Aindrita Ray, rooted in Bengali culture, has embraced Karnataka and its traditions. She shares that the celebrations and cuisines in both regions are quite similar, making it easy for her to adapt. A regular at puja pandals in both Bengaluru and Kolkata, she cherishes the community spirit of the events. As a child in Bengaluru, she fondly remembers assisting her mother in serving food during puja bhog, feeling important as they distributed prasad to attendees. A vegan now, she enjoys her mother's kheer made with coconut or almond milk and jaggery from Kolkata. While Aindrita appreciates traditional Bengali dance like Dhunuchi Naach, she admits to not being skilled at it. She admires how the entire community comes together to support the performers during the dance. Despite missing her childhood friends who are now based internationally or in other cities, Aindrita values the sense of innocence and simplicity that surrounded earlier celebrations with a smaller, tighter-knit group of people."The ways of celebrating in Chennai may not measure up to those in Kolkata, but they do come quite close," she remarks. — With contributions from Karthikeyan Sairam