The largest city in the Indian state of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's center for information technology. Its name means "City of Boiled Beans." Located in the temperate Deccan plateau, Bangalore has fair weather nearly all year long. This is handy, as it allows you to wear trousers without getting heat rash.

Karnataka is a somewhat arbitrary state, as it is composed of bits and pieces of other states that fell on the cutting room floor when the lines were drawn. As such, it contains a number of different cultures and languages coexisting, sometimes uneasily. Bangalore reflects this diversity, and its neighborhoods are a pleasure to explore. One can walk from the ultra-hip, ultra-Western Mahatma Gandhi Road (known as "MG Road"), through a Hindu village swallowed by urban sprawl, and end up in "Little Pakistan" for dinner.

In the year I spent in India, I found no better city. You can have the Taj Mahal; I'll take Beantown.

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