'The city has absorbed me'

Hailing from Rajasthan, Piyush and Beena Bhandari made this city their home a decade ago soon after they got married. It was his professional commitment that made Piyush shift here.  Now,  the co-founder of ‘Jumpinggoose’, a strategic design agency,  he stays in  Gandhinagar with Beena and two beautiful kids — Nav, who is 6 and Kimaya, who is 3. 

“I am from Jaipur and my wife has her roots in a small town called Khajwana. After completing my graduation from NIFT, Gujarat. I moved to Mumbai for my first job and stayed their for almost 3 years. Better opportunities made me move to Bengaluru,” says Piyush.

About Jaipur, he says it is a mesmerising city and that he misses it a lot, especially his childhood friends back home. “Rajasthan is known for its royal heritage. There is a lot of art and folklore attached to the state,” he says.

Bengaluru, he points out, is a complete shift from where he comes from. “It has people from many cultures living together. In my studio itself, I have people from different parts of the country. So one can only imagine how diverse the entire population of Bengaluru is.”

He claims that since the day he landed here, people here have charmed him. Most importantly, he never had any language barrier here.

“People are extremely reflective and warm, which makes people settle down here easily. The city has a unique young life that cannot be seen in any other city,” he elaborates.

“Bengaluru is perfect mix of many factors. A great weather, the right attitude of the people and now, the startup trend. These elements set it apart from the rest.”

Since he is not a big foodie, exploring new eating joints is something that his wife is best at. “For starters, I don’t relish too much of South Indian food, but my wife loves the cuisine. She loves to discover eating places in the city especially  the bylanes. She enjoys the street food of the ‘thelewalas’ (cart vendors), but I keep cribbing because I am more into going for long drives. We are seen mostly at the ‘khau galli’(food street) even at 10 at night. I love driving down to Devanahalli Road where you have the ‘Indian Paratha Company’. Indiranagar is another place that we often go for lunch or dinner with family and friends.”

Beena says, “The food is completely different back home. It is more of ‘samosas’ ‘kachoris’ and ‘dal baati churma’. Our food is more on the oily side and frankly even at home, we follow the same diet. It is only when we go out, we try out traditional cuisines.”

“Our usual food at home is ‘roti’, two kinds of ‘sabjis’, ‘dal’ and rice. Since I cook most of our traditional dishes, we don’t face any problems as far as home food is concerned,” she says.

Ask what she misses the most about home, and she feels nostalgic. “I miss home during festivals. So we make sure we are there during the festive seasons, especially ‘Deepavali’ and ‘Sankranti’,” adds Beena.

Weekends are ‘family time’ and spent with the kids. The  family loves watching movies, so they make sure to go out for a long drive, dinner and then watch a movie.

Piyush also makes sure to help his wife at the weekend household chores. As for the weekend getaway, they usually drive down to  Mysuru Road and stop by at the ‘Rasta’ cafe and ‘Kamat’ restaurant.

Apart from these places — Kabini, Coorg and Bandipur — are part of their favourite haunts. The couple are grateful to the city that embraced them with so much love. Piyush says, “Initially when I shifted to Bengaluru, I wanted to go back to Mumbai because I was madly in love with that city. However, over a period of time Bengaluru has completely absorbed me as a person. I have become comfortable with the city today.”