A Little Bit the Same. A Little Bit Different.

Having been in Hyderabad for two weeks, it was refreshing to go to Delhi. There are a lot of similarities, but a lot of difference.

The first obvious difference is the way the city is built up. The infrastructure is dramatically better. You still get loads of congestion and crazy driving, but not nearly at the level in Hyderabad, which I think is in large part due to better roads.

Delhi is also set up very differently than Hyderabad. Other than Old City, Hyderabad is essentially a big corporate office park and a downtown that's so polluted I couldn't breath. Not really a place for city life.

Delhi is basically split into two sections: Old Delhi and Central Delhi. The former is not too unlike Old City in Hyderabad, though a little less market focuses -- people seemed to just be going on about their days. I found it a little more manageable because of that.

Central Delhi, however, is unlike anything in Hyderabad. The area has chic bars, coffee shops and green space scattered about. People walk around in very stylish clothes (by Western standards). The area is the center of the national government. A long walkway between India Gate and the President's Estate has the feel of the Mall in Washington (except people play cricket instead of softball).

Hyderabad is not a pleasant city. It's dirty. There's trash everywhere. You can't breath well in downtown because of the pollution. And it's a town that's very much divided. There are the unbelievably rich, who section themselves off in Banjara Hills, and the tech industry, who protect their office buildings by putting up gates with guards and not even allowing restaurants to be built inside.

There's something different about Delhi. Sure, there were still vendors and auto-rickshaw drivers trying to overcharge us. And the sound of horns was at times annoying. And the poverty level was unbearably high.

But, it's got an ecosystem, much like what I've been saying could be built up around Hitech City. To be clear, there are obvious divisions in the city. But, it functions as an entity in a way that Hyderabad can't.