New York City, Honolulu, Philadelphia; When thinking about each of these cities, distinct features come to your mind such as New York City's Statue of Liberty, Honolulu's beaches, or Philadelphia being the birthplace of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Scratch that, you were probably thinking about a Philly cheesesteak. Moving forward, like cities in the U.S., each city in India has its own unique aspects, such as history, culture, landmarks, food, and architecture. Two cities stood out to me the most while I lived in India.
Kabini
Bangalore
However, with each city having many important aspects, there will be too much area to cover within one blog. For this post, I will expand upon living in Bangalore specifically.
Bengaluru, also called Bangalore, was my temporary home for two and a half years. In my opinion, one of the major benefits of living there was the pleasant weather. Winters usually do not drop below 60°F while summers have an average in the low to mid-90s F. I noticed that in Illinois, the winters are very dry and cold, which cracks the skin on my hands. While the humidity in Bangalore sometimes dips, the absence of the combination of cold and dryness allowed me to never encounter this problem. Another thing to consider is the rainfall: 36 inches per year. For reference, Peoria has 38 inches of rainfall per year.
A downside to living in Bangalore is its traffic. Vehicles were constantly honking, roads were filled to the brim, and drivers were constantly breaking rules. There are many factors that cause this horrendous traffic, such as bad road conditions, lack of pedestrian facilities, and constant construction. It wasn't uncommon to arrive at home later than usual, since the distance from school to my bus stop is about an hour and a half, and the traffic would sometimes stretch the duration. It is very important to have a way to pass time via games, books, videos, etc.
Bangalore is a hotspot for vast job opportunities. In the late 20th century, the technology industry took the city by storm and many large multinational technology corporations opened up their offices there. This effect has been ongoing in recent years too. An example is the many workers that have moved to Bangalore to support their company (e.g. Caterpillar Inc.). In 1998 an ICT (information and communications technology) park opened in India and later became a district of Bangalore in 2007. This park is very important due to the hundreds of technology, software, and telecommunication companies within it, which led to it becoming known as the "Silicon Valley of India."
Overall, there are many ups and downs of living in the city of Bangalore. While I disliked aspects such as the traffic, living in Bangalore allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and expand my interests.