Best and worst things about living in India?

ExpatUK

What do you consider the best and worst things about living in India?

Saulteaux_woman

I think the best part is that you can live by your own schedule, and the worst part most people live by their own schedule, so it makes things like processing paper work a lot hard to get done!

Familyonthemove

Best - the people (sense of humour, drive, language, variety)

Worst - the dust


Gurgaon is currently in a permanent dust storm.

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Nick-H

I find this sort of question increasingly difficult to answer: it has merged into one enormous glob of I live here anyway!

The things that make a great impression on travellers and newcomers, the crowds, dirt, dogs, cows, traffic, smells, etc, become one's normal surprisingly quickly.

What I cannot get used to is the politics. Egotistical self serving runs riot, while simple stuff like dredging waterways and fixing storm drains is not achieved.

So that's my contribution to worst thing.

brishti

best: its home
worst: its home


:brishti

Nick-H

... I guess that's sort-of sums up what I was trying to say!

AprilFlower

Well said Brishti.
I would say my best/worst thing depends on the day and often it would be the same thing that I consider best and worst.
Today, for example. The best thing is being a woman. I went to submit my paperwork for my drivers license and because I am a woman I didn't have to stand in line for 2-3 hours to give my money and take my test. Same goes at the train station.
On the other hand, being a woman(and particularly a daughter in law) at home means that you are low "man" on the totem pole. Your opinion isn't worth .
As a white woman, even wearing very conservative clothing, indian men look at you and think "sex". There are others though that will bend over backwards to help you find the right line,platform, bus, store etc.

As Nick said, the thing I found and still find most shocking is the pure me, me, me mentality. Everyone is trying to get something for themselves money/food/power. There is no one else in the world. That ideology is so foreign to me and pisses me off a lot. Even though I am a very punctual/time oriented person I rather enjoy that there is nothing hurried here (except of course when I am in a hurry )!

fairydust

Ok I can't comment much because i was in india for only two weeks just last month..nobody said the traffic was the worst thing! My reason for saying that...I am used to Singapore's traffic system..it is very organised here..

My tolerence level for the dust and dirt is rather ok..because i was expecting worse..but the mountains,forests and waterfalls i visited removed the dirt from my mind.. I guess the saying its all in the mind is true in someways..also, i don't see mountains,forests or waterfall here in singapore, so any country with nature is pleasing to me..

Nick-H

Well, in some ways it is, because it shows India at its most selfish and most uncaring and most aggressive.

But when I'm being a part of that, do I ever long for London traffic? No way, and, in fact, I'd rather drive in Chennai than in London.

Stuff like the traffic is the stuff you get used to.

(although maybe not the bus drivers )

fairydust

Ok one more thing.. i have been getting lots of attention because i am a "Foreigner". Because indian culture is conservative, i questioned my bf, his brother & sister-in-law & her family.. why are actress allowed to dress so sexy, the answer was: because they are foreigner+actress so it is acceptable. Most of the indian actress are fair and are north indians it seems..and they kept telling me they are foreigner..but for my mindset.. they are also indians..

My bf was saying u can't wear anything that shows your leg above your knee because this is india... and i was saying why are girls showing their stomach and clevage with their sari..it is sexy to me compared to just showing my leg.. they all laughed hearing my comments.. it make sense that was why?..


Nick:

initially i was not used to the traffic..for the first few days I was holding on to the back of the car seat whenever the car sway right and left -avoiding cars coming in all directions.. but i got used to the traffic in 7 days..and 2 weeks of being there but after coming back to singapore and thinking about the traffic again in india, i was asking myself..how did i get through it???

If i am born in india I will be eating and speaking tamil or hindi even though I am a chinese...its the way we are brought up by different cultures.. and the environment we are exposed to..including mindset..we will behave and eat like an animal if we are brought up by animals..lol

sannna

Best thing: people
The men, women, families who go out of their way to welcome you into their homes and hearts, who go out of their way to help you get things done, even though you're not able to do anything in return and they know it.

Worst thing: people
The men who think you're a sex object, dominate the streets and public life, and take this for granted, and treat their and other women bad and worse.
The politicians who boast about Indian culture being so superior, but don't give a f%$@ about India, who care about their own wallet only, and the voters who blame them, but are not willing to do something about it, show apathy and let it happen, as they are also only interested in their own wallets, and don't give a s&^% about their neighbours, let alone their country.

Oh, and love the "arts", high brow and low brow, and the availability of it. Music, dance, films, books. I love the language, and the love of Indians for over the top sweet, romantic and melancholic stuff (music, films, speeches etc.)

And I hate the noise (people shouting to each other, weddings and temples with deaf people behind the music installation, drivers blowing horns every time they spot another human being in this country of one billion) and the dirt - even though I do get used to it to some extent, I can't get over the fact that people really don't care about public places, not even about the stairway in their own appartment building. (Every time I pass the paan stains when I walk up to my flat it grosses me out. How can you not see how disgusting spitting red paan on a white wall is?)

ETA: reading privacy in Diana's post below I have to add that to this list. I hate the lack of privacy, people who bend over to see what you are printing, the guy in the xerox shop who reads your stuff, the guy behind you in the queue at the ticket counter who puts his arm around you and on the counter even though its not his turn yet, the shop employees who follow you around and offer you "help" despite you telling them twice or more often that you're rather be left alone, and finally, the greatest intrusion of privacy, the staring, the constant unashamed staring that never ever stops, not even when you tell them that it upsets you.

Diana

Worst:

• The heat
• the sexism
• the huge amount of "control" of one group by another (women, young people starting out in life, people of lower classes, the disabled, etc.) in the guise of care or protection,
• the immaturity (men who pout, women who cry if frowned at)
• the inability by most in making even a simple decision if not prescribed for them by an authority
• the egoism/"I'm pretty much only out for me and mine" attitude
• the pervasiveness of religion in everything, all the time... (I'm an atheist and it does get old...)
• not understanding the language (but I'm getting there...)
• the lack of privacy.

Best:

• The colors everywhere!
• the energy
• the generous spirit of strangers
• the slower pace (except in traffic)
• the kids
• the innocence (naivety?)
• the food in Kerala
• the flowers
• the fantastic clothes
• the tolerance of an interest in foreigners and "new" things
• the oceans
• the mountains
• the flashy jewelry, makeup, costumes, etc.
• the unpredictability
• the elephants
• the antiquity of things
• the hope.

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“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” - Rabindranath Tagore

PeakXV

Best: Live, everchanging documentary unfolding before you.
Worst: Time taken to get simple tasks done.

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What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Margot

Best: Life is easier
Worst: Life is more difficult

Nick-H

Today I read that Granite-mining companies are destroying the land around Madurai.

There was a photograph of half a hill. Can you imagine? You used to be able to see a hill from your window, but slowly it has been removed?

The area is strewn with granite blocks; farmers have their land stolen, or bought for money that never gets paid; ancient monuments are disregarded as the land is ripped up.

Local officials are either bribed or threatened into silence, and there is no hope that it will end.

In the same newspaper I read of a tribal area in orissa which , due to mining, is one of the world's most polluted places.

This is the kind of stuff that makes living in India just depressing sometimes.