Narsimhan Murthy’s family has owned a shop that rents out vessels for weddings, large-scale naming and thread ceremonies, and for festival related events organized by temples since 1946. He was born in Malleswaram in 1951 and describes its past as “peaceful and everything” and says “there were days when we would only see one car pass the whole day.” One very particular insight our conversation with him gave us was how the temples in the area were central to the social life of residents. “Temples are good- they have maintained those well. People of the old generations can go there to talk still. They go there many times…Earlier time most people went to temples for entertainment- there was no other entertainment- TV, movies...so people used to go to temples to gather and talk…it was like their CCD! They would do activities like Carnatic Music concerts and go to Temple to discuss things they could not discuss at home- like menfolks would talk about their wives and the ladies would talk family problems…”
Even now, in some pockets, the temple remains an institution that is central to the street, the people and their practices. Sutram Kiran shastry, Vasavi Temple’s priest talks about how in Malleswaram, one could buy everything needed for a festival. “In this area, it is a part of life- in the morning you go to the temple and then to your job.” During fieldwork, too, we observed men and women on two wheelers stopping in front of the facade of the temple, kicking their shoes off while still seated, bowing their head in prayer before zooming off to work. Moreover, he added, “Malleswaram has everything- you can buy everything for festivals here…new clothes, jewelry, Puja items…”
Arun Kumar, Laxman’s brother and owner of a gift items shop, said “Malleswaram is the heritage of Bangalore- see heritage- you find so many temples here, they are all 400 years or so old.”