Loiter in Majestic, Your Majesty

By Janet Evans Joshi

The Kempegowda Bus Stand or as the Bengalureans call it ‘Majestic’, is a large bus station located in Central Bangalore and opposite Bangalore City Railway Station. It is said that the station acquired the name ‘Majestic’ from a popular cinema theatre which was located nearby.

The bus station is going to celebrate its 50^th year of operation this year (2019). It is said that if someone is lost in the city, they just have to catch a bus to Majestic and after that you reach wherever you want. Adjoining the bus stand is the Majestic market, hustling and bustling amidst the construction works and traffic of vehicles as well as people. You can get there anything thing you want and all in cheap rates (yeah, it’s cheap because most of them are duplicate or of lesser quality). You get duplicate JBL speakers, fake L’Oreal and Lakme cosmetics, watches of different types and trends and many more items that probably excite you. As a male you can definitely loiter in the area but if you are a female who is seen loitering alone in the area, probably you have to face the male gaze or even the female gaze. In the article ‘Why Loiter? Radical Possibilities for Gendered Dissent’ Shilpa Phadke talks about how women does not have the same accessibility to roam or loiter in public spaces like men do. Shilpa Phadke explains how sex workers or “women with a purpose” are seen as appropriate to be roaming around in public spaces. In Majestic, a middle class or upper middle class women cannot just loiter around aimlessly. One ought to act or show as if they are there for a purpose. Women can definitely roam around in groups but not alone, and definitely not after 7 p.m.

Signboards with wrong English spellings like “NRK SELOON” or “GOTHU HAIRLINE SELON”, Hotels with ironical names and lots of local bars and theaters. To a person new to Bangalore, having come to Bangalore after watching the rose-tinted version of the city in films, will surely be disappointed on seeing such a market. Along with people crowded near roadside shop and carts, there are cows and dogs that are seen loitering in every corner you go. They have become a part of the whole Majestic scenario, and seem to hold more power to loiter around than a woman. The temple located at one part of the place maybe a reason for some of the upper middle class people you will see in the area regularly, other than that it’s just lower class or underprivileged doing all sorts of work for a livelihood. Hence, it is seen that markets too are spaces where most of the gender and class discriminations takes place knowingly or unknowingly.