New couple in Kanpur

ommthree

Hi everyone,

We're on our first visit to India, and arrived a week ago. We're here at IIT Kanpur for a year. I'm English and my wife is German, both in our (very) early thirties. I am visiting faculty here and my wife is a language teacher. Hoping to pick up lots of useful tips here and maybe even meet some fellow expats if there are any round here. A few questions spring to mind already if anyone's bored in the office:

1) Shopping in Kanpur: Fruit and veg is sorted, you can get some other stuff on campus, and there's a crap mall thing in town where you can buy expensive tat. Anyone got any recommendations for clothes, electronics or foreign foods?

2) DIY: The windows in our apartment do not fit. We were thinking of whacking in a bit of filler to stop the ants, mozzies etc. Any other suggestions? Where can I get filler?

3) Water: We have a water purifier with UV and all that, and everyone says the campus water should be pretty much ok even without filtering. Thing is, after filtering it tastes fine, and doesn't seem to have any adverse effects, but it does smell distinctly of poo. Any fixes?

4) Information: Any special tricks for getting people to stick to appointments, keep me informed on things, or to get them to explain their processes to me? Information flow is what I don't seem to be able to achieve.

Re-reading that I think I probably sound like a right moaning minnie. I don't mean to. I'm enjoying a lot of this place and just want to minimise the pain from the bits I don't like so much.

Thanks a million!

Delonix444

Greetings and welcome to India ommthree,

Your post gave me a good laugh! My husband and I are also in India for work, though at least 11 hours drive from your location in the north.

Suggestions to respond to your questions:

No.1 - when buying ANYTHING ask a local person first. Local knowledge is most definitely paramount. This way you are far more likely to find the item and get a normal price.

No.2 - see point one....LOL....hardware store here are not like anywhere you've been before

No.3 - too funny. Can suggest the possible addition of lime (nimboo) then you can have lime scented poo water.

No.4 - Welcome to India! Best advice here is "just go with it". Whatever unfolds, whatever surprises or frustrations, you can't change this in a hurry. And a word of warning, as you may have already experienced, Yes as a response can mean any range of things, and often not yes!!

I think you are sensible to ask questions on a forum like this, you'll no doubt receive some good feedback. So far my best advice is always seek a local who rerally knows the town.

We're really enjoying our stay so far, 6 months down the track, and wish you the best in your time here too!

Regards,

Delonix444

ommthree

Thanks for your reply!

Gradually finding out how things work, where things are, and how to get things done. The main problem is I think that Kanpur is a really provincial place. