JOIN USFrom Boston to Bengaluru
In just about a year, expatriate Jackie Stenson from Boston and Bengaluru seem to have become good friends. Her petite frame is in complete contrast with the lioness-hearted, daring entrepreneur. Bengaluru has warmly welcomed and made her comfortable when she walked in with the spirit of a ‘go-getter’ and the blood of adventure rushing through her veins.
After moving in and out of India for three years, Jackie decided to settle in the City with her husband, Aron Zingman, who is also from Boston.
She has her social enterprise, ‘Essmart’, which focuses on designing technology and durable, essential goods for rural areas and product dissemination and Aron works at ‘p.s.y.c.h’ as a product designer and developer.
Jackie has travelled to 56 countries so far and didn’t have any notions before coming to India.
Through her experience, she found that most of her perceptions tend to go wrong. But she doesn’t think twice before saying that she likes Bengaluru a lot.
“The City is very dynamic and seems to be in a state of transition. I see an enormous potential for growth because of the large number of young, working professionals here. It is an amalgamation of cultures and traditions so it’s easy to integrate oneself into a tradition here rather than being imposed by one, which tends to happen in traditional cities.”
Aron too has enjoyed what the City has had to offer so far and has found the daily life here fairly easy. “There are many pubs to chill at in Bengaluru. When my friend came here a few years back he said that he could see only two but now, in the same lane he says that there are 16. The weather is great and similar to Florida where I grew up, although the traffic can get pretty chaotic,” he adds.
Aron finds the work culture here similiar to the West. He says any work here requires as much follow-up, phone calls and emails as there.
Like any other citizen, Jackie too finds the traffic crazy and chaotic though she drives around in her car. She gleefully adds, “I also have an auto. I bought it, got it registered and painted it. I have received positive responses whenever I drive my auto and I think the combination being foreign and female works then.”
But apart from loving to drive, she is also an avid climber.
The ‘spiderwoman’ is an active member of the rock climbing community here and climbs boulders with her husband and friends every weekend at Turahalli forest. The duo are also regulars at Chianti for the lunch menu and Museum Inn for the‘Karaoke Nights’.
She adds, “I don’t like going out on Fridays and Saturdays as it’s too noisy and crowded.” But they find themselves completely at ease in their neighbourhood, Cox Town and love shopping at the ‘kirana’ stores there. The variety of food options here makes Jackie love Bengaluru more. She says that though she is not a fan of spice, the food options in Bengaluru make everybody happy. ‘Chicken kothu parotta’ and South Indian dishes like ‘idly’, ‘dosa’ and ‘sambhar’ are her favourites while Aron loves “anything chicken or vegetarian.”
He adds, “North Indian dishes are popular in the US and I’ve tasted it there. So I was happy to see such a variety of South Indian dishes here.”
But apart from enjoying the City, Jackie has also travelled to Tamil Nadu for work and recalls the fabulous time she had when she rode her bike to Munnar and Kochi. She has also enjoyed her holidays in Hampi and Jaipur. “I regret that I haven’t travelled more in India and hope to do trips to the North-East and Uttarakhand.”
However, Jackie knows that she has only scratched the surface so far and is ready to learn more about the City and its culture.
She hopes to learn more Indian languages and says, “This City is very interesting for languages. The lingua-francae here is primarily English as people in Bengaluru are from various places and this makes life easier for me. But I haven’t learnt other languages or watched regional language movies though I would like to.”
Jackie even bought a book on Hinduism to understand the concept of traditions and festivals better.
And she doesn’t want to leave anytime soon as she says that Bengaluru has given her a bouquet of memories to take back to Boston.
She adds, “The beauty of India is that it is a country of extremes. There are pre-conceived notions about foreigners going to different countries but India is a place for everybody. One of my biggest takeaways will be my connection with the local people here. They are generous and of a giving nature whenever you knock on their door.”
As for Aron, he wishes to see better management of “traffic and trash” and at a loss of words when asked about his best memories. “It will strike me when I leave the City,” he says.