Street Stories

This blog retells stories that one hears while travelling on the streets of Bangalore, through conversations, heard or overheard. It is about people and their lives, ideologies, perceptions, and the modern mythologies they create. Most of these stories aim to entertain and smile. Please don’t take them too seriously.
Shweta Taneja is an author who loves to turn ordinary into unusual stories. When she’s not creating fantasy books or asking curious questions to complete strangers, she writes no-nonsense articles. You can read more about her on www.staneja.com

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Meeting artist Paul Fernandes

February 3, 2014 Shweta Taneja

Till last year, I didn’t know who Paul Fernandes was, though I had seen his artwork all over Bangalore, occasionally colourfully covering up a bland restaurant wall or even an old space. I loved his

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Rajnikanth’s birthday, with love

January 10, 2014 Shweta Taneja

Around 9am on Sunday morning as I walked to my nearby slum where I teach yoga to superbly enthusiastic kids every week, I saw a poster hanging at its entrance. Rajnikanth’s smiling face jumped out of

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Making detectives of children

December 4, 2013 Shweta Taneja

Let me confess something first. I might have written books for kids, but till now hadn’t interacted with them much. Not the ones who are in the 9-13 years of age. Actually, not many at

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The garbage amongst us

November 22, 2013 Shweta Taneja

Not so early in the morning, I look down from my third floor apartment. There’s a lady sweeping the dead-end road. I know her, though I don’t know her name. She wears the official BBMP

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Kali and the patriarchal fears

October 17, 2013 Shweta Taneja

She’s naked, covered with ashes, her hair matted with snakes in them, a garland of skulls and freshly cut heads around her neck. She laughs like madness herself, dancing to the chaotic rhythm of death,

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An auto driver’s story

October 3, 2013 Shweta Taneja

I don’t really know his name. Never need it I guess. The conversation with him happens because we cannot find a parking spot. It is eight in the night on a road near Commercial Street.

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A bull that never stopped growing

September 23, 2013 Shweta Taneja

Last Sunday I took a friend and her nine-year-old daughter to Bull Temple in Bangalore. It’s the place with the country’s largest monolith bull – known to be Nandi, the servant bull of Shiva. The majestic Nandi

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