JOIN USSketches from a second home
Being entrepreneurs, Tanmoy Karmakar from Dhanbad, Jharkhand and Shatarupa Adhikary from Siliguri, West Bengal love the city for reasons other than the pleasant weather and cheerful people. The encouragement the young professionals received was heartening they owe their personal and professional growth to the city.
Tanmoy is the director and co-founder of Loadshare Networks and Shatarupa is programme and sales lead with Lunate Technologies. They have a daughter Ishita. While it was a campus placement that brought Shatarupa to the city in 2009, Tanmoy, who was in Mumbai then, decided to follow suit as he thought this would be the best place to start their life together.
There are many facets of the city that the duo fell in love with. Shatarupa says that the professional nature of the people here is very encouraging. “It taught me many things about work ethics and how to behave with people,” she details.
About moving to the city, Tanmoy says, “It was impossible to imagine buying a house and settling anywhere else at that time. Everything about the place was great. Since Shatarupa was living here, I used to visit often and knew that settling here would be a cakewalk.”
Compared to the pace of other cities, one would be able to find time for family here, he adds.
“Families are more close-knit. It is also easy to mingle with people. It is a large and smooth cohesive society here,” says Tanmoy.
“People are open to new ideas. They are ready to talk about new experiences and share feedback. They will help groom you better. Bengaluru boosted my
confidence a lot,” he says.
“The best part is that despite being a cosmopolitan city, the place holds on to its traditions and heritage,” he adds.
The greenery of the city still holds a lot of charm for him. “While I am worried among the diminishing green cover, the city still has more green spaces than any other metropolitan city,” he says.
They have built a lot of solid relationships here and have made quite a few friends. “We have realised that the people are kind and always ready to help,” he says.
Shatarupa pitches in, “I’ve always felt safe in the city, no matter what hour of the day or night. We used to roam around as a group at night. On the work front, I have gone back home late at night after meeting. I was never scared.”
She recollects an incident when she was working late one day and couldn’t find any transport to reach home, as it was raining outside.
“When I stepped out, an old autorickshaw driver was looking at me. He drove up to me and asked where I wanted to go. I told him my destination and he offered to drop me. Suddenly, he started taking different routes. Noticing that I was getting tensed, he started pacifying me by telling me that he had a daughter and that he wanted her also to fearlessly work one day. He made sure that I reached home safe,” narrates Shatarupa.
The couple have also indulged their tastebuds in the city. Food is a common love and Shatarupa points out that the city introduced her to many cuisines.
“From local food to world cuisine, I have experimented a lot here,” says Shatarupa. The duo love visiting places like ‘Toit’, ‘Little Italy’, ‘Black Pearl’ and ‘Om Made Cafe’.
“We also frequent places around Koramangala and HSR Layout more,” she says.
Being parents, one reason the duo chose the city was for the good education opportunities that will be open to their child later on.
“From the best schools to colleges, Bengaluru houses it all. Also, whichever field one wants to work in, the options are many here. We only feel a positive vibe,” says Tanmoy.