If Tweets and Facebook posts for decent accommodations and broker less-leads for flats in Bangalore were anything to go by, it would seem there's a mass migration happening in the country where everyone seems to be moving - or wanting to move - to India's prime startup hub.
For the past couple of days, there has been a substantial increase in the number of people taking to social media and announcing that they're moving to Bangalore - and the numbers have been so astounding, that "moving to Bangalore" has been trending on and off on Twitter India.
With offices opening up and some even making it mandatory for employees to move back, there has generally been a lot of movement all over the country, especially to major cities. Bangalore stands out because all the startups that have raised funds over the past two years are finally able to set up a physical workplace - a first for many, including companies founded after March 2020.
We'd be remiss to forget that Bangalore was deemed the most liveable city among 111 cities in India in the Union Housing and Urban Affairs' 'Ease of Living Index' report last year, although there has been much debate about that in Twitterverse.
Great weather, happening nightlife, and even job opportunities aside, people have been pointing out on social media that rental rates have definitely increased since the last year when the inflow to Bangalore finally picked up the pace after a long period of exodus.
Ravi Handa, the founder of Handa Ka Funda, a digital learning platform for CAT and MBA preparation which, last year, was acquired by Unacademy, took to Twitter saying, "Tech Bros with Rs 50 lakh per annum (LPA) salary keep projecting it as utopia because it is great for them" - but that may not be the case for everyone.
Others pointed out that Bangalore's infrastructure is already falling apart, that every summer the city runs out of water, and that traffic jams make commuting in the city a nightmare.
Of course, after some rationale back and forth, the conversation shifted to "Why is everyone talking about moving to Bangalore?", "don't move to Bangalore", and hilarious memes (which is the point of everything, isn't it?).
With startups like Zoho moving out from a major city to a village in Tamil Nadu, as well as the trend over the past two years of startups building from and in tier II and tier III cities, the perception that Bangalore is a startup hub has changed, even though one does stand a good chance of running into a well-known product manager or startup founder at a Third Wave Coffee Roasters in Koramangala.
There's a growing cohort of companies, not just in India, that are now hiring globally, no matter where the person is located, and working with them virtually. For a lot of industries, the pandemic has been a litmus test for "borderless" co-working, and now that the "work from anywhere" model has proved its mettle, that cohort of companies is likely to keep growing.
Bangalore, though, will live to fight overpopulation, crumbling infrastructure, higher rents, and a mass influx of people, another day.
Edited by Anju Narayanan