Chowk area in Bangalore
Hungry after 1030 pm, feeling nowhere to go and a light purse? The Chowk area adjoining Russel Market in the Bangalore’s Cantonment Area aka Shivajinagar is where you will find food well past midnight. If you are a non-vegetarian, all the better. There are plenty of eateries – roadside and restaurants alike – that serve up biryani, kushka, rotis, sheekh kababs, etc.
One might ask the question – who are the customers who frequent this place? Well, auto drivers, garage owners, gujli employees, students, late night film goers etc. are regular customers of the many hotels and restaurants that dot this place.
This area is also an hothouse of unrest during times of ‘communal tension’. As a result, it is one of the first areas that feels the heat of a Sec 144 clampdown. Not that its taken too kindly, though.
Yours truly was there on Sunday night and could take only a couple of pictures, an activity that aroused suspicion amongst many there. In fact, I was not allowed to take pics of the kabab stalls that line up the galli next to the beef market. This, inspite of me assuring them that I was just a lowly author and not from either the Commercial Taxes Dept. or from the BBMP!
Here’s Pasha who does good business selling jasmine flowers since, as he says, his ‘bachpan’. He takes great pains to tell me all about the flower and its seasonality. The flowers that are arriving in Bangalore these days are artificially grown. Wait till the rains come, he says, when the prices will fall to such an extent that a kg will go for Rs 5 to 10/-. How will he manage then, I ask? Oh, I’ll go door to door, he assures me, flashing a smile followed with ‘Saab, chai peeyenge?’
This is Mohammed who sells varieties of curd(yoghurt) and churns up lassi by the bucketful. How’s business, I ask? ” Sab Allah ki meherbaani”, he says, looking skywards.
Here’s the landmark lamp-post that indicates the Chowk area. You can see the famous Empire Hotel behind it.
One more well known Hotel.
Facing it is the Bangalore Beef Market, established in 1932!
Nice post and pics. I’ve eaten in this area.. the food’s pretty good too.. :-)
Nisho,
My post does not do much justice to the wealth of material that can be written about Shivajinagar. I have therefore tried to do a writeup on that specific ‘chowk’ area. However, my enthusiasm dimmed when I was not allowed to take pics!
Thanks for your comment & reading, though!
Cheers,
Ravi
Ravi,
A moble camera suits good here.
For all good people of socity, please don’t let yourself down by going to such a place, where all Non-Veg is cooked and served, it is really bad to see how openly one is appreciating this place.
It is not in good terms to go at such a place, I am not saying this because all dirty Muslims prepare the food there, but because of the fact that they kill animals and don’t know the meaning of life.
Our heart get hurt whenever we see sheeps in the market, and to the mind it comes out see this poor creature in this world, who is exploited and killed by man.
There should be law that if you kill a animal, you will get same punishment as you get when you kill an human being, but again not a hanging.
I don’t know about the rest of the community that frequents bangalore.metblogs.com, but I do feel quite offended by the comments from BUYCOTT_IT.
The intolerance shown towards non-vegetarians and muslims in the post is just amazing. This is clearly hate speech, and is probably best removed from this site.
BTW – congrats to Ravikumar for an interesting article.
buycott_it , You loook childish.
@buycott_it: thanks for your reading and expressing your sentiments. however, at the simplest, you really need to get your head checked – while you feel hurt, sympathy & pain for an animal that is mostly bred for dining, you show bigotry & hatred for humans?
@kanishka: over here, everybody is free to express their opinion and point of view but you’re right, *intolerance & hatred* will certainly not be encouraged!