Malleswaram Railway Station is not merely a railway station: it is a station of mind and memories, of childlike wide-eyed wonder, of teenage meandering, adult and eld nostalgia. It is the stuff memoirs are made of.
Little about the Malleswaram station has changed in its relationship with me over the last 30 years or so. The gigantic trees, which have absorbed the humongous amounts of choking smoke seem rooted in time with their lungs still intact.
The only perceptible change is the architecture of the station building which now sports a more “modern” look and the platform which was one long stretch of sand and small stones is now a concrete aberration.
Malleshwaram railway station has an experience of entering an entirely new world. In many ways, it still stands as one of the few remnants of the spirit of Bygone Bangalore, an experience which is lost forever and lingers only in memory. It reminds me of days when time wasn’t at a premium and you could still find joy in doing Nothing. It is also the station where I boarded the very first train of my life, a monstrous steam engine that threatened to flatten me as it chugged slowly into the station.
The stretch of passenger shelter roofs is but a recent construction. Trees once stood there and we’d stood, sat, and frolicked under them with cricket paraphernalia, frisbee, chips, and roasted nuts. My high school and college days saw me warm the cold stone benches with hours of reading time. Evenings saw couples whisper sweet nothings not to mention the other unmentionable things they did to each other. It was also the place where my corrupt and depraved friends smoked, chewed on and spit out zarda paan and when it was sufficiently night, sneaked beer down their throat. It wasn’t the “age” to do all those things, our elders repeatedly cautioned us but that precisely was where the fun lay, Malleswaram railway station was our benevolent facilitator.
This facilitator discriminates against none: today I see the same experiences but through the antics, behaviour of others. Believe me when I say the place has its own silent method of enforcing a quaint sort of discipline on its visitors. The said antics and behaviour in all my hallowed years is almost consistent: it never gets out of hand, the younger visitors never cross the line of public decency and older visitors who look at this nod their heads with the typical tut tut tilt while guys my age mentally delight in these and want to join, but cannot. So, carry on boys!
This entry will be incomplete if I omit mentioning Ramanna’s idly shop. I’ll not dwell on the great taste of the food he serves there but on how his shop has become intertwined with the Malleswaram Railway Station Experience itself. His menu is severely limited: idlis, vadas, khara bath, and shavige bath (vermicelli for the uninitiated). Friendships were made and broken, conspiracies to murder villainous politicians hatched, strategies to help each other during examinations carefully worked out, plots to ensnare nubile young things discussed… Ramanna’s eatery fuelled all of these.
Last weekend saw me visit the Northside hospital right opposite the railway station. I’d some spare time on hand that I initially spent cursing the April sun assaulting me. I entered the railway station more to find relief from the heat than with any poetic yearning for nostalgia. To my surprise, it brought forth this entry.
Cross-posted in Desicritics.
Tags: Chronicling the City, General, Society & Culture
Where do you live in Bangalore? I used to see the Malleswaram railway station everyday for almost 15 years… It still holds a special place in my heart - though I haven’t been there lately. My schooling happened in Malleswaram and that is why I get all nostalgic when it is brought up… though I returned to Bangalore a couple of years ago.
hi nilagriva
I live in Bannerghatta road but used to frequent MVM railway station in my ahem! younger days
omg, this is such a surprise! i stay like 500 metres from there and and my folks named me sandeep too! cheers.
By the way, do you remember the Anjaneya swamy temple close to the railway station. I too did a post on this a couple of weeks back. Maybe its all getting nostalgic
Truly a wonderful post with a nice collection of pics…….I went back to the Mvm Rly station for a few minutes and my day is made!!!!
Thanks!!!!
Sandeep, thanks for the wonderful pictures. Nostalgia trip for me too. Roughly a decade and half ago, me and buddies used to cycle to the place on lazy sunday afternoons from the hostel at the Tata Institute, a.k.a IISc . Not many trains used to pass by. It was just a quaint, old-world sort of place, as you rightly said, and that was its chief attraction. Sometimes we went right down to navrang and ate junkfood from one of the many eateries around, then to Malleswaram station for no particular puprose, then to 8th Cross to “catch some color”, if you know what I mean.
Malleswaram, with its well-laid out, tree-lined roads, was such a nice area then. The definition of middle-class Bangalore. But probably out of the reach of all but the well-healed, now. When I left the city, I dreamt of going back and buying a house there someday. (Well, to be truthful, Sasashiv Nagar was my first choice
But been to Malleswaram recently, and don’t like what I see. Yes, you can still catch plenty of “color” on 8th Cross and Sampige Road if you have the inclination to, but I bet you can’t stand the crowds. Humongous. If Bangalore is bursting at the seams, Malleswaram is exploding from all sides. There is not even standing room.
