How walking tours can help you connect better with Bengaluru Premium

Krittika Vishwanath loves exploring new cities on foot. “I have always been a walker and feel like I know a place only if I walk it,” says the Bengaluru-based bookseller associated with Champaca Bookstore. The slowing down and sense of wonder that travelling by shank’s mare induces is eye-opening, believes Krittika, who has participated in walking tours in several places in India and across the world.

Krittika Vishwanath loves exploring new cities on foot. “I have always been a walker and feel like I know a place only if I walk it,” says the Bengaluru-based bookseller associated with Champaca Bookstore. The slowing down and sense of wonder that travelling by shank’s mare induces is eye-opening, believes Krittika, who has participated in walking tours in several places in India and across the world.

Along the way, she inevitably became an informal tour guide of sorts, helping steer her friends through cities, familiar and new. “I was always doing it... whether it was the place I grew up or travelled to, I would take up the reins,” she admits, with a laugh. 

It is why she was intrigued by Gully Tours’ flagship City Explorer programme, the second edition of which will kick off in Bengaluru on June 22. “I didn’t know there was a structured way of actually doing walking tours,” says Krittika, who was part of City Explorer’s first edition. “I thought it would be interesting to figure out what goes on behind the scenes of a walking tour. That was my primary motivation for signing up,” she says. 

Today, she is herself part of Gully Tours, leading several of their curated walking experiences, including Death by Dosa, a food and history walk through Chickpete, and Malleshwaram Hogona, which explores the area’s street art. “It was a nice learning process,” she says, pointing out that City Explorer taught her how to structure her walks, interact with different groups and offer research-backed information to participants. “You can’t faff your way through. It has to be built on evidence and oral history and also then bringing in personal touch and stories,” she says. 

Creating more storytellers about the spaces we inhabit is the raison d’etre of the City Explorer programme, which promises to make you “a pro in exploring the historical, economical, and social fabric of your city,” as the Gully Tours website puts it. According to Vinay Parameswarappa, Gully Tours’ founder, the hybrid programme, spread over five weekends, is all about helping create more ambassadors for the city. The course, he adds, isn’t just about fun and exploration, but also about some great learnings. “We feel the story of the city just needs to be told..there are so many layers here,” he says. 

Gully Tours, says Vinay, was founded “completely by accident.” The idea for the enterprise was triggered during a year spent working in Singapore, back in 2008. “I went on a chance walking tour here, and it blew my mind,” he says. Unlike his experience in India, which often ended up being too “touristy”, this walk was all about travel, trivia and people. “All those things that I enjoy,” he says. 

The experience also got him wondering as to why the tiny city-state gets more tourists than India. “We have so much to offer; we are a subcontinent with 5,000 years of history,” he says. And yet, India doesn’t get the interest that Singapore, a smaller, much younger country does. He was convinced that this was because we don’t package and market ourselves well. He also felt that having credible, well-informed tour guides could play an important role in telling rich and diverse stories about our country.