Cubbon Park

Goodbye Garden City



Salaam. Vandanegalu.

It's time to say goodbye to daily photographs on this blog. Over the last 3 years, during my second innings in this city, I have seen more of the city than during my two and a half decades long first innings. That is thanks to a hobby called photography that I discovered along with thousands of other foot-soldiers of the digital camera brigade.

Work is taking me to Mumbai, for a second innings there. This blog will now be updated only during my visits home and I'm hoping that it will be often.

In Mumbai, the city that's always on the move, I'm not sure if I'll be clicking as often as I did in Benglur. But if I find the time to click pictures, they will be posted here at

Mumbai Paused

Mekhri Underpass

Benglur Walls. Painting the new anti-film and political poster look.

Mekhri Underpass

Benglur Walls. The new look.

Church Street

Forget Benglur's Mains and Crosses. This is a great place to discover new things and lose your way: At any of the second hand book shops in the MG Road area.

Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple Road

Breakfast time at Nammoora Patashaale!

To discover the real India, Gandhi asked us to go to the villages. And luckily for us in Benglur, we don't have to go far. The tentacles of the city spread across and around villages and the Hallis became Nagars and Towns, with pockets that still retain the city's old roots. For example, this is the school at Gavipuram Guttahalli.

Rest House Crescent

The weather was classic Bangalorean. The smell of last evening's rain filled the air as workers dug up yet another narrow stretch. There was a cool breeze, warm afternoon sunshine filtering through tall trees, slow-moving cars looking for that elusive parking space, a school girl on her bicycle exchanging a love note with a boy from another school, well-dressed executives reluctantly rushing back to work after a large lunch and the smell of marijuana floated in from under the thick foliage of the Rest House Crescent Park. All this and more was happening on the Rest House Crescent Road on a Thursday afternoon but Mr Mazumdar was busy in his own world. He sat on the pavement outside an old Bangalore home, sketching and preserving the building's little details on paper, before it disappeared. He told me that he has been doing this for 19 years now.

HKP Road (Broadway)

After school, Aslam Tabrez helps his father, who runs the Ramadan period Kabab stall outside Shivajinagar's Beef Market.

S C Road

Sunbathing.

There are days in Benglur when you can have all four seasons during the course of a day. And here's a man enjoying a brief spell of summer.

Minerva Circle

Beer of Benglur

Meanee Avenue/Ulsoor Lake

Which Nallah? What Drain? Series.

It takes a brave heart to step in to the primordial sludge that fills the Gowri-Ganesha immersion tank carved out of the Ulsoor Lake on the Meanee Avenue, Kensington Road and AM Road intersection.

See the full Which Nallah? What Drain? Series here.


Indian Road Romeos and Juliets, the group for street photography lovers on Facebook is having an interesting challenge called 'Emotion on the Street' this coming week. Click here for more details.