A personal journey through Udupi, Mangalore, and the many flavours of Tulu
I’m Sujith, born and brought up in Udupi- a place the world seems to know mainly for one thing.
Hotels.
Ask anyone outside Udupi what comes to mind when they hear the name, and chances are you’ll hear: “Ah, Udupi Hotel!”
From crispy dosas to creamy desserts, Udupi has certainly earned its reputation.
But today, I’m not here to talk about food.
I want to talk about something deeper-the language that carries the soul of Tulunadu: Tulu.
The Heartbeat of Tulunadu
Tulunadu is a land shaped by its language, traditions, landscapes, and people. Stretching across parts of present-day Karnataka and Kerala, the region has a cultural identity that goes far beyond administrative boundaries.
And Tulu itself is not quite the same everywhere.
The language changes as you travel through the region. Different places have their own expressions, accents, and rhythms-like different versions of the same song.
I understood this only after leaving Udupi.
From Udupi to Mangalore
Until I completed my PU, I had barely spent more than a few days away from Udupi.
I had always dreamed of joining the merchant navy. Instead, fate had other plans, and I ended up studying Mechanical Engineering at Sahyadri College, Mangalore.
For someone who had hardly been away from home for more than ten days, moving to Mangalore for four years felt like entering a completely different world.
The city had its own rhythm.
Temple bells in the morning. Auto horns by noon. Beach winds by evening.
And then there was the language.
The slang was different. The expressions were different. Even tea seemed to have its own personality.
I quickly discovered that I wasn't just going to college to learn Mechanical Engineering.
I was also about to get an unexpected education in Tulu.
When Tulu Met Tulu
During my first week of college, I became friends with a guy from Puttur.
We immediately bonded over our shared mother tongue.
Or so we thought.
Our first proper conversation quickly turned into a comedy show.
Words that made perfect sense to me sounded completely unfamiliar to him. And the same happened in reverse.
Whenever I laughed at his way of saying something, he would look at me and say:
“Daytha ya?”
And I would respond:
“Dada ya!”
Both essentially meant “What happened?”-but in our respective versions of Tulu.
We weren't correcting each other.
We were decoding each other.
Eventually, we realised something important:
Neither of us was wrong. We were simply speaking different Tulus.
Then Came the Mangalore Twist
Things became even more interesting when I made friends with someone from Kudla- Mangalore.
Mangalore Tulu sounded familiar, but different.
It was smoother, faster, and had its own urban flavour. To me, it felt like Udupi Tulu after a college makeover.
Even simple words could expose where someone came from.
For example, we might say “thare” for hair, while they might say “kujal.”
Different words. Same meaning.
And that was the fascinating part.
The differences weren't just vocabulary.
They were identity.
In Mangalore, Tulu and Kannada blended naturally into everyday conversations. The pace was faster, the expressions more dramatic, and even an ordinary question could sound like a movie dialogue.
My classmates, mostly from Mangalore, soon discovered that my Udupi accent was an easy target.
Lunch breaks became informal language battles.
They would throw Mangalore slang at me.
I would defend Udupi Tulu.
And somewhere between the jokes and arguments, I started understanding something bigger.
I wasn't just learning different words.
I was discovering different versions of the same culture.
One Language, Many Lives
That experience changed the way I looked at Tulu.
We often think of a language as something fixed- a collection of words and grammar.
But language doesn't work that way.
It changes with geography.
It changes with communities.
It changes with generations.
And most importantly, it carries the personality of the people who speak it.
Udupi Tulu, Puttur Tulu, Mangalore Tulu-each has its own flavour, but underneath the differences is the same cultural thread.
That's what makes Tulunadu fascinating.
One land. One cultural identity. Many voices.
And Then There Is Kundapura...
Remember when I said Tulu is the soul of Tulunadu?
Well, there is an interesting twist.
Travel towards Kundapura, and the linguistic landscape changes.
Kundapura is known for its distinctive Kannada, its food, and its own strong cultural identity. Yet it remains an important part of the larger Tulunadu story.
So how does Kundapura fit into a region so strongly associated with Tulu?
That's a story of its own.
And perhaps that's the best thing about Tulunadu.
Every place has another story waiting behind it.
Every dialect has a history.
Every word has a journey.
And sometimes, you have to leave home to realise just how many voices your home has.
Discover the Stories of Tulunadu
At Excoka, we believe travelling is not just about visiting a place.
It is about understanding it.
The food, the language, the festivals, the people, the landscapes-and the little stories that make a place what it is.
Come explore Tulunadu, one story at a time.
Excoka - Discover Tulunadu. Discover the stories behind the places.