Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) is the capital and largest city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. This city is an amazing center of culture and history, with a look towards the future that India is heading towards. As with most large Indian cities, one of the first things you notice is the crush of traffic and the incessant honking of car, bus, motorbike, and tuk-tuk horns. To be fair, I’ve found that you grow used to the sound pretty quickly. One thing you need to remember is that the horn in a place like India is used almost like echolocation. Drivers rely on the horn to signal to others where they are going and how close they are to others. It's a different use case than in the West. In places like the US, we use the horn as a punitive tool to punish each other for bad driving behaviors. In India, the horn is a necessary tool that signals the driver's location and intent. No one is offended by its use, and it is almost expected that it will be a constant reminder of your proximity to others.
One of the adjustments you have to make—either upon arriving in India or returning to a place like America afterward—is the sense of personal space we take for granted. In places like Bengaluru, personal space, especially in a car, is so small that it takes time to get used to. Cars pass within inches of each other, and your tuk-tuk may actually bump the one in front of it. These close spaces take time for Westerners to get used to. It's one of the many differences in culture that either fascinates people or drives them crazy. I’ve found that if I am in a place like India for a length of time, it takes me several days to get used to the massive bubble that we have in the West when I return to my non-travel, everyday life. It feels luxurious to have lines on the road and to observe most people abiding by them.
In any case, Bengaluru is far more than traffic congestion and the noise of horns. It is a city right in the heart of southern India. It is known as the Silicon Valley of India because of the number of Indians who are involved in the tech industry there. I suspect that this designation may change over the coming years as AI begins to transform tech work and as Indians struggle to adapt to a changing world. For now, Bengaluru still provides opportunities for tech-savvy Indians. As a result, there are many of the amenities you would expect in the West: high-speed internet and tech-fluent young people who are embracing a more Western lifestyle. English is found almost everywhere here, and high-end shopping and luxury cars can be seen parked next to ox-drawn carts. As with most places in India, you will find a collision of the old and the new, the beauty and the ugliness… always with one foot in the past and eyes fixed on the future.