When I had to come to Bangalore last year, people warned me that there could be a language problem, you know the whole north-south divide but since my sister was already staying here and that too in an Air Force base, I did not worry about it for a sec.

The first local person who I had to interact with was my sister’s maid and since she spoke English, there was no problem at all. Within the air force base, everybody understood either Hindi or English or both. Even outside the base, I found out that most people understood at least one of the two languages I spoke and when they didn’t, they politely smiled and told me so and in some cases, even directed me to other people who they thought could understand me.

What I did face, however, was culture shock because we were staying on Hesaraghatta Main Road on the outskirts of the city and coming from a centrally located residential neighborhood my whole life, I obviously couldn’t relate to these people. In fact, once my sister asked me to get a pack of Macaroni and I went to a dozen big and small shops asking for it and everyone in these shops seemed puzzled whenever I asked for Macaroni. Nobody had any idea what this thing was. I tried explaining what macaroni looks like but to no avail. A guy at one of the shops thought that maybe I wasn’t pronouncing it properly and that I was actually looking for “Mac roti” (whatever that it).

I did, at occasions, was faced with people who refused to even look at me or listen to me because I didn’t speak their language but these instances were rare and hence by far my experience here has been great. There really is no language problem in Bangalore. (At least, I didn’t face it.)