BENGALURU: After more than a decade in New York, startup founder Gautam Narasimhan is back in Bengaluru, but his return has not meant leaving his global work behind.In a LinkedIn post reflecting on the move, Narasimhan said that while life in the two cities feels vastly different, his professional routine has remained surprisingly familiar.Narasimhan said he and his family moved back to Bengaluru last month after spending over 12 years in New York, citing a mix of family, personal and professional reasons.His biggest adjustment at work, he said, has less to do with what he does and more with when he does it.He continues to work with colleagues in Europe on projects across the US, Africa and Asia.With the work being largely location-independent, the main difference has been scheduling calls earlier in the morning or later in the evening from Bengaluru.“On one hand, it’s a totally different world. On the other hand, things, especially work, have stayed remarkably the same,” he wrote.His return, however, has also changed the conversations he finds himself having outside work, particularly around climate change and resilience.Narasimhan said he is now spending more time with people for whom “climate adaptation and resilience” may not be part of their everyday vocabulary. But that does not mean the challenges are unfamiliar.He pointed to floods, storms and heatwaves becoming increasingly unpredictable and said many people in Bengaluru have their own experiences to share when conversations turn to how organisations can continue functioning amid such disruptions.For Narasimhan, Bengaluru’s monsoon has become a particularly immediate lesson.He said the rains have arrived “strangely” this year and made the city’s already difficult traffic even slower, while discussions about how the city should respond have received genuine engagement.The move comes as Narasimhan continues his work in the climate adaptation space.e had earlier spent more than seven years as a senior adviser at UNICEF and launched climate adaptation-focused startup Verdera in January this year.Despite the contrasts between his years in New York and his return to Bengaluru, Narasimhan’s post ended on a positive note.“It feels good to be here,” he wrote.
