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Ask HN: Best city in India?

11 points by initlaunch ↗ HN
I've been working for myself for the last several months and have decided to use my freedom to live abroad. I'd like to start off with India (I'm an American-born Indian). The major places to be seem to be Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai. Any others you'd recommend? Do you guys have advice on pros/cons of the various cities and how to best get started there?

Number one priority is internet of course. Also, since I won't be part of a company, I'd like a place where it is easy to meet other people - clubs and events and such. I'm thinking of staying there for the first few months of 2011, so I would like a reasonable flat that has plenty within walking distance.

Thanks a lot!

26 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 56.4 ms ] thread
niyazpk
If you want to meet other people and attend (tech) events and such I would suggest Bangalore. It is not called the silicon valley of India for no reason.

Of course I am biased.

BTW If you want to experience India, the real incredible India, you may want to roam across the country avoiding the cities. If you are doing this, don't always expect reliable internet connectivity.

prateekdayal
If you want to explore a little bit of tech and a lot of other stuff, Mumbai (Bombay) may be a great place too. You can always travel to Bangalore once in a while but if you really wanna feel a big Indian metro, you should live in Mumbai

PS: I am from Bangalore so I am not biased :)

andrewtbham
I know a lot of work is also outsourced to Hyderabad... so probably lots of tech people/events there also.
sushrutbidwai
Pune. If you are looking for a vibrant startup community, Pune is the place to be. It may not be as big as Bangalore but its far more vibrant.
rick_2047
If someone is going there for say half a month, what would be an interesting way to learn about and make contacts with the startup community there?
sushrutbidwai
there is a Google group - punestartups. also author of punetech.com is very active helpful person. hth.
known
Don't visit Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai. You'll not miss anything. Instead visit places like Udaipur, Trivandrum, Kandalampadu etc.

From http://airbnb.com you can get decent accommodation.

rick_2047
why do you recommend going to places with no start up culture and no tech events?
frodo01
Bombay. In malls, people wait till you come out of the elevator before getting in. I bet you will not find that in any other place in India.

I grew up in Chennai and currently live in Bombay. I've lived a few months in Hyderabad and Bangalore, and I've visited Delhi a few times. So yeah, I can talk!

Apart from the generally civilized air that is so rare in India, Bombay has great restaurants and malls, easy internet connectivity, lots of clubs that stay open till 1, and some restaurants/clubs that stay open all night. Stay away from the train stations, though. South bombay is calmer than the suburbs and very expensive.

Chennai is hot and the people are rude. It doesn't have anything to recommend itself, except a few startups and beaches. You might run into interesting, smart people around Anna Nagar or Mylapore or the IIT, but it's no use - they don't talk.

Bangalore is full of people in their twenties working in software companies. There are some startups, too. The traffic is heavy, and the weather is the best in India. I interned in Google, Bangalore a long back and remember seeing the road get regularly jammed for several hours in the evening. It's just a pain to go anywhere there. Also, it has no diversity whatsoever. A little like the valley, I guess. It has a lot of clubs, but everyone drops asleep at 10 PM sharp and NOTHING stays open after that.

I don't know a lot about Hyderabad and Delhi. Hyderabad is currently somewhat disturbed by regional issues and has some good South-Indian restaurants. It also has excellent bookstores. Delhi is not safe(at all) in the evenings, and has an AWESOME metro.

As for cost of living, Bombay is crazy expensive, Chennai is dead cheap, and Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi are in the middle.

All of these places are overcrowded, noisy and hot. The people will invariably shove you out of queues and counters, stare at you if you wear a hat (or anything that they don't wear), break rules and honk a lot on streets. Welcome to India.

frodo01
This is my first comment in HN. Twice downvoted and twice upvoted. Why?
initlaunch
Some may have gotten offended, but I found your post helpful, thanks! Bangalore sounds pretty cool, but things shutting down at 10pm is kind of a concern.
faz
Yeah. It's a rule here in Bangalore to shut down all restaurants and shops by 10-10:30 PM.

