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ShareBanglore: As you walk into Harima -- chef Mako Ravindran's Japanese restaurant on Residency road -- mother Junko greets you with a courteous obeisance, a quintessential gesture associated with Oriental hospitality.
At 61, Junko Ravindran is a proud mother, grandmother, director of the IT firm that her late husband set up in 1973 and "a content Japanese national who has made the city her home for the past 34 years."
"I come from Matsuzaka city, from the Mie Prefecture on the Honshu Island in Japan," she says with a heavy Japanese accent. At 21, when she was marrying Ravindran VK, an engineer with a PhD from Stanford, Junko had no misgivings. It was definitely not love at first sight, she laughs; he was a thorough-bred Malayali Nair and a Kathakali performer and she was far removed from that.
"In those days, it was not considered 'proper' for Japanese girls to break tradition and behave as they wished. Our society is male-dominated," she says.
But when Junko broached plans of marrying a foreigner, her family had to give in. "I was the only girl in my family, you see," she says matter-of-factly.
After the wedding in the US, where they were studying then, Ravi decided to return to India, because he wanted to do something for his country. Bangalore was their preferred choice. The clime and the quietness of the place were enticing and IT was still in its infancy. Even then, IT wasn't the only lure.
It was almost everything about the place -- the parks, the aroma of strong coffee, the pleasant summers and her growing family. She loves bisibelebaath and cooks a lot of Indian and intercontinental food. Her son Mako, trained in French cooking, has many of his father's tastes.
"He eats idli and dosa for breakfast. He likes that," she says. Her daughter Lisa is a dance therapist who lives with her family in the US. Looking back, Junko confesses she has no regrets and still respects Ravi's decision of coming to India.
A devout Buddhist, she acknowledges that the chaos in India keeps her busy and going. Junko reveals that gaining acceptance was not difficult in a city like Bangalore which has a burgeoning cosmopolitan crowd. She still has strong ties with her country. "I write to my friends in Japan, I call them. My brothers love India, too. Recently, they came down to see me," she says.
Like any other foreigner in town, Junko had her share of issues in the beginning. It was ruffling, especially when people were careless, when they displayed "bad civic sense".
"Even educated people lack it," she says with a straight face. "I know traffic and infrastructure are big woes. It's not nice when people cut past you ruthlessly on the road or say 'sorry', that actually means nothing," she says.
The discipline is missing and the sad thing is that nobody takes responsibility. It's a good thing this country doesn't have earthquakes like Japan does. That would add to the problems, she says.
Sitting at her son Mako's restaurant, Junko waves at huge window through which one can get a beautiful view of UB city, the trees and cloud-dotted horizon and laments, "It still isn't an international city."
"The city's planning doesn't meet expectation. We still have power cuts and water problems. Do we have problems like this in world-class cities?" she asks.
Offer Delhi or Mumbai as possible options and Junko defiantly says "no"; her heart belongs in Bangalore. "I don't think I'll move out of here. I have asked my kids to dissolve my ashes in a river after I am gone. I can't leave this place, it's my home," she says with finality.
