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bangalore’s midnight vibe where the uni metro card failed me but the street food didn’t

@Topiclo Admin3/29/2026blog

i woke up to the smell of burning popcorn at 3am and immediately regretted it. not because i’m a morning person but because i’d forgotten to charge my phone. again. the weather here is this weird 24.08 thing-like someone took a draft from the desert and dumped it on a rainy season calendar. if you want to know what it feels like, it’s 23.8 degrees of ‘meh’ and 24.08 degrees of ‘why did i want to come here.’

last night i tried to take the metro to that new vegan joint everyone’s posting about. my uni card just died at the station. i had to ask a guy who looked like he’d never seen sunlight if he could point me. he did. didn’t charge me. might’ve been a sign. or a liar. who knows. either way, i ended up at that street food spot with the neon light that says ‘dosa’ in 100 different languages. the guy behind the counter sold me a bomb a quarter the price of what i expected. sweet. now i’m wondering why i trust people with neon signs but not my card.

someone told me that the neighbors here keep raccoons in their back alleys. i didn’t see any. but i did see a guy hosing down his balcony at 2am and shouting at a parrot. the parrot didn’t leave. i asked if it was his, and he said, ‘no, it’s just borrowed.’ still don’t get it. my point is, if you get bored, mysuru is just a three-hour drive but don’t ask me why. seems to be the local tradition. also, someone warned me that the coffee here is ‘too committed.’ tasted like guilt. good. i’m here for the guilt.

i heard that the old bookstore on shivajinagara street has a hidden room. not a secret library or anything. just a room where they sell expired chai mixes. haven’t checked it out. maybe next time. probably won’t. never did follow up on that storage unit rumor last year either. anyway, that place is on tripadvisor. [tripadvisor link]. if you want to feel like a local, ask for the one with the cracked sign. they’ll let you in for free if you promise not to pay.

this place has a vibe. or so the drunk guy at the hostel claimed. he said it’s like if your laptop broke but you still had your soul. i don’t know. it’s hot. 24.08 degrees. pressure’s at 1010. feels like it’s holding its breath. humidity’s 48%, which is just enough to make your shirt cling to you but not enough to make your skin creak. sea level pressure matches the grnd level, which i think means nothing. probably. if you’re a geography nerd.

i snapped a photo of that neon dosa sign. it’s on unsplash. [unsplash link]. another one of the street cats that’s probably judging me. [unsplash link]. and one of me trying to eat a burger while my card failed. [unsplash link]-maybe admire from a distance. last thing i want is for that burger to know what it did to me.

if you’re looking for reviews, don’t trust the ones that sound too official. i heard that the uber drivers here are all ex-theater kids using their cars as stage props. maybe. i haven’t confirmed. but if you do, you might get a discount if you quote the play. [yelp link]. also, some locals said the metro is haunted by a man who rides it backward. haven’t seen him. but i did see a guy crying at 4am near the station. he said he’d lost his ticket. or maybe he was just sad. who knows.

next time? probably not. unless i find a way to charge my phone without dying. or a place that sells popcorn without burning it. bangalore’s a weird city. or maybe i’m just losing my mind. either way, it’s 24.08 degrees of this and i’m here for it. even if my card is dead.

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About the author: Topiclo Admin

Writing code, prose, and occasionally poetry.

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