Man Returns To Chennai After 3 Years In Bengaluru, Says Outskirts No Longer Feel Like Outskirts

A city can look very different when seen through the experience of living somewhere else. For Chennai-based Sai Ganesh, nearly three years in Bengaluru changed the way he looks at his hometown and its growth.

Ganesh, who recently returned to Chennai after spending nearly three years in Bengaluru, shared his thoughts in a LinkedIn post.

He said he came back to the city nearly three months ago and that his time in Bengaluru gave him a new perspective on Chennai. 

He described the experience by saying that "Bengaluru gave me the lens to see Chennai differently."

Ganesh said he is now living on the outskirts of Chennai, working out of a mango farmland, while building his real estate practice across developing corridors. 

Check Out The Post Here:

He also hosts international guests through his Airbnb properties. He said that living there has made him notice changes that he may not have noticed earlier, adding that Chennai's outskirts no longer feel like outskirts.

He pointed to apartments coming up alongside farmland and industrial corridors developing alongside residential communities. 

He said highways, logistics, manufacturing, ports, IT, healthcare, education and housing are gradually connecting into one larger economic ecosystem.

Reflecting on his time in Bengaluru, Ganesh said the city helped him understand the impact of a technology-led economy on an urban region. 

He said Bengaluru showed him the power of such an economy through talent, startups, migration, offices and housing demand, which can transform an entire city.

However, Ganesh said Chennai has a different strength that interests him, which is diversification. 

He pointed to manufacturing, logistics, ports, automobiles, EVs, electronics, aerospace, IT, residential development and agriculture as sectors contributing to the region's growth.

Instead of looking only at where Chennai stands today, Ganesh said he is increasingly interested in imagining how the wider region could look over the next 15 to 20 years. 

He said he is now less interested in asking where Chennai is today and more interested in what the entire region could look like 15 to 20 years from now.

Ganesh said returning to Chennai has given him a new perspective on the city and its surrounding areas. He described Bengaluru as the place that gave him the perspective and Chennai as the place giving him the canvas.

He concluded by saying that he is looking forward to building, learning and observing the transformation of Chennai and its surrounding region "from the ground."