstep every two hours. I admire the more innovative small fellows with a sling bag selling socks, match-boxes and moth balls right on the foot path, spreading their goods on the path itself or on the edge of the asphalt road. Note

4

that the road is only about 40 feet wide and gently slopes down from the SBI bank end to the link road, running west to east. There is more action in this stretch than you can imagine. A row of women sit with their baskets of fruits [oranges, bananas, papaya and so on], often sharing one rusty scale [ balance] between them. Some launch their business career with their bicycles---in the luggage ‘carrier’ at the back; they tie up a small basket or flat bamboo tray and fill it up with fruits. Then there is a cheerful youngster selling a soapbubble blower, and another toy seller with a small helicopter which lifts itself up, and another old man selling whistles and drums for the past fifty years, and another youngster selling bamboo flutes for the future musicians for just ten rupees.…Wide –eyed children are riveted on these vendors while their mothers are busy bargaining with the cart peddler selling bananas, guavas and pomegranates. My heart goes to the small girls who are learning the marketing skills on the job here---- standing with a few bunches of green leafy vegetables [soppu] in hand and selling them for just two rupees. They stand for well over four hours, picking up the vegetables from their parents in the side lane. They sometimes display small lemons -- a pack of four of them in their small hands-- for rupees five.…that is all their stock at that moment. The traffic policeman comes wielding a small stick to drive out these foot path vendors.---nowadays, it is often the police-woman too. It is against the law to do selling in the foot-path of ‘Incredible India”. The vendors pack their goods into their bags at the sight of white uniformed traffic cop and scurry into the side-lanes, like some cockroaches crawling under your cot…..After a few minutes , the police men drive away in their motor bikes…the young vendors return quickly with their bags and goods to precisely the same spot on the foot path and start selling as before…this drama goes on almost every day once or twice…what a nice game by our cops.! The most interesting part is the bargaining power of women who come there to shop. The prices for slippers may start at Rs 200 for a pair, and after ten minutes of haggling , the price drops down to Rs 50/-. Don’t feel sorry for the vendor; he still makes 100% profit because the slipper costs only Rs 25. The market forces operate inexorably in this foot path too…On a rainy day, the fruit seller and the flower seller do quick business and sell at half the price and close the shop.Again, if it is a festival day, when the 5

road is close to motor traffic from the Margosa Road ,[it is a one-way road]; they mark up the prices 300%. Once I paid for a meter long flower garland nearly Rs 60 when it usually costs only Rs 20/=… The most striking thing is that the foot path vendors sell their wares unmindful of moving people and cars /autos/scooters blaring their horns and hurtling down the slope the whole day…..What about the air pollution on their lungs! Who cares! [A depressing fact about this stretch is that people throw plastic coffee cups, bags , cartons and other stuff on the edge of the foot path and they remain till next morning…who cares!] I found strange, exotic things available on the foot –path ---sometimes latest technology gadgets too from China. You can get L’Oreal perfume for ten rupess. I found an emergency lamp of LCD bulbs for just Rs 100 [with a small rechargeable battery inside] which you cannot find in an electronic shop!. Once I found a nail cutter of special design for just Rs 30/= [less than a US dollar] marked: “Made in Korea”—which Korea ,I wonder. I pay the vendor that amount and move on because there is a car honking behind me! You are planning a wedding for your daughter….Just spend a couple of hours and pick up all the things you need in this stretch –called 8th Cross ,Malleswaram. You are new to Bangalore and setting up a home; visit the 8th Cross and pick up things. You are a bachelor searching for food stuff and sundry items, walk around 8th Cross! You are a small boy or girl or business man, start your career here.! -----------------------------------------------------------------

6