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Out of Town Blog
Adventure Travel in Peru’s Sacred Valley
Adventure Activities in Sacred Valley, Peru Peru’s Sacred Valley is a spectacularly beautiful area between Cusco and the ancient lost city of Machu Picchu. The area was home to the Inca people, and the Valley’s two main towns, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo, retain much of their Inca heritage. Aside from history and culture, the area is […]
Adventure Travel in Peru’s Sacred Valley
Team Out of Town
Out of Town Blog
Out of Town Blog
Resort Review: Star Monica Hotel Resort and Restaurant In Lingayen, Pangasinan
Star Monica Hotel Resort and Restaurant Review Lingayen, Pangasinan – Growing up in the province of Pangasinan, I’ve had plenty of access to beaches and resorts throughout my lifetime. While my parents were always busy to take us out during summer, I had my titos and titas to thank for that. One of the resorts […]
Resort Review: Star Monica Hotel Resort and Restaurant In Lingayen, Pangasinan
Crissa Muyalde
Out of Town Blog
Out of Town Blog
The Hidden Tourism Gems of Pangasinan
Tourist Spots to visit in Pangasinan Pangasinan is a vast province. It’s the largest province of Region 1, after all, in terms of population and land area. The tourism industry in Pangasinan is just barely taking off, and will hopefully become more popular as domestic travel is promoted in a post-COVID-19 world. When we talk […]
The Hidden Tourism Gems of Pangasinan
Melo Villareal
Out of Town Blog
To know Bengaluru through Noorain Ahmed’s eyes is to know the invisible cities within. It is to see the people who’ve been there all their lives but don’t get to take up space; itinerants “who have no thikana.” She’s the woman you’d stumble upon if you went to the kitchen of S. R. Bakery in Fraser Town, helping the cook chop onions because she dropped by to chat before picking up her favourite butter cookies. Or the person you’ll see at a cycle repair shop wedged between two buildings in Cox Town, sketching its immigrant owner for two days straight, sharing chai shots between sessions.
When someone visits Ahmed in the city she was born in 33 years ago, she skips icons like Koshy’s (“I’ve never been!”), and takes them straight to S.P. Road, a long stretch of pure chaos. Scooters moving faster than light, wizened hands pulling hand-rickshaws to the score of hollers, rabbit holes of computer shops and recycling spaces—to Ahmed, an architect who works on low-cost housing projects, the place smells of invention. “People here have so many stories, and I always try to buy something from them when they spare the time. Now I have a little library of movable pivot joints, nuts, and bolts,” she laughs.
During her illustration workshops, Noorain Ahmed encourages participants to doodle scenes from Bengaluru’s daily life. Photo courtesy: Noorain Ahmed
Ahmed’s illustration workshops around Bengaluru tap into her desire to know the people and spaces that shape her city. “For instance, if we went to K.R. Flower Market—a fragrant, underground world which works on its own rhythm — I’d ask my participants to draw not what they see, but their memory of it. For someone, it could be the flowers and their sellers, for others it could be the market’s floor plan or the types of shops.” Everyone who visits Bengaluru visits Cubbon Park, but Ahmed urges people to show up at six a.m. sharp. “The thelawaalas are just setting up shop, the birdwatchers are stirring, the laughter club members emerge; on some days there is a live music performance at the Band Stand, or a photoshoot with the decked-up bride hoping to catch the golden light. Later you might spot a women’s march—evenings are pretty dull compared to all that,” she smiles.
As a child, Sunday trips to Cubbon Park with her parents always ended with hot-hot dosas at the Airlines Hotel. Then Ahmed’s father would put on a cassette of ABBA or Yanni in their car, and they’d drive through M.G. Road or St. Marks Road. “We still love the kebabs at Kabab Korner on St. Marks Road, and their chocolate mousse. Nearby is Truffles (formerly Ice & Spice) where we’d go for the French fries, but really it was so we could meet its long-time waiter Swami. Other 20-something waiters come and go, but Swami has been the one constant and the soul of that place; he must be at least 80 now,” reminisces Ahmed. Her childhood haunts were modest and have proved timeless—Anand Sweets at Fraser Town for jalebi and chaat, Bhagatram at Commercial Street for “the best gulab jamun,” a tiny paan shop outside Harsha Hotel in Shivaji Nagar (“always magai saada for the elders and magai meetha for the kids”), London Fish & Chips at Only Place in Ashok Nagar, and a chaat shop called Shankar’s Bhel House in Sindhi Colony.
