How Bengaluru’s night and early morning workers brave the cold at this time of the year
As a cold winter sweeps the city, The Hindu talks to night and early morning workers from across the city on how they manage to keep working
Bengaluru has witnessed a significant drop in temperature this winter, especially from mid-December, 2024. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

Sipping a cup of takeaway coffee or hot chocolate from your favourite cafe, turning the heater on in the car, and just driving around the city enjoying the crisp air... These are the winter joys of an upper crust Bengalurean. But in the world of Rajesh Gowda, a cab driver who takes most of the airport pickups through the night and morning, winter is a different ball game. With soaring petrol and diesel prices, turning on the heater of his cab amid the extreme cold is not an option. And, of course, hot chocolate is not even something he thinks about.
Bengaluru has witnessed a significant drop in temperature this winter, especially from mid-December, 2024. The Meteorological Centre, Bengaluru, in its observation data recorded at 8.30 a.m. on January 8, said that the minimum temperature recorded at the city observatory was 16.4 °C. The minimum temperatures recorded at HAL Airport and the Kempegowda International Airport were 15.2 °C and 15.0 °C. Just before that, on January 4, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) alerted a significant drop in temperatures, with the predicting a minimum of 10.2 °C, which is below the city’s January average minimum of 15.8 °C and is attributed to the cold wave sweeping across northern India.