By the way, you once had a nice pictorial series called Chronicling the City, if I remember correctly. It was good. You should do it again. I know though it takes effort and expense. Malleswaram market, and Gandhinagar in Basavanagudi I believe are full of photo opportunities.
Sandeep M,
wow! You live right next to paradise!
Praveen,
Yeah, I do remember the temple. Never set foot there even once but for someone who’s lived in MVM for 28 years, I can’t afford to not know it
RR,
That roughly sums up what I used to do, too. There’s a whale of difference between the MVM of then and now: bursting at seams because in the place of 1 large house we have 20 flats but sadly, the total area of MVM remains the same.
>>By the way, you once had a nice pictorial series called Chronicling the City, if I remember correctly. It was good. You should do it again. I know though it takes effort and expense.
I still do, but had kept it in the backburner for obvious reasons. This post on MVM Railway station is also part of the Chronicles.
Sandeep,
Do u mind if I save these pics and used one or two later at some stage? BTW, these are v. lovely pics.
RS,
Sure, go ahead.
Hello
Never thought you live in Bangalore
Next time the unwashed commies of bangalore have
a meeting or program
will remember to invite you…
Regards
[...] Sandeep has redesigned his site. He is also maturing as a writer. Look at his lovely post on Malleswaram Railroad Station. I cannot visit India, but I can see it through Sandeep’s eyes, and cherish it. Posted at 5:07 PM | | [...]
Glancing at the snaps was going down the memory lane. I lived (rather born and brought up at 5th Cross, Malleswaram, the corner house at the junction of 4th Main). As a child, the fancy was to watch the trains passing by. The railway track was just off the pit colony with the stone over bridge to Sri Rampuram and Nagappa Block.
Well those days (i.e. I remember as a 3-year-old kid in 1950), there were two tracks, one metre guage (to Guntakal and Poona) and the other to Chikkaballapur and onwards to KGF and Bangarpet. It was truly romantic (not the tinsel screen romance of hero and heroine dancing around the garden) to see those chugging stea locos. Some of the prominent trains were the Poona Express and Secunderabad Mail. The passanger train to Tumkur that used to leave in the evening and return the next day was unique. The engine (loco) used to haul the train in the reverse direction. Perhaps there was no loco turning bridge at Tumkur! Hence it used to be in “reverse gear”.
As for Malleswaram Railway Station, I wish that vintage wrought iron long chair with the words MSMR still exists in the waiting hall outside the booking window. It was a tiny tile-roofed station. As a tiny tot scholar of Malleswaram Shishu Vihar, my teachers Keshavmurthy, Thirumalamma and Laitamma had taken the entre school for an outing to the station in 1954. We were told why there is a gap at the fishplate between two rails. Perhaps that was my first ever lesson in science: Heat expands metal.
Opposite the temple was a Krishna Temple of our community managed by Kallianpur family. During Gokulashtami, ten day long bhajans in the evenings were regular features. During those days, I used to accompany my grand aunt Leelamami and patenal aunt Lalithakka to the Krishna temple not for the bhajans but to watch the trains. I used to run upto the engine, be it the NG or the MG train, watch the steam being released, couple of people from across the station coming to fetch a bucket of hot water and all that, As for me, I would ask the driver to pass me a roll of grease! Another fascination was to watch the pointsman opening the signal lever to down the signal. The one towards Yeshwantapur was behind Cluny Convent and in the other direction of City Station, it was just before the Srirampuram Bridge. And the Station Master collecting the “ball” that would be put in the pouch of a bamboo ring and tossed over to a speeding train (20 mph!!) or given the driver of the stationary train.
Across the station on the other side was Kurubara Halli. Wonder if it is till there. Rajajinagar and all those extensions were yet to take shape during 1950s. A picnic spot popuarly named Brooks was clearly visible from the Malleswaram Station.
Well, I can go on and on and on recollecting the saga of Malleswaram Railway Station, one of the memorable locales I will cherish fovever in my life. Those huge trees which provided shade to many “have-nots”, students who would bunk the classes and play around. Yes those were the days of 1950s.
Suresh Panje
News Editor - ANI, New Delhi
Res: c/o Air Marshal S.N Goyal (Retd)
69, Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-57
Tel: 9210239623
OH wow!
Suresh. You’ve seen and experienced much more than I can ever dream of! Mine in comparison, are really frivolous, superficial. Why don’t you write a full length article of your experiences so I can publish it on my blog?
One request: PLEASE don’t visit it now. You’ll be more than disappointed.
== not for publishing on the website ==
== Personal ==
Thanq for your invite. I will mail you the reminiscent thoughts on Malleswaram. A couple of them had appeared in The Pioneer and The Statesman. Are you based in the US or “Mere Inda”?
