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.
Creating more storytellers about the spaces we inhabit is the raison d’etre of the City Explorer programme. | Photo Credit: Athma
Many kinds of walks
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.
From a session of Gully Tours. | Photo Credit: Gully Tours
How it began
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.
So, in 2009, he started Royal Mysore Walks, to create a travel experience that focused on exploration and learning. One of the things he struggled with, back then, he says, was getting people to lead these tours. “We had to start training people internally, and that was a lot of fun.” He spent the next few years focusing entirely on this princely city-state, training people from multiple backgrounds to become tour guides, before deciding to branch out into other parts of the country, including Kodagu (Coorg), Bengaluru and Kochi in 2016. “That is when we became Gully Tours,” he says.
The Bengaluru edition, which costs around ₹7,500, is open to anyone over 18. | Photo Credit: Gully Tours
Exploring a city
As with many small businesses across the world, Gully Tours was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. “When the pandemic hit, everything came to a halt. We had to start again from scratch,” says Vinay, who ended up having to close down the Coorg and Kochi editions of Gully Tours at this time. Instead, the team decided to focus solely on Mysuru and Bengaluru, starting more walks in these cities. The interest in these city-centric walks slowly built up. “We found people coming with their friends and family…even their dates.”
During these walks, the entrepreneur noticed something interesting – several participants began asking him how they too could curate and lead walks. “We kept hearing a lot of this,” says Vinay. “So, we decided to open our internal training program to the public.”
In June 2023 the City Explorer programme, “for people who want to explore cities in a deeper and nuanced way to learn its history, its people, and the communities that thrive here,” was rolled out. With editions in both Bengaluru and Mysuru, the programme does two things, according to Vinay. “We want participants to get to know the city – its history, architecture, how you look at research, as well as be able to tell a great, compelling story.”
The Bengaluru edition, which costs around ₹7,500, is open to anyone over 18, and is “curious about things around,” says Vinay. As part of the programme, participants will have access to walking tours, interactions with city experts, sessions on research methods and the art of storytelling. It also includes a specially curated workshop for the participants, with the goal of providing a more nuanced understanding of a city’s history, culture and pulse.
Archivist Aishwarya Kirit, one of the facilitators of the programme, gives a sneak peek into the module she offers. It focuses on how to do one’s research as one puts together a walking tour. While information is available on the internet, it is not always credible, says Aishwarya, who encourages participants to use spaces like libraries and archives as well as lean on oral histories while designing walking tours. “A walk is a story at the end of the day, and we construct the story however we want.” But, she insists, the sources one uses to create the story must always be carefully vetted.
Over the years, Vinay has seen how different people relate to the stories they hear during city-based walking tours. | Photo Credit: Gully Tours
Why walk
Over the years, Vinay has seen how different people relate to the stories they hear during city-based walking tours. Outsiders, for instance, let go of their pre-existing stereotypes of the city while new migrants find a sense of belonging, in his opinion. In recent times, several white-collared professionals have been coming for the walks, along with their team members, he says, adding that school children too can benefit from the experience. “A city can be a great backdrop for learning.”
And then there are the old-timers, who get to rediscover their city through these walks. Charusmitha Rao is one of them. “You go through the lanes of the city which you’ve walked through multiple times, but you see it through a different perspective,” says the HR professional, who enrolled in the programme last year.
The City Explorer programme helped Charusmitha fall in love with Bengaluru all over again. It was also a chance for her to contribute to the city in a meaningful way. “I felt like it was a great opportunity to give back, to learn more through the experts curating this programme and find a way to connect the city in new ways,” adds the self-confessed city explorer and culture enthusiast.
To learn more about City Explorer, log into www.gully.tours/city-explorer
