A Bar –
Literally you are never far from a Bar in Bangalore. There always near you, and wherever you are in Bangalore) you can always walk to your nearest bar, and a good thing is they are open till 11.30 officially and, till around 2-3 unofficially (well a few of them at least, you just have to knock at the shutter and pass the money under it and magically a bottle of the liquor you wanted appears). But the best thing is the concept of ‘Standing Peg’, you can very well stand at the bar and have a peg then and there at the bar. You can get water, cold drink (soft drink actually, there is nothing cold about them), muudi, cucumber, and the all time favourite here ‘Achaar’ and ‘Rasam’ complimentary. They see activity from morning 9 o clock to night 11:30. If you are wondering who goes in a bar at morning 9 you should see the Autowallahs here, morning before they start their shift they stop over at a bar for a quick drink, and boy it is quick! They empty one whole quarter of cheap whisky in one glass, top up with water and gulp it down in one breath and go off to work (What was I doing at the bar at 9 o clock seeing this is a different story altogether).
The bar guy will be very happy to chat with you and even offer you his lunch if you are hanging around at that time and will say Hi the next time you see him. Unlike Delhi where the guy will ask – ‘Ke chaahe bhaai’ after you put the money in his hand or like Kota where they pass booze through a Iron grill.
A Bakery –
They are a good invention of Bangalore, and they offer nothing baked and most will not even have an oven. But they offer you a lot instead, bun samosa, bun butter jam, lime, tea, coffee and a myriad other things, that too very cheap and are a favourite hang outs of smokers. I have had many of my breakfasts, lunch and dinner at these bakeries.
Entire Generations (well, atleast entire college generations) grew up eating at these bakeries. They are the first choice everytime you get that small pang of hunger, though it's not uncommon for people to have their breakfast/lunch/dinner here.
They have come to my rescue to wheneover I wanted to eat after my regular night outs in exam time, as I like to say to myself that I used to study in night time in exams. We used to wait for the clock to strike 5 in the morning to have our dinner. Oh I forgot to tell you that these bakeries are open from morning 5 to night 11. And were (yes probably not so anymore) the favourite hangouts of our college people.
I sometimes think about franchising these and taking it to other cities ;-)
A Traffic Cop –
Omnipresent, Ubiquitous, Perennial are few of the Adjectives that can be used to describe them. Paunchy, Moustached and permanently hungry for money are the others. When I went to Goa the first thing I noticed was no Traffic Cops! Quite a change from Bangalore. Not only are they are at all Traffic lights (which are aplenty themselves) but they are in the middle of roads, at the start of turns, at end of flyovers, in the middle of nowhere actually. If you have a bike and also the habit of taking it out in the night you will very soon have a brush with them. And it doesn’t matter that you are guilty of any offence or not you will have to pay them something. You can be booked for not carrying DL, PUC, RC Book (Common terms for you if the cops keep catching you). Drunk driving or Jumping red light is hell. But if you didn’t do anything like that you will still be booked for something like not having ‘Chunni Guard’ (yes you heard me right), incorrect size of number plate, Noise Pollution, Dirty Rear Glass (in case of a car) or my personal favourite – Dangerous Driving, they can’t prove this is not important but more important is that you can’t disprove it.
Either way you have to give them some money. Though that probability decreases drastically if you know Kannada and can talk endlessly till they get bugged of you.
A Pub –
Don’t get me started on these. Bangalore has been aptly described as the Pub City and I have heard that Bangalore has most pubs in the country. But anyways I don’t wanna go and on about this but I will so I shut up here.
A Shop that sells ‘Hot Chips’ –
I have always wondered about how can keeps all their chips hot every time; but that’s immaterial right now. What is material is that they are everywhere in Bangalore, they are Bangalore’s counterparts to all the Namkeen shops in North. And they sell South Indian equivalent of Namkeens.
How many people actually eat these things is again a mystery to me.Because I have never seen a single customer at them. Except probably my friend Ashutosh who used to buy Banana chips from here to take it to Lucknow as a Delicacy from Bangalore.
Some sort of ‘Sagar’ –
There is a Shanthi Sagar, a Neel Sagar, a New Sagar and even a Blue Sagar here , and myriad of other Sagars here in Bangalore. They are South Indian Restaurants serving all types of cuisines actually (Udupi, North Indian, Chinese,Chaats, etc etc) but all with a South Indian touch. And of course a ‘Sagar’ in their name.
Most of them are the self service, quick eat, fast food type, but some them do have service.
But among those who do, they really have a commendable service. There are different people to take orders, to give orders, to bring food and to take food from your table and they are actually dress coded. And all in all they do have very fast if not courteous service.
Someone who is drinking coffee with an id tag around his neck –
Pretty self explanatory. Bangalore has lots of IT companies (big and small) which make it mandatory for their employees to wear ID Tags, and people here love coffee and hence the above sight.
Some ‘Andhra Style’ Restaurant –
Sometimes I wonder if they are more ‘Andhra Style’ restaurants in Bangalore then probably they are in Andhra Pradesh itself. But anyways they are aplenty in Bangalore, and every fifth Restaurant in Bangalore will turn out to be an ‘Andhra Style’ one. Biryanis aside they are a plenty of other Andhra food which is quite famous in Bangalore, mutton ghee roast, sholay kabab etc are a few of them. Why they are so much in Demand in Bangalore is still a mystery to me.
A ‘Cafe coffee day’ –
They are like bloody ‘Chaai kee thadi’ here in Bangalore.
They have built CCDs (Cafe Coffee Days) in every nook and corner of Bangalore. In busy places like MG Road they are like 5 of them. Sometimes you will have to wonder which CCD to go to; they are more than one which qualify for ‘the nearest’. There are CCDs, CCD Express, CCD Fresh & Ground and newest edition CCD Square. And they are Bangalore Junta’s favourite hangout.
And yes somebody from ‘Ramaiah’ –
Oh yes! From Nelamangla to Whitefield, from Bannerghtta to Devanahalli they are present everywhere. Wherever you go in Bangalore you can bump into them, whether you go to Discs, Pubs or late night eating Joints like Empire or whether it’s the Airport or the Railway station. They are in IT companies, in Ice Cream parlours, you can bump into them at Petrol Pumps, Queues at Multiplexes, and you name it, any part of Bangalore they are there.
