'The City is a mini world in itself'

Melting pot

It was the warmth of the people and the beautiful weather that made Sourav Sethi, from Dimapur, Nagaland, move to Bengaluru and fall in love with it a few years back. Sourav, who works with ICICI Lombard as a sales manager, says that he is well-settled here with wife Sheenu and three-year-old twin daughters, Disha and Diya.

Having graduated and completed his further studies in Bengaluru, he adds that he owes his life to the City as he met his wife here. “Literally, Bengaluru gave me everything,” he says, with a smile. Sheenu, who has her roots in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, came to the City when her family moved here, and she was Sourav’s collegemate.

The main reason he moved here was for better education opportunities. “Back home, there was a lot of tension and Bengaluru was known to be an education hub,” he says. “Though Nagaland has a pleasant climate, Dimapur saw hot temperatures and thus the pleasant weather of Bengaluru was very enticing.” 

 “It was love at first sight and forever. When I first came to the South, I landed in Tamil Nadu and it was hot. And from there, when I reached the Bangalore City Railway Station, the cool weather welcomed me and I knew that everything would be okay,” he recollects.
The decision to move to a different city is always easier when one has friends or family there.

 “I had my family here and thus it was a smooth transition,” he says. Despite the culture being different to what Sourav was exposed to, he adds that everything here has been positive.

 “The first impression I had about the City was that it was clean and had friendly
citizens.”

About the people, he elaborates that they were humble and always ready to help, which was welcoming. “When the language and food habits vary, the culture and people are bound to be different. But once you talk to Bengalureans, you will know that they are honest. People here are very simple and traditional.”

Sheenu adds that the charm of the City is that it has the right balance between the traditional and modern. “The cosmopolitan culture of the City is an add-on,” she says, to which Sourav adds, “We never felt like we were in a strange place.”  Language was a problem in the beginning but not anymore. “It was hard to communicate with autorickshaw drivers, but I slowly picked up Kannada.” Sourav adds that he missed the food he was used to. “I was so used to having ‘pani-puri’ and ‘paan’, and during the early 2000s these were not easily available. But now, the City has everything for everyone,” he says. He calls it “a mini world in itself”.

The festivals that Sourav was used to, like ‘Holi’ and ‘Diwali’, were not celebrated with as much grandeur as in the northern part of the country earlier, but he says that it is different now. “It is nice to see people living in harmony here and celebrating so many different festivals together.”

He adds that the harmony in the City has brought about a deep cultural exchange, wherein many South Indians are seen gorging on ‘chaat’ items, while he and many other North Indians or people from elsewhere love to indulge in ‘ídli-vada’. Having two young kids, Sheenu also says that there are many options for families to hang out in the City.

 Safety is another advantage in Bengaluru, she points out. “I feel that the people have more respect for each other here. The law and order is also well in place compared to other places.” If given an option, the only two places that Sourav would like to settle down in are Nagaland and Bengaluru. “There is no place that is as dear to us as this City,” says the couple.