Yelahanka

Old Town Yelahanka

-Aastha Mehta

In a small corner of Bengaluru, lies Yelahanka, now divided into old town and new town. While moving from the new town towards the old town, we start seeing rural elements. Small bylanes, full of people busy with their routines who work hard every day to make ends meet.

We reach a temple, one of the plenty located in the old town and see that it has many stones slabs with snakes on them. The god they worship is the snake god, along with Vishnu, shiva and subramanium (or god kartikeya). I notice tiny bangles kept below the stone by married women. The people pray around the stones by going in circles and sometimes pouring milk on the stones. The small temple is located in the courtyard of a house, with peepal and curry tree also being worshiped. 

With my area of research being culture as well as folk tales we then go to another temple, seeing some stories. I observe that the people have a specific attire for the temple.The ladies wear jasmine flower in their head with a saree and most men wear a dhoti. The pandit is dressed in saffron with no clothing on the upper body except a cloth on his shoulder. Below he wears a dhoti too.

The diversity in old town is as rich as any other part of india. On one hand we only see temples but as we turn around the lane we find a whole area of mosques and madrassas. One school teaches urdu and Arabic and is connected to the mosque. We go inside to discover any myths and tales about Yelahanka. The routine of the children is very simple, they are content with what they have and do not live a fancy life. In their spare time they read or play in nearby barren areas. There is a lake near tamarind bushes in the corner of the town and supposedly if someone picks the tamarind, blood will come out of their mouth. This is one of the many tales told by the kids.

As we walk out of the school, we hear a noise, a constant noise in a chorus. I run to find out the source, it grows louder and louder, a mechanical tone, repeating itself. We find ourselves in the small weavers industry located in the town! We peep inside a window of where the noise is coming from and find people working with powerlooms working to produce cloth.

A family welcomes us to see their production unit. They have been in business since 50 years and have moved on from handlooms to powerlooms. They have seen the landscape of yelahanka change over the years. Earlier, it was mostly fields and very few houses but now the streets are full of bungalows and houses. The people of old town are very open and welcoming and still retain their culture.