This one is a great article! I was a student of Cluny Convent for 12 years, saw all the trains paasing by, everyday, every 20 minutes; but never ever got to see the station. It’s really nice to see it here
It is so wonderful to read Suresh Panje, I lived around same time in Malleswaram and Nagappa Block. Those wonderful days have been replaced by ……
I also enjoyed Sandeep’s writting of much later days.
Please keep writting of those days , it brings both sadness and immense happines.
raj
This is a wonderful piece of writing, not just for the recollection, but also for the kind of response it ellicits. Like Mr. Suresh Panje’s response. His trip is an entirely different journey. The locos, the engine in reverse gear, the mention of the Aunts who must have been influential in making him the persopn he is, the school teachers and temples…makes me recollect my own childhood and often listening to Dad’s talk…I alwsys thought that my generation will be the most modern, nothing can beat/replace it. I thought Dad’s times were exotic and now my own children love to hear my stories from childhood.
Life is often about the experiences we have had and the people who influenced us rather than about materials, money and ego-trips.
Kirti Pandey
I came across this while I was looking at Google Earth at the place where I grew up. You have written an excellent description. I lived right across from the railway station (my parents still do) and the experiences were fantastic. I remember the same things with the steam engines stopping at the station and we would ask the driver for a ball of grease. We played cricket made of “tar balls” which we made by pounding on the seeds of the trees which grow there. I miss those days a lot. I live halfway across the world now but it always brings a smile on my face when I think of it. One another fact of the Hanuman temple next to it. It was started by some local guys who used to hang out there all the time. One day a monkey was hit by a motorbike right in front of the station. The local guys buried the monkey at the site of the temple, started a small memorial and now it is a huge temple. By the way, I was at home when the accident happened many years ago and we gave first aid to the motorbike rider. True story.
It is really heartwarming to hear of Malleshwaram. I have roamed apparenlty aimlessly around the streets of Malleshwaram and cannot forget Krishna Bhavan and other famous joints which are institutions of Bangalore like Brahmins Cafe for instance! I have spend quite some time sitting down on the benches and watching the world and trains go by with an academic book in my hand. Unfotunately such private-public spaces are fast dissapearing. I long for that old Bangalore. Now except for the lungs choking and getting stranded in Sampige road traffic jam there is nothing much to look forward to!
Raman
And yes another famous landmark of Malleswaram is Veena stores. I miss these places very much indeed!
I was just browsing and came across this blog. I was brought up in Rajajinagar and went to Cluny Convent from KG=10th. and then came to US immediately after. Having been in US for 23 years and visited Bangalore only 3 times that too for very short 2 week breaks in the last 23 years, reading this blog surely brought those childhood memories. Thank you for positing it.
Regards, Sumathi
Hi All, like all others above, even I am left with the fond memories with the Malleshwaram railway station.very shocking experience because recently I lost my Uncle there. Yes, he died in the train accident.His name is Umesh Acharya, he was a gold smith by profession, my aunt by name Shalini (wife of late Umesh) is a house wife.both have a 7 year old daughter name Shivani. I work for a BPO in Mangalore. it was 24th of April,6:00 AM when I came back from my shift and was sleeping.suddenly at 7AM my Mom woked me and told Umesh Uncle in no more.I just could not believe and prayed it should be false, but not. The family was headed to Shivamogga at 6AM when my Uncle told my Aunt and Shivani to sit and wait in the platform bench and he went accross to cross the track with some other people with him when suddenly Shatabdi Express train comin from Majestic with a speed of 120 KM/HR other people managed to escape from the track while my uncle trying to climb over the platform.Unfortunately he could not make it as he was over weighted and the train passed over him and leading to pieces.It was a night mare to my aunt also to us.she still waiting for him could not believe that the body was her husbands and she got noticed when she found a piece of hand with his ring he wore.I pray god that this kind of death should not be experiencied by any body that too in front of the eyes of their family.Thank you for bringing this website.
Cheers,
Sunil
Hi Everybody!
Like everyone else I also would like to share something about the Malleshwarm Station which brings into my memory the good old days I had during my childhood days at my Uncle’s place who stayed opposite to the station which is called Maruti Extn. I used to go to School which is called Indian Prepartatory School for almost 7 years. In the evenings when I was a kid my Uncle used to take to me to the station and explain to me the Steam Engines where the Engine drivers used to dump coal into the engine boilers. Initially the Sound of the Engine was frightening that I used to ask my Uncle to take me away from the station. Later on I got used to it. After some years when I was in the 4th or 5th Standard I used to come along with Friends during Lunch break and we as young chaps used to keep small stones on the railway tracks and watch what happened when the train moved over them out of curiosity.
There was no traffic on the roads adjoining the railway station and it used to be pretty Calm and Cool. During afternoon, we used to see Milk Vendors from nearby areas collect the milk and travel by train to places like Tumkur, Banavara etc.
Thank You Sandeep for posting this article.
