Pundarik Mahata cannot forget the culture shock he experienced when he came to the city three years ago on work. “I only knew Bengali and English and it was such a task finding a house as not many could follow my accent,” recalls Mahata, 33, working with an automobile firm.
Through Facebook, he made a few friends in the city and started the Chennai-Bengali group with 30 people, some of them his juniors and classmates at college. A few others were employed in the city.
Today, the Facebook group has nearly 3,500 members – one of the largest networks of non-resident groups in the city.
As Saikat Bhattacharya, an alumnus of IIT-Madras and working with a software firm, says, “Today, the page is like a Google group for the Bengalis in the city. From accommodation to restaurants, you get a whole lot of information here.”
Members meet both online and offline and any information sought by users are provided in no time.
Apart from the Durga Puja celebrations organised by cultural associations, ‘Sagorika’ was an attempt to showcase the talents of young Bengalis as well as to bond. “There is a floating population of at least 6,000 Bengalis in the city and we want to bring them together through such events,” added Mahata, a resident of Tambaram.
