'Every moment here is worth it'

It’s been three years since Donna Lethborg, her husband Sandy Moore and their teenage daughter Chloe May Lethborg moved to Bangalore. They literally found the City intimidating with its traffic, the intemperate motorists, people expectorating and even relieving themselves in the open, honking endlessly and throwing garbage on the streets. The Australian family felt its sensibilities were brutalised.

But down the years, the family laughs away all they thought of the City. Donna admits that a year was enough for them to find that Bangalore was not only livable but lovable too.

“It’s too structured back home in Queensland so when we came here, we were introduced to a new chaos. My biggest challenge living here has been to learn how to communicate one thing in ten different ways. Despite all this, the City has something new to offer every day. It’s never boring out here. The chaos can be fun too and we’ve become a part of it,” Donna tells Metrolife

Talking about her initial days in the City, she says, “We were stunned to find a boy selling fish in the thick of traffic and newspapers and magazines being sold off the street. Back home, you need to park your car and walk into a store to pick up something. Nothing is sold off the street.”

Donna recollects that she even found shopping for groceries here a big problem. “You have to go in different directions to buy whatever you want. You wouldn’t get everything under one roof and moving around in the City is impossible,” she says.

One of the several things that helped Donna and her family settle into the City was the Overseas Women’s Club. “They were extremely helpful. You could post all your queries on their website and someone would help you. But the expats in the City move around constantly. They come and go all the time,” observes Donna.

This inspired Donna to set up her own business. “I thought I would set up a business, with travel as its base, to help the expat community in the City move around,” she explains.

Donna’s husband is the CEO of LK Hooker, a real estate company, and Chloe,  their daughter, is in her high school at Stone Hill. Their older daughter Jessica Lethborg lives in Australia.  

Donna says that she and her family love Indian food and never miss the chance to travel and explore the country.

“My favourite is butter chicken and my cook dishes up good Indian food. Initially, we stuck to our own food, but slowly began opening up to the food here.” 

The Indian festivals are a treat for Donna. She gets invited to her Indian friends’ homes to savour the food and sweets, “We had a chance to witness the Mysore Dasara with the royal family and this year,  I played Holi at a friend’s place. The colour stuck to my face and hair. I had to scrub really hard to get it off my skin and recolour my hair,” she beams.  She says living the Indian experience has been worth every moment.