It’s mid-morning in Bengaluru, and I’m sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic with Australia’s leading India travel planner, Fiona Caulfield. “Bengaluru is the smartest, most creative place in India,” says Caulfield, as we make our way through the honk and blare of India’s fastest-growing city, and the fastest-growing tech hub in the world.

Having lived in South India for a year back in 2013, and having been told numerous times that Bengaluru (once known as the Anglicised Bangalore as the British struggled to pronounce Bengaluru) wasn’t worth a visit, I’m doubtful.