Capital city’s IT Hub, where sun never sets

Thiruvananthapuram: As days are hot and busy, city dwellers are discovering their ‘nightlight’.  Kazhakootam is now their favourite place to spend quality time with food, games, drinks, coffee, and movies, before the perfect beginning of another day.

It all started with techies and their night shifts as more and more multinational companies set their shops here. Along with them came more people, many settled down here.Today, the place is a famous meeting ground, where even smoke friendly cafes are quite common. 24-X7 liveliness has given the tag ‘new Trivandrum’ to the place which has grown into an IT hub.

Sneha Chandran, a techie and regular customer of Terrace Café, loves chicken pasta, beefsteak and a ‘sober monk’ with a lot of music and games.

“As I prefer a hookah, I often go to the place with my friend. Even at night, many families with children find it safe and at home,” she said.

However, there is also the flipside. Though a police patrol monitors the entire area, there is a much-hidden business of drugs here.

Radha Krishnan, a local storekeeper, said that as five-star hotels and upgraded coffee clubs flourished, there is also a significant decline in sales at their outlets.  

“It has been three years since there is a rush in my shop as people preferred Uber and five-star food. My income has gone considerably low. Even though the night is full bustle, we are invisible,’’ he said.

Shiva Prasad, the owner of a cricket shack, said that there is a huge cultural change happening in the city.  “Kazhak-ootam witnessed the start, even though it is nowhere near Bangalore or Mumbai. The entire place is lit till midnight. Our customers are usually techies and youth, but we are surprised by the increasing rate of families.  Food is the main attraction, but thanks to social media, people now are bothered about ambience too," he said.

“Cricket shack cafe” is purely based on a cricket theme, a new world with imported ‘bats’ and sig-ned ‘t-shirts’. It sets a mood, as customers can have a break after a tiring day.  “We organise pa-rties, band, open mic and other live programmes.  Best quality food, safety and comfort are our primary concern,” he said.

“If done right, this is a good change, when the city is awake, it increases the business, extend the fun, help travellers and make the people safe, especially when there is no time limit to good food.”