At 1pm on a Saturday, Maven Kitchen in Ejipura feels less like a restaurant and more like a little corner of the Northeast in Bengaluru.Serving Manipuri and Naga cuisines, the restaurant is filled with the aroma of bamboo shoots, and eromba, a side dish that includes mashed potatoes, leafy green and herbs, as customers enjoy delicacies that remind them of home.Momin, from Meghalaya, has travelled from Electronics City, around 10 km away, for lunch along with his friend. As a fresh pork thali, smoked pork thali and a portion of Singju, a traditional salad from Manipur, is served on their table, Momin says, “This is comfort food.”Rahavei Abel, the restaurant’s owner, says: “The ingredients we use are ordered from the Northeast directly. We want to give a homely feel with the taste. In this area (Ejipura), we have restaurants serving different Northeast cuisines, and it lends a nostalgic feel for people, far away from home.”The food may not be exactly the same as what is cooked in their parents’ kitchens, but it carries familiar flavours and memories of the region they left behind for education and work.In the same lane, shelves of a shop stacked with fermented bamboo shoot, smoked meat and other ingredients from the Northeast offer another reminder of how the community has carried its food traditions to Bengaluru. The everyday products are shipped in from the Northeast and quickly find buyers looking for flavours of home.“I post updates about the fresh arrivals on our WhatsApp group,” says Ashim Hongva, from Manipur, the owner of Seven Sisters Northeast shop. There are around 20 such shops in the radius of barely one km, catering to a loyal clientele for products from the Northeast. The concentration of Northeast-owned restaurants, shops and residents has earned Ejipura the informal tag of a ‘mini-Northeast.’Bengaluru’s Northeast-origin population is not a single community but a collection of communities—Mizo, Assamese, Naga, Manipuri, Khasi, Sikkimese and others—with distinct languages, cuisines and traditions. What binds them in the city is not cultural uniformity but the shared experience of being far from home.There is no reliable official count of Bengaluru’s Northeast-origin population, but community organisations describe the city as one of the largest destinations for migrants from the region.Beyond The Lanes Of EjipuraBut home in Bengaluru is not confined to the shops and restaurants of Ejipura. For students and young professionals from the Northeast scattered across the city, it is also recreated in college corridors, rehearsal rooms, hostels and churches.For many students from the Northeast, arriving in an unfamiliar city can be an overwhelming experience as each day brings new challenges. Against this backdrop, Northeast festivals organised by colleges have emerged as important spaces where students celebrate their shared heritage and build a sense of belonging.For Sneha Pradhan, 19, a third-year student of B Tech in Reva University, who came to Bengaluru in 2024 from Sikkim, her college’s Northeast fest helped her feel at home. It features traditional dances, cultural performances and a ramp walk, where students dress in traditional attire representing different Northeast communities. In the weeks before the festival, they travel to one another’s homes to rehearse, sing and share meals, gradually forming friendships beyond their college circles.“For new (Northeast) students in Bengaluru, this fest is good, you get to meet people from different parts of the Northeast. When we practise (for the fest), that is when the bonding happens and makes you feel at home,” says Sneha.These friendships and communities are also nurtured through shared institutions such as the church on Sundays and football tournaments across the city. In a year, there are almost 10-15 northeast football tournaments. A single team may comprise friends from different states of the Northeast, making it a unique blend of diverse cultures and backgrounds.Likewise, the church is always buzzing on Sundays with many Northeast women in traditional attires lending a colourful atmosphere. Lalhminghlui, 27, from Mizoram, who is currently pursuing her doctorate in mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, attends the church in ‘puan’ (traditional wrap-around) and is actively involved in the Bangalore Mizo Presbyterian Church in Vasanth Nagar.“After we became regular at the church, we were given roles of distributing refreshments after the service. The elderly asked about our parents, and chatted with us. Everyone was welcoming. It felt like home,” she says.How Bengaluru Becomes Home Away From HomeAfter staying in the city for more than a decade, many people from the Northeast have made Bengaluru their home. Ashim, who has been living in Bengaluru for more than a decade, took different jobs before settling for his business. Over the years, he expanded his business, got married, and became a father of three.Some of them have even grown in their professional lives, like Mesalhoulie Punyu of Nagaland, who moved to Bengaluru in search of better job prospects in 2007. He is currently an assistant vice-president at HSBC. “Bengaluru is my second home. I’m grateful for all that the city has offered me and my family,” said Mesalhoulie, who lives in a rented flat in Yelahanka with his wife, daughter and son.Mesalhoulie hopes to buy a house in Bengaluru someday. Nearly two decades after arriving in the city, he has dreams of creating permanent roots in a city that was once far from home.