Noorain Ahmed’s dream project for the near future is to illustrate Bengaluru’s invisible inhabitants, such as her neighbourhood knife-sharpener and the fish seller who is promptly up before 5.30 a.m. Photo courtesy: Sagar Srihari
Bengaluru continues to inspire Ahmed in endless ways in adulthood too. She walks everywhere, and has favourite haunts for every mood. “I love dropping by Bamboo (pronounced ‘Bumboo’) Bazaar if I want to be creatively tickled, to check out its lovely old, second-hand furniture. For music and cultural events, I head to Bangalore International Centre (BIC)—they’re all free!—or Ranga Shankara for the plays and Manju’s crisp hot sabudana wada. For a chakkar, or to meet friends, I love the Chitrakala Parishath college in Seshadripuram, because their canteen serves simple, great fare and I also get to pick up supplies from Bhaskar Art Center. There’s also some mela or exhibition going on pretty much throughout the year.”
Most travellers to the city end up at the NGMA, says Ahmed, but few check out the free library upstairs, or know that true Bangloreans order its café’s herb toast and passionfruit juice. Lightroom Bookstore is she goes to be inspired. “The quaint children’s bookstore is magical even for adults, and its owner Aashti never fails to find you the perfect book alongside a soulful conversation.” On days Ahmed craves good coffee, she heads to Urban Solace which overlooks Ulsoor Lake, and serves cheese-stuffed mushrooms. “And when I want to eat fish that tastes like a cloud, I go to China Pearl in Koramangala: their Fung Cheow Fish is crispy fish tossed in chilli, garlic, and basil. For Mexican, I love Chinita’s tacos, nachos and churros. Any time I miss good ol’ kheema samosa, I look no further than Albert Bakery in Fraser Town.”
To know her home better, she has a dream project in mind: to illustrate its invisible inhabitants. “The man who sharpens our knives has been around for decades with his bulky cycle; he’s grown old here and I have no idea how he gets by. There’s the paperwaala who inserts leaflets every morning, the fish seller who is up before 5.30 a.m.—those are the Bangloreans I want to document next.”
On some weekdays, Dr. Simin Patel would hop on BEST bus No. 126 that ferried her from Dhobi Talao to her home in Tardeo. As soon as the bus approached the Anjuman fire temple, she’d instinctively crane her neck towards the opposite building. The object of her affection was an ornate grill with a Victoria motif, right above the signboard ‘Cruz Music Classes.’ “You need to be in a bus to really see the grill,” says Patel over the telephone. One day, she popped in during an evening class and found a Goan man teaching keyboard, drums, and guitar to wee kids from the area (‘Gujaratis, Parsis, and Sindhis, so there’s always variety,’ he’d said.)
Built in 1875, Sassoon Docks is a theatre of colour and chaos, fuelled by the energy of Koli fisherfolk. Photo By: Sai Kiran Kanneganti/shutterstock
The famous Grand Hotel in Ballard Estate was designed by the Scottish architect, George Wittet. He also designed the Gateway of India. Photo By: Snehal Jeevan Pailkar/shutterstock
“If I had to describe Bombay to an outsider, I’d say it’s a historic city where you need to know where to look—and when to look up,” smiles Patel, who conducts heritage walks under the name of Bombaywalla Historical Works. Her blog, also named Bombaywalla, lists quaint and quirky vignettes on the balconies, windows, clocks, and floorings of colonial Bombay. “I was lucky to live and study among South Bombay’s historical spaces, but I never really appreciated them until I began my Ph.D on Parsis and colonial Bombay in 2009,” she admits.