Unlike in Bombay where I remember seeing kebab shops open at 1:30 AM and doing brisk business!!

kloc
Start with pondicherry(some 180kms from chennai). Get in touch with Auroville Ashram and get an accommodation there. Once you have spent sometime there you can move to Chennai and then to Bangalore.
blntechie
I second this. With or without Auroville, Pondicherry is awesome. Have decent internet connectivity, living cost is low and peaceful with all big city facilities in a small town.

Edit:- But no start up culture or any events worth participating. You can visit Auroville, of course.

_b8r0
I worked in Gurgaon a couple of years ago. Don't go to Gurgaon, if ever they were to remake the Office series in India, that's where it would be set.

I went to Delhi from Gurgaon a couple of times and thought it was a great place to go. I would've liked to have done Agra and Shimla, but I didn't have time. I can't speak for the rest of India (as it's huge and I haven't been) but I have friends from Calcutta who like it there.

seltzered
Personally, I was never a fan of indian cities when I travelled there. I'd like to live near a cheap beach town like Gokarna or this place near Mangalore : http://surfingindia.net/node/10 . That said there's likely no tech/startup culture out here, but hopefully much less smog/air quality issues.

Upvoted Pondicherry as that looks pretty promising too.

initlaunch
If there is a reliable internet connection, I'll be able to work. I was thinking a city so that I could meet people and not get bored/lonely since I'll be working alone.
MrMan
Tekadi, Kerala. Just kidding.
rachnaspace
Internet should not be a problem anywhere you travel within India. There are internet USB cards available with pretty decent speed & connectivity. Here are a few - http://www.reliancenetconnect.co.in/ http://www.tataphoton.com/

With internet connectivity, you can travel to different cities and experience life there, rather than being based in only one city... just a suggestion.

Once you have decided on the city / cities where you want to stay while in India, for the accommodation, you can even post at HN google groups in India (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1885605) to see if any member can help suggest a good option for stay. And yeah, as someone suggested, check out airbnb as well.

Safe & fun travels!

frodo01
These internet cards don't work in several places. I've tried both Reliance and Tata Photon. They usually work in cities, though.
rachnaspace
It could be... my experience has been pretty good so far. I used Reliance USB even in smaller cities and it worked great... even in a moving train in the middle of nowhere when I was traveling.
rick_2047
If you have time and want to visit a fun place then I would recommend Ahmedabad. I love the city (and live in it). A lot of smart people can be found near university road as it has colleges like CEPT or at NID Paldi. But you will have to get involved with the college some how to talk with them. Ahmedabad is cheap and safe (not exactly clean) and has a lot of history.

Edit: We do have a TiE branch here but I seriously don't know about the actual start up culture.

alina24
For anyone wanting to work in the software/startup/tech scene,Bangalore is the best.The weather is always on the cooler side,its smaller in size compared to other metropolitan cities and traffic situation has much improved over time.If an analogy helps,Bangalore is kind of like San Francisco.

Mumbai is different in that unless you can find housing close to the center of the city(hugely expensive) where it "is easy to meet other people - clubs and events and such" ,you'll have to commute.Mumbai is NY + LA put together with all the excesses and advantages of both cities.

Delhi is nice but the weather tends to be extreme.As a newcomer,unless you have people to help out,it may not be that easy to start off there.Though its a great starting point to travel from for all of north India and worth a visit.

Have no idea about Chennai.

lipaktest
Well, it all depends what's the reason of visiting India. My hometown is New Delhi, so I am little biased about it. Its beautiful, has its own charm and it has close proximity to Himalayas(a must visit place). You should start from here.

However, in case you want to visit for some tech. events or making new networks I would say Hyderabad and Bangalore are the best places to visits.(FYI: Google, MS, Yahoo, Oracle all have their big offices in these two cities). They are well connected by roads(12 hours journey), may be an hour on flight.

Since you are visiting early 2011, northern part of India is a great time to visit. Its bit cold during that time of year (or pleasantly cold)but its better than scorching Summers in May-July.

You would find plenty of clubs in each of the cities, you will meet beautiful girls ;) and what not.

I would say start from the North(Delhi), visit some places closer to Himalayas, Jaipur etc. They move south to Bangalore and Hyderabad. May be get a return flight from Mumbai(India's financial capital aka New York).

Hope that helps.