Cory,
Are you actually going to go hang out in whichever of these places
you select? If yes, I'd personally be leaning towards Chandigarh
because it will have all the Punjabi politics....both ancient and
modern. You stlll have small-holder farmlands in the surrounding
countryside, but also a burgeoning nouveau-riche class (by which the
rest of India is fascinated if you read the People section of any
newspaper...seems like lots of the "beautiful people" come out of the
Punjab these days). The foothills of the Himalayas are still
reasonably pristine, but one can see industrial funk and sprawl just
down the valley. Also the region has historical geological wealth
(in terms of jewels and gold) and is one of the banking centers of
India.
My 2 rupees...
Danese
On Jan 28, 2008, at 4:30 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
Cory Doctorow [28/01/08 11:23 +0000]:
I have been leaning towards Chennai, which, I believe, is a close
approximation of this, but you folks are the experts.
Chennai wouldnt be a bad choice at all though Coimbatore would be
interesting. It has been a "mill town" for generations, with several
textile companies based in or near it and pumping lots of money
into it
It is a rather nice city, surprisingly good living conditions. Not
exactly
the sort of hellhole you would look for .. now if you want land that's
ripped out of farmers' hands and used for SEZ look for Goa or
Singur near
Calcutta .. though the SEZs there seem to have got shelved.
But hell, if you're writing scifi there aint no need to stick to
facts :)
srs
