Finding a haven in the ooru

The city of Bengaluru is known as an amazing host. Add beautiful weather and lush greenery, and it’s a marriage made in heaven for most youngsters coming to the city to work, study, stay and live. With warm people, endless eateries boasting all kinds of cuisine and the spellbinding places one can visit; what more can you ask for? Not much more, according to many millennials.

It is no secret that the city’s eclectic and multi cultural inhabitants from around the country and the world have found solace in this Garden City. Young millennials form a large part of the crowd, who have come far from home. They find it a haven and share how they got over their early issue, and coped with the feeling of home sickness.

Rithika Carol who hails from Hyderabad and is a student at Christ University in Bengaluru says, “The one difficulty I faced when I came here was with language. Anything I had to do, be it transportation or shopping I had to learn the language. I coped by learning the basic phrases in Kannada; the first one being Kannada gothilla, so they knew I wasn’t from here. Later, I learned smaller sentences that I could use with auto drivers and shop keepers so I could get my way around. I felt like the

treatment I received when I know Kannada was way different from when I didn’t. But the people here are very broad-minded. I love that about this city.”

Thomas G Kolath, a law student from Christ University does not agree, though for more personal reasons! Having lived with his family all his life, coming to Bengaluru and living all by himself was a rather “unhygienic” experience. “It took me a couple of months to get used to the place. I was staying in Kottayam, with my family, before I came to Bengaluru. When you live with family you don’t have much to worry about, everything is in place and clean; so the first thing I had to deal with when I came to Bangalore was cleanliness. I live in SG Palya so there is never a problem of me not being able to find authentic Kerala style food. God’s Own Café, in Koramangala, is one place I regularly go to when I miss home.”

Nandana Saikia, a student from St Joseph’s College, who hails from from Assam had a different experience all together. She found a home away from home when she came to namma ooru.

“I never really missed home. This city and it’s people have been very warm to me from the very beginning. Being a foodie, I keep growing closer and closer to this city every day. But on the rare occasions that I miss home and Assamese food, I am left in a puzzle. I have never had good Assamese food from any of the restaurants here. But then when things come to a head, the city always has something for all of us. That’s when you can spot me at Cubbon Park. That place reminds me a lot of home.”