Historian Dr. Simin Patel outside the Watson’s Hotel in Kala Ghoda. Photo Courtesy: Dr. Simin Patel
Before the lockdown, her work on a book on the city’s Irani cafés meant that Patel was forever chatting up their owners-turned-family-friends, downing Irani chais. “Café De La Paix, a forgotten café in Girgaum, is like home now; all I need is the window seat and a bun cheese omelette. I conduct works meetings there, and even celebrated a birthday. Once a stranger wanted to contact me—he simply went to Café De La Paix and left his number!” laughs Patel. It’s the sort of place where unexpected friendships are forged. “The café’s owner, Gustad Irani, is a deeply spiritual man. He tells me about significant days in our religious calendar, like the day we honour the dead, or when we should observe vegetarianism.”
Forever on the lookout for the old and the disappearing, Patel says the people she meets on the way are as endearing as the structures. Before March, she couldn’t imagine a week going by without a meal at Colaba’s New Martin Hotel. “It serves the most magical Goan food: sausage chilli fry, pork sorpotel, and apricot custard. It is tucked in a glamorous art deco building from the 1940s,” says Patel. “It’s equally about the kinship you find there.” Every Saturday, Patel would notice how an 80-something lady would come for lunch, with a back brace and walking stick, always going for the curry rice. “We began chatting, and I learnt she is a ‘Mango’—half-Manglorean, half-Goan—and lives alone, nearby.”
Over time, Patel discovered that she was tracing her mother’s footsteps all along. “She sought out these places long before I did, a lone woman out on her lunch breaks from the office. As a youngster, I’d pester her about why she ate alone, but now I understand. By the time I discovered C. D’Souza in Dhobi Talao’s Dukkar Gully, my mother already had a story about how the owner Philomena had once cooked her pork vindaloo.” Philomena is no more, and Patel will always remember her sitting like a sentinel on one of the old wooden tables—“with another lady, Bella, sitting statue-like on another table”—watching the gully for hours, wordlessly. When Patel is in the area, she always picks up batasa biscuits from Paris Bakery nearby.
Girgaum’s Café De La Paix (top left) is one of the highlights of Dr. Simin Patel’s Opera House Walk; If you know where to look, every nook in South Bombay reveals vibrant histories and characters, be it at Khotachiwadi (top right and bottom left), or Marine Drive (bottom right). Photo courtesy: Kunal Merchant (group), Photos by: Snehal Jeevan Pailkar/shutterstock (stairways), Leshiy985/shutterstock (shrine), Snehal Jeevan Pailkar/shutterstock (couple)
Another historic place Patel has grown fond of is Swadeshi Market in Kalbadevi. She once stumbled upon a shop called K. N. Ajani, which was set up in 1918 and sells nutcrackers, locks, scissors, and knives. Patel unearthed delightful stories, like how their nutcrackers were sought by bridal parties who wanted to test if their groom could cut a betel but, or “sticklers who wanted to check the quality of annas by cutting them.” “Few people know that the Ajanis have an inimitable design archive of letter papers, box designs, and inland letter cards,” says Patel. All you need to do is drop by, ask for the current owner Pareshbhai, and be ready to listen to stories of how his grandfather switched from selling cloth at Masjid Bunder and moved to Kalbadevi because he wanted to be a part of the Swadeshi movement.
“Once you begin walking this city and really looking, you gravitate towards signs and stories, like I did,” smiles Patel.
Out of Town Blog
A Taste of Summer with TWG Tea Iced Teabags
Manila, Philippines – Indulge in the taste of summer all year round with TWG Tea’s luxurious Iced Teabag Collection. With inspirations and concoctions stemming from our exquisite tea blends, there is no better way to enjoy the day and refresh your palate. Captivate the senses of tea drinkers with the elegant Iced Teabag Collection, featuring […]
A Taste of Summer with TWG Tea Iced Teabags
Melo Villareal
Out of Town Blog