V.S.Bharadwaj
Branch Manager
Adroitec Information Systems Ltd
Bangalore
Hi every buddy
It was so nice to see the photos of mvm railway station. I too was a student of indian preparatory school, maruti extension. It is so nostalgic and i went through those still times in a flashback…..what a quality life and how lucky we were to enjoy the beauty of nature and simple life. Today we afford everything and can give anything to our children except those good days. What a quite place and you forgot small things like hawkers selling vegetables in the evening …. other landmark places….onnegowda shop near station, famous saibaba temple near station, bwssb office near station, first apartment in malleswaram (perhaps in bangalore)…datta prasad followed by kt apartment, mvm bridge itself came i guess in 1975 or so….
Thanks for helping me to rewind those pleasant and unforgettable memories with joy of tears.
Bala
Hong Kong
Good stuff!!! Grew up on 8th main 13 crs (millqtrs) and later Dattaprasad. Awesome memories!!! Canara union, Malleswaram 18th cross, MES(chicks!) Circle ground cricket etc!!(Jeerge, promote muscles and manhood!).
It’s all over. DONOT dream of going/coming back to malleswaram. Torn to pieces with waves of concrete, flood of traffic and .. nothing left. Still get a few rounds of whisky at picnics with old buddies who live behind MES. SO a trip is always on. But dont even think of going back!!
Hemant Nayak
Hey - so nice to read about Malleswaram - lovely pics Sandeep. I grew up in Maitree Apts, then Everest Apts on 8th Main road. Studied at B P Indian from 5th to 10th. Then lived in various cities in India & abroad. My uncle, aunt, cousins,nephew & niece still live in Datta Prasad. Am presently in Pune with my husband & daughter. Thank you so much for bringing back such pleasant memories… I stumbled onto this blog quite by accident - so glad I could read it - I am about to start my Monday routine @work - u really helped me get over my blues!!
Darshana Kalyanpur
Technical Recruiter & Senior Consultant
Grand job sandeep and thanks to all the contributions. Thanks to technology we can access the information from all corners of the world ( a small place now) and go back in time. After all- memories is all we are made of. I guess change is inevitable with time and ‘ development’ ,more apparent especially for those of us who left bangalore/ india, we still see it as it was when we left- be it the 80’s/ 90’s.
I grew up with my grand parents in maruthi extension, initially indian preparatory school, then walked over the bridge to hymamshu jyothi kala peetha. Lots of memories as a child, i had spent learning about trains/ signalling etc with my granddad ( he is now 92, daily visitor to the station for meeting with his friends under one of the big trees), infact a couple of years ago he took my daughter around to show the station and the trains!
Ramanna’s hotel( a personal friend of my grandad) thanks for those lovely idlis/vada with benne, Honne gowda angadi ( i saw it recently still there), saibaba temple……. and the thought that if we were to keep 10p coins it will change it to magnets!!!
A learning place in all senses, for many of us the first experience of seeing dead body ( atleast in the 80’s) after an incident on the track whilst walking over the bridge to the school..
the learning continues……..as we continue to store up our memories as we go on.
have a good day.
girish
I spent the first few months of my life and probably every known vacation at my grand-dad’s house on 16th cross between 6th and 8th main. I have fond memories of Popular stores and buying “Loly” icecream growing up. Not to mention “Hur-galu” and “Tati-nungu” that we’d buy off this person who’d sell it on his bicycle late in evening.
Bangalore used to be cold in the winter and I remember the narrow gauge line that used to cross the road on the way to Malleswaram from City.
I could not believe that Margosa and Sampige Roads were going to be one-ways when I heard it. Malleswaram is a great place, I went for a huge walk when I visited India last year. My aunt still lives at the corner of 15th cross and 4th main.
Fond memories, Malleswaram still holds its charm some 40 years later !
Regards,
CJ
Oh its lovely… I dont want to read all your comments… i feel like crying… i miss home… i miss my malleshwaram
Sandeep’s story about Malleswaram makes me weep floods of tears. Those good old trees, that station, that temple etc., etc., it was really a nostalgic trip. But, Sandeep and many others have not seen Malleswaram like old timers Mr. Suresh Panje or I have seen it. My house was on Sampige Road, main road opposite Petrol bunk and we used to play cricket on the road in those days! Our house was the striker’s end and the non-striker’s end used to be Devi Dayal Steel Angadi or Malleswaram Oil Stores. I also studied in the same school (MSV) that Mr.Panje studied in - i.e. 60s/early70s.
I have lived all my life in Malleswaram. Compared to what a heavenly place it used to be, it makes blood roll out of my eyes when I see it now - everyday. They have murdered the place. Believe me, I have even prayed to Kadu Malleswara that Malleswaram should become its old self and we old timers should see it happening !
R.E.Rajalakshmi