>>512058404 (OP)I visit Chennai for work frequently.
Go to meetups with other local expats. It is somewhat hard to find good restaurants and bars that are sanitary with good preparation. But they will know and your Indian co-workers that are higher up will also know (rich Indians don't eat the slop most of the population eats). Hotel restaurants are usually the safest bet.
You may get some odd looks for being foreign, but Indians in big cities are used to foreigners these days. You will get people coming up to you to beg and keep your whits about you in especially poor areas. I've gotten unironically swarmed by beggars before and a cop had to help me (who then asked for a bribe lmao).
Pondicherry is a great weekend trip. The beach is an absolute hellscape in Chennai (literal emaciated cows walking about shitting everywhere), but is well maintained in the touristy areas of Pondicherry.
You will get used to the driving
It is also very easy for a decent looking Westerner who showers to get laid with good looking women if you want to.
You will quickly see and begin to emulate the contempt successful, well-educated Indians have for most of their countrymen. It's even worse than how middle class blacks in the US talk about ghetto niggers.