It has been a while that I am discussing my stay stature in
a cosmopolitan city, Bangalore.
The best one I heard today is that Bangalore should change
its name to Bengal-ore.
Reason?
“With the number of Bengali's who have migrated to thrive
here, it no longer looks like a part of South India. It is more like a city in
North India.” This is infuriating, especially when it comes from people who
boast their certificates and positions in the organization that they work for.
There are a few things that people; rather I would address
them as natives from this land needs to know here.
India is not partitioned after Independence into 2 further
parts – North India and South India. We are still one country with 28 states
and 7 union territories. The official Language of union government of the
Republic of India is Hindi and English. We are free to speak in our different
mother tongues and are not obligated to learn our neighbor’s dialect. Residing in
any state in this country does not involve signing of a verbal bond to learn to
speak in the native language of the state and forget our own routes, festivals
and upbringing. It is absolutely ones interest for new languages that can drive
the necessity to learn.
When we relocate from a certain part of the country to
another, we have an open mind to adopt and accept the changes coming by. So, it
is not that we do not respect the ways, festivals and daily life of natives
here, though there are surprising differences, we do adopt, appreciate and
participate in such new ways of life. We welcome others to participate with us
as well. Things are absurd for both when it comes to the point of view of an
individual, but that never should turn up to be demeaning.
Just like any state below Madhya Pradesh is not Madras,
similarly any state above Karnataka is not North India. India, if need be, for
reference purposes can be addressed into the East-West-North-South of India.
We, the large crowd in Bangalore today are East Indians and
NOT North Indians. Bengalis are not North Indians if anyone would want to be
geographically correct.
Bengalis do not eat fish 3 times a day and they don’t swim
in mustard oil. We are experimental and welcoming to world cuisine from Chinese,
Lebanese, Italian or the yummy South Indian Meals. To be outright with my
opinion here I must say that we have an enriched choice for everything. Be it
good food, good dressing, literature, music, art, home décor and festivities.
We are apt in vegetarian food as much as in non-vegetarian. It is, on the
whole, not the classification of the food that we are bothered about; it is the
fulfillment of our taste bud that stands to be more important.
We adorn our tea because we come from the place where the
world gets their supply of tea from. We love your filter coffee as much. We
might have a little bit of denominations when it comes to moving from porcelain
to a steel glass, a bone chine to a steel plate, but we learn with time the
ways of the place. We love different non-repetitive choices in the different
lentils in our kitchen cabinets because that’s what our taste buds have matured
with.
We love sweets in variety because that’s what we have offered to the rest
of the country, authenticity in sweets.
We thoroughly enjoy your hot idlis but
we also miss our “Hinger Kochuri”. Pani Poori is definitely not at its best
here and we miss our street food too.
It is just the kind of different tastes we grow up with. Be it our kitchen
cabinet, or our wardrobe, be it our bookshelves or our lamp shades, we are
constantly experimental while the natives here like to stick to their best laid
rules. Both are absolutely fine in their own ways. And there is a friendly word
called Adaptability that can help us thrive well.
We are full of festivals and that too looks like an issue.
It is more food than religion for us says the accuser. Again our motive is to
have a good time. Eat, Pray and Love. We had 37 Durga Puja Pandals on record in
this city in the year 2013. Surprisingly, there is every kind of people,
irrespective to the language they speak visit and have a good time.
We are loud since we have a voice of our own. We voice our
opinion since we have knowledge to back them up with data. We flaunt because we
have things to flaunt. Our being down to earth is about welcoming people and
showering them with feel good factor rather than treating them as an urban passerby.
We talk to our fellow Bengali's in English. Now that is an
issue for you? We also talk in Bengali when we want to make sure that certain
truths don’t hurt you. For the kindest information, our motive is to connect to
the person we are trying to converse with, rather than making him/her
uncomfortable in the crowd.
We are not migrants in Bangalore, we have relocated for the
opportunity that this city has provided us. We have loved the city, did our
part to generate revenue for the city and have made friends here. We have
adapted to the ways this city operates, we pay the highest rent in this country
to the greedy ones who do not step down to see what wrong they are doing. We
pay unleashed price to the rickshaw and taxi drivers and yet we choose our best
friends from here and look for happiness. We have chosen Bangalore as our 2nd
home. We have fallen in love with Bangaloreans and settled in our splashy
apartments to have a beautiful future. We have called ourselves home here, but
not many from here have accepted us yet as their neighbors.
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