Old haunts gone, new ones found

Kochi: Kochi's nightlife took a blow on Jan 4 when the food court at Queen's Walkway, run by the Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA), shut down after its contracts expired. The walkway, once alive with music, food, and late-night conversations, went quiet overnight. But Kochi, as it always has, found a way to keep the lights on elsewhere.The city has long tried to build a nightlife culture beyond pubs and discotheques, with mixed results. Yet its residents have shown a consistent knack for carving out new spaces whenever old ones disappear, whether lost to red tape, poor infrastructure, or lack of security. TOI did a reality check across the city and found that pattern holding true once again.At midnight in Thrikkakara, Kochi's IT hub, a group of youngsters was still at it, guitars out, cajons tapping, voices carrying across the open stage at Thrikkakara municipal park. Most were Infopark employees or students from nearby colleges. Many started as strangers; regular late-night jam sessions turned them into friends.Joel George, who works at Infopark, says the gatherings helped him reconnect with music he had set aside. "I am reclaiming the music I thought I had lost. It is a very refreshing feeling to meet up with friends and sing together after a long day of work," he said.For Mithra Prakash, a journalism student at Jain University, these late-night meetups are about more than music. "There are people whose shifts end at 8pm or 9pm. For them to sit here and unwind after a long day is such a stress relief. Most people who come here at night are simply looking for that happiness," she said.On Seaport-Airport Road at Peringazha, a stretch where pending construction has left the road's end open, cafes have quietly taken root on either side, serving everything from rolls to grilled beef ribs until the early hours. "The place is active till around 2am on most days," said Ashwin Vinod, a regular there. Youngsters with hostel curfews filter out by 9pm; couples and friend groups take over after that.At Pizhala, the scenic bridge connecting Container Road at Moolampilly to Valiyakadamakudy draws families to its riverside cafes and farms after dark. On Banerji Road, a hotel's midnight dum biryani draws long queues as the dum is broken at 12am and kuttan biryani with tender beef, chemmeen choru, and chicken biryani are served through the night. Panampilly Nagar remains a reliable hangout, though most shops wind down by midnight.Past midnight on the ring road around Kaloor Stadium, cafe-hopping crowds fill the stretch well into the early hours. Among them are Munshif and Binshad, who run a streetwear pushcart they built into a brand through Instagram. They had originally set it up at Queen's Walkway in late Dec. "The crowd there was so diverse, with lots of families visiting. But we could stay barely two weeks before the kiosks shut and the place went silent," said Munshif. They now focus on Stadium Link Road on weekends, where the energy, he says, runs strong till 2am.Nivin Devarajan, founder of open music collective Chai Connections, points out that nightlife is not a luxury but a genuine social need. "People in corporate jobs shuttle between office and home. A third place is a human need. Going somewhere that encourages nightlife brings back the community feeling we lost to the online world. At a time when mental health issues are rising, such stress relief is not optional," he said.He also pointed to a lonelier reality behind the crowds. "Friends of almost everyone have moved abroad. People are dealing with loneliness. These communities address it, at least to an extent," he said, adding that Kochi still lacks enough such spaces, and that those who do show up to enjoy them are too often met with suspicion rather than welcome.