A new start-musings

When I first left home as a kid in 2004 to pursue coaching
at Kota, it was a totally new experience. For two years, I lived away from home
till I returned to Mumbai to pursue studies in commerce. Then, for the next 4
years, I was at home till I cracked the CAT, and then the next 5 years from
2010 till 2015 have seen me live in Ahmedabad, Singapore, Bangalore, Gurgaon
and now Chennai. Having lived out of a suitcase for quite some time, I’ve got
used to shifting locations to achieve my dreams. But these have not been easy
transitions. Having established relationships in/comfort level with each place,
it is difficult to part. Thankfully, social networks like Facebook and
Linkedlin make it easy to keep in touch and even find people.  For instance, Facebook friend finder and
Linkedlin location search help you narrow down on people within your alumni
network/common groups.

Also, even for people without vast social networks, the
internet plays an excellent role. Ecommerce firms have really made this process
much easier. I can use Ola/Meru/Taxiforsure to book safe rides to/from airport,
TruckSumo etc to shift belongings safely, Zomato/TinyOwl to find awesome places
to eat, Olx to sell old belongings/buy new belongings, Pepperfry to order
custom furniture in places where I do not know anybody, UrbanClap for reliable
service provider recommendations, Cleartrip for weekend gateways and so on.
These startups use technology combined with the power of localization, to offer
unique experiences. And of course, who can forget Google Maps for that help to
locate places and get directions in English(albeit weirdly accented), and
preventing you from getting lost. Because of these firms, I have escaped a lot
of horror stories like getting lost/robbed/being starved of good food. It does
make life less interesting when you do not have these horror stories, but in a
good way.

Of all the cities I’ve been, its probably the decision to
move to Chennai, which was the most difficulty and the most impactful. As a ‘fraud
tam’(campus lingo for a Tamil by birth who does not speak fluent tamil) without
roots in Chennai, it was a return to my roots, and a chance to experience what
my forefathers might have. Of course, the IIM-A professional network is much
smaller here, which reduces the chance of serendipitous interactions but which
does make for deeper relationships. Also, Chennai with its slower pace of life,
has changed my outlook to a lot of things. And it is actually easier to live
here than in quite a few other cities. There’ just one bugbear for people which
is finding a nice home. With restrictions basis gender, marital status, caste,
profession etc, finding a house without the notorious broker mafia, is quite difficult.

When I had social networks in place(read metros like
Bangalore, Gurgaon), it was quite easy to find accommodation. But in Chennai,
it was quite difficult. After weeks of looking at forums like Olx, an IIM
batchmate suggested to check https://housing.com/in.
And then I was hooked. The level of details and visualization was startling.
For a stranger to the city, it makes it much easier to contemplate relocation
decisions when you have the pictures of the house, locality ratings, landlord recommendations
and so on. Their ad below gives an idea of the whole thing. 

For those of us needing to make housing decisions, using
technology and websites like housing.com would make life much easier.