Know Your City: What shopping in Whitefield was like a century ago

Recalling memories passed down through the family, Dr Ziauddin says, “In 1915, my grandfather bought an eight-acre plot for Rs 700 and constructed the store within it. The construction was done by the father of one Mr Lingappa, a local mason. My grandfather would come every morning with the groceries in the train to supply mainly the local Anglo-Indians… It was the only store for around 50 villages in the surrounding areas. We had wholesale and retail sales of goods including groceries, pharmaceuticals and cement.”

Watercolour portrait of Meer Sahib.

It was not only shopping that happened on the premises though. According to Dr Ziauddin, “The first post office in Whitefield opened within our compound, paying a rent of Rs 15 per month. The first telephone exchange and panchayat office in Whitefield were also located there.”

It was not to last forever, however. The store closed down, members of the family having moved to different fields of work. According to Dr Ziauddin, “Even in the 1980s, industrial workers would come to buy their rations, and pay at the end of the month after receiving their pay. But later on all the old factories closed down, and then competition also started increasing… this was an area where the lighting on the street used to be on wooden poles with bulbs. Seeing a car passing by was something that happened maybe once every three hours.”

This is of course a far cry from the traffic on Whitefield Main Road today.

Other long-time residents of Whitefield have their own memories of the store as well. According to Paul D’Souza, whose family has maintained a heritage home in the area since the 1970s, a common sight in the store’s heyday would be sparrows at the store, waiting for stray grains to spill out of the sacks of provisions kept in the building.