For the longest time, we have been witnessing people who migrate to other countries in search of greener pastures. Over a period of time, they settle down in an alien land for good.

A similar scenario is being replayed in Bengaluru. Lots and lots of young people from all walks of life have been surging into the city lock, stock and barrel.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interact with a wide spectrum of staff members who work for a construction company. They were a mix of the educated and no so educated, men and women, urban and rural, speaking different languages, belonging to diverse age groups and backgrounds. Almost all of them had come kit and caboodle from different parts of the northern and neighbouring States. They were gushing praise for the garden city.

The newcomers have taken to it, like a duck takes to water. Signs of balding greenery, rising concrete buildings, mindless drilling of borewells, maddening crowds, and insane traffic seems invisible to some of these guest workers. They feel that the jam-packed roads and rationed water are inconsequential in the face of what the Silicon Valley offers them. Salubrious weather, verdant lung spaces, and the urban aura appeal to them.

They have identified their favourite comfort zones to blend into the fabric of their second home. Besides, they have formed their own groups and associations to keep in touch with their regional and cultural roots. Their taste buds relish the local cuisine and they have also identified oases in the metropolis which caters for their niche traditional menu as mother makes it. The local people accommodate them, though they are not familiar with the vernacular. Technology has ensured that they are in touch with their loved ones in real time. All the same, the newly endeared city dares them with its dearness. Some of them in the lower rungs of the economic ladder do get to bear the brunt of it from time to time.

Yet, interestingly, not one of them wanted to return to their native places. It was certainly not a lack of sentimental or nostalgic values about their backyard. All of them were keen on visiting their kith and kin as and when possible. It was then I realised, that new prospects and material benefits could not be the only reasons for their relocation.

On scratching the surface, to check what made them synergise without reluctance, the responses though articulated variously boiled down to one factor. In Bengaluru, they could lead their lives incognito, without being judged by society, and explore their potential without being judged. They had tasted personal liberty which was hitherto unknown in the small towns and villages they hailed from. Their sense of universal belonging stemmed from this sense of freedom which made their second home their home.

This unexpected but sound logic for their conscious choice reflected the essence of the famous line of the Tamil Sangam poet Kaniyan Poongunranar. He summed up their collective emotions a few millennia ago in his famous line Yaadhum oore yaavarum keleer, which translates as “All towns are mine and all people are mine”.

srprathi@gmail.com