Bengaluru may be India's 'Silicon Valley' and pub capital now, but the city wasn't always a buzzing metropolitan hub. Like people, cities also evolve and change with time, gaining new features and moving forward, but often at the cost of losing the charm of the old city.
For people who have left the city however, like Arjun Kamath, a Los Angeles based photographer, it’s the old city charm of Bengaluru that’s most keenly missed. In an interview to Sunayana Suresh for TOI, Arjun said, “I never partied as a child. But it was the little things. The people in my neighborhood, the little things they did... Making rangolis, the old ajjas (grandfathers) and ajjis (grandmothers) waving goodbye each time I would leave for school in the school auto rickshaw."
So Arjun took to creating vignettes of the old city in a series called "Nam Ooru Bengaluru: A walk down memory lane". The photographs feature Bengalurean model Archana Akil Kumar, and were shot at Chamrajpet, and on Narayana Pillai Street, off Commercial Street among other places.
Check out the series here:
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A walk down memory lane...
Fleeting moments that last forever
Traveling back to the comfort of childhood and zero responsibility
When happiness seemed to reside in the tinkling of the local temple bells, and the only thing illuminated by it - the pujari's old wrinkled face
Grandma's hugs are the bestest
When Amma taught me how to make my first rangoli...
Walking down the quaint little street I grew up on
That friendly neighbourhood Ajji who asks, "When are you getting married?"
When you wake up to the sound of temple bells and the smell of filter coffee lingering the air...
All photos by Arjun Kamath.