My journey through Shivaji Nagar, “The city within a city”

Shivaji Nagar is what most people think of as “a city inside a city”. I recently visited Shivaji Nagar and had to go explore parts of it that I never knew existed. Shivaji Nagar is a whole community by its self. It is a Muslim majority area, and is densely crowded. There are people in every corner of all the streets, even in the slightly less crowded streets. “Commercial Street” is one of the more “modernised” streets in Shivaji Nagar. This street is one of the main shopping areas in Bangalore. Apart from Commercial Street, most places in Shivaji Nagar look as though they’re from a different time. The buildings are old with stains on their walls; the shops are small and tightly packed together, selling things such as vessels, silks, tea, sweets, and several other condiments. The streets barely have any space to walk on and yet cars and busses travel on them.

The streets in Shivaji Nagar branch out into several other streets, some large and some small. I found that even though the place is mostly Islamic, it is rich in different cultures and religions. Apart from the several mosques located on most of the main streets, it has a large and quite famous church right next to Russell Market (one of the biggest markets in Shivaji Nagar), called “St. Mary’s Basilica”, and it also has several temples.

While trying to find my way around Shivaji Nagar, I began talking to a few locals and came to realize how passionate they are towards their community, and home. They seemed to know Shivaji Nagar inside and out, and were very helpful when I asked for directions etc. I met an old man outside a temple and asked him to help me find a few places that I had on a list, and he was so enthusiastic about helping me; I could hear it in his tone of voice. He was polite and quite precise with his facts. He also spoke very good English. After this pleasant encounter, I realized that most people, including myself, have had a completely wrong impression about the people from Shivaji Nagar. I was always told that they would be rude and it would be extremely hard to communicate with them, but that wasn’t the case at all. Almost all the people I did talk to were very polite and helpful and extremely easy to communicate with. But of course, there are always exceptions.

When I began exploring Shivaji Nagar, I was truly amazed at how little I actually did know about the place. Whenever I thought of Shivaji Nagar, I would think, “Commercial Street” and “Russell Market”. After having gone into the depths of Shivaji Nagar exploring any road I could find, I realized how big it really was. It really was like a city within a city. There were old houses, Children going to or coming back from school, people shopping for groceries from the small markets all over, people drinking chai and having conversations with each other etc. The best part was that, people who did live in Shivaji Nagar knew who was new to Shivaji Nagar, or didn’t know the place as well as they did. They would keep coming up to me and my class mate and ask us if we needed something or wanted help to go somewhere. They were very welcoming, although some were not and carried on with the eve teasing.

When I was on Commercial Street, I decided to go into one of the smaller and more deserted streets, and visited a tailor. He was an old man who wore a shirt and trousers, was quite quiet but still very enthusiastic about his work. He was very good and quick with his work too. He offered me tea when I went there, gave me a seat to sit on and immediately started to work on what I had given him. He was quite humble; didn’t charge me too much for the product, and often smiled.

When I think about Shivaji Nagar now, it reminds me of that old man; Old, rusted, polite, colourful (like all the cloth in his stall), and full of surprises. Shivaji Nagar has truly amazed me. It is the hub for most amateur photographers these days due to the rich culture and heritage and all the little surprises people can find. This was my journey through Shivaji Nagar, “The city within a city”.

When I walked through Shivaji Nagar, I immediately took out my camera and started taking pictures. I took pictures of the people, the lights, the various Temples, Churches, and Mosques. I also took recordings of the sounds I heard; people talking, the traffic, dogs barking, music playing from hidden speakers, etc. I moved towards these forms of media because they helped me capture the essence of Shivaji Nagar much more effectively. I could capture what I heard and what I saw around me that grabbed my attention the most.

-          Anjali Sivaraman