I am about to complete 1.5 years in Bengaluru (erstwhile Bangalore) and have been thinking of blogging about my experience/thoughts as someone who has experienced both these regions. Getting the time was the issue. A late Friday evening, with a cup of coffee in place, I feel perfectly in the mood to attempt this. So here goes …

(A) Weather

Weather is, bar none, the biggest advantage Bengaluru has over other Indian cities, in my opinion. That puts Bengaluru weather very similar to Silicon Valley weather. Moderate, year round. As many of my friends have told me, to appreciate the Bengaluru weather, you have to travel to another Indian city and return 🙂 How long such weather conditions will last needs to be seen, as lakes are disappearing fast or they are getting polluted fast. The city is not expanding, it is exploding!

(B) Technological Hub (and number of Corporations)

Again, very similar to San Jose. Though people quote Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi-Gurgaon, Kolkata etc., let me mention two facts to illustrate my point:

– In my complex of 1000+ flats, atleast 40% of the population are from North India (I mean North of Mumbai). These are folks who gave up on Delhi, Pune, Mumbai etc. and decided to be based in the South.

– We recently had a batch of new college graduates from IIT-Kharagpur join our company. From a class of around 40 students, apparently 26 headed to Bengaluru.

So, rest of the Indian cities can blow their horns all they want, Bengaluru is the King (and Queen) as far as technical jobs go. A lot of immigrants never move out of Silicon Valley, even though the home prices are ridiculous and the state is in deep trouble with its finances, because of the sheer number of companies in the area. Almost every major corporation has a base in Silicon Valley. Though other places like Boise, Dallas, Chicago suburbs, NY-NJ, Boston, Seattle etc. are supposed to be competitors, based on my visits to these places and analysis, these regions are far from catching up with the valley.

Almost all the big global players, IBM, Oracle, Cisco, LSI, Intel, Accenture, Phillips, Samsung, TI etc. and the Indian giants like Infosys, Wipro, HCL etc. are all based in Bengaluru.

(C) Cosmopolitan Nature

Bengaluru has always been 2-3 steps ahead of the rest of India in terms of, how should I put it, western influence. I mean, very well-spoken people, people who have seen the world and people who have liberal views. Even cab drivers, cafeteria workers, security workers etc. speak a bit of English and are seen to use latest gadgets.

(D) Ethnical Diversity

Hah! Surely a huge similarity between the two regions. San Francisco Bay Area (in general) is one of the most ethnically diverse regions you will see in the World, let alone USA. You name a cuisine, I bet you, a restaurant is available for that cuisine in the Bay Area, and that too run by natives from that country. For example, Korean restaurant run by Koreans.

Similarily, Bengaluru is also very diverse. Please keep in mind that the differences between states in India are much more than the differences between states in USA. You may not find much difference between nearby states (in terms of culture, for example) like Mississippi and Alabama, but consider Kerala and Karnataka. There are a lot of differences, in language, customs, festivals, food etc. In our group (within my company), there are the following states of India represented: