It’s not just tech jobs that are attracting talent to Bangalore. There are many other people who come to the city to make a living. These people earn their livelihoods off the city’s streets and are a recent trend in Bangalore.
The pani puri vendor, the mehndi artist or the bead makers have not been traditional peddlers on the city’s streets but, like several people who have moved to the city for jobs, have made the city’s busy roads their workplace.
Bangaloreans traditionally gulped their pani puris from carts that also offered a host of other chaat dishes. Chaat is traditionally considered a dish from north India, Mumbai or Kolkata, and there have been very few outlets in Bangalore that offered authentic chaat, if ever there was one.
But over the last few years, these pani puri vendors from north India and Bengal, with just a basketful of these puffed puris, a bucket of the pungent pani and a cane stand have occupied street corners or in front of malls. And they invariably specialise in pani puris, with some of them throwing in aloo chaat or sookha chaat for variety. But the ingredients are essentially common.
With their advent, Bangaloreans have been able to get a taste of authentic chaat. With their light “equipment”, these vendors are mobile and are able to shift base as and when they please.
Like the chaat vendors, the mehndi artists too have been a recent addition to the city and they set up “shop” on street corners, looking for customers.
Their “shop” consists of a mere low stool on which their customer sits, while he skillfully applies his mehndi paste on her palm. These mehndi artists too have given Bangalore’s damsels another choice, for, previously, for any such embellishment, they would have had to visit beauty parlours.
Also occupying the pavements in busy market places and in front of colleges are gypsies from Rajasthan, with their traditional colourful attire and stock of beads.
They spread their ware on the footpaths and make necklaces and bracelets with skill and speed.
And with all these vendors almost invariably conversing only in Hindi, these sights and sounds on its streets have made Bangalore a visibly cosmopolitan city.