'I have found a home here'

EXPAT ZONE

Miho Sakata Malhan has had quite an exciting life. Hopping from Japan to New York and finally in India, she has managed to get a whiff of everything, from the culture of the East to the fast pace of the West.

And now, she is at home in namma Bangalore. Miho talked about her life here and what brought her to this city.

“I was a writer in Japan and in 1996, I decided to go to New York to study English,” she says. There she met her husband Arvind Malhan.

They subsequently got married in Delhi, in 2001. But the move to Bangalore happened only in 2005 after a lot of changes, which included the 9/11 attacks which made her prioritise her life.

“After the attacks, I wanted to be close to my husband, who was in Washington while I was in New York. I was also interested in the brain drain occurring in India and wanted to know more about the country. So I asked my husband if we could shift here,” she says.

“He found a job in 2005 in a US-based company and we shifted to Bangalore,” she adds. What is interesting is that Miho checked out all the possible metros in India before setting her heart on Bangalore.

“We went to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata but I felt Bangalore was easier to live in because of the weather and the lifestyle,” she says. Miho says she did take a little while to adjust to the City.  “The lifestyle here is quite different and you have to be part of some community,” she says. “I was so accustomed to doing everything myself. But in Bangalore, I don’t drive,” she says laughing. She informs that initially she was not comfortable with the idea of a domestic maid.

“I need my own space and I cook on my own, but I am alright with the maid we have had now for two years,” she says.  She also says that she finds the people in Bangalore very easy-going.

“I come from Japan where everything is organised and convenient. But I feel convenience is not always equal to good,” she says.

“If things are too convenient, then you lose communication with the people,” she adds. Mention the weather and she says, “My memory of Bangalore weather is very flat. You wear the same clothes through the year.”

Miho says that she didn’t have much difficulty with the food in Bangalore.  “I cook Indian food other than Japanese and continental,” she says. “In South Indian food, I like the dosas and in North Indian, I like tandoori chicken and dal. Home-cooked dal is always better than the dal you get outside,” she adds.

She also mentions that she misses Japanese food. “But if I have soy sauce and Japanese rice, I can manage,” she says.

Her sister-in-law also stays in Bangalore and that she says is an additional support. “In New York, if I had a fight with my husband, we had to figure it out but here, I can always talk to his family. It’s nicer to share,” she says smiling.

After having spent almost five years in this City, Miho seems to be at ease with the place.

“I still lead a nomadic lifestyle with the amount of travelling I do but in the long term, I have found a home here,” she says.