Reason #9: It's Not the Cosmopolitan City Everyone TellsYou It Is

The most remarkable places to eat at and hang out in Bangalore are still the unremarkable-looking places with a distinctly small-town flavor, places that have earned their fame by doing what they do exceedingly well.

I’m thinking of Koshy’s, Brahmin’s Café, Coffee House ... where you get served a quick masala dosa and an honest cup of coffee by waiters in crested turbans and cummerbunds. (I haven’t forgotten MTR. I’m trying to. Yes, I’m not embarrassed to admit I don’t care for MTR. See my September 2009 post to know why.)

Or Gangaram’s and Blossom Book Shop, where a guy who’s dusting books can walk over to any part of the store and pull out the exact book you want … something the more polished-looking staff at Crossword and Landmark are at a loss to do, even after eyeballing a computer listing of their inventory.

These are the modest places that make Bangalore feel like the gracious descendant of a cantonment town it was before information technology companies sprang up like warts.

Ultimately, it’s all these little signature places that make the city distinctive, and are in danger of becoming extinct as nouveau Bangaloreans buy into their self-generated fantasy that they’re Silicon Valley (instead of Silicon Halli) and need the upmarket shops and international franchises they’ve seen in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur to make them feel they live in a swinging place.

You can find cookie-cutter franchises like Gloria Jeans Coffee and Hard Rock Cafe in any city in the world. But if you had one day to spend in Bangalore, you’d want to spend it wandering in Malleswaram, not UB City.

A huddle of IT workers drinking Australian beer at a pub does not make a city cosmopolitan. Neither does the trickle of expats from a dozen countries forced to follow their jobs to India and lamenting that this city’s hyped resemblance to Silicon Valley begins and ends at their swanky office campuses.

Bangalore is a reticent town forced to rip off the jasmine in her hair, push out cleavage and throw on some brazen lipstick because out of town people have come courting. I hope the old Bangalore has the courage to re-assert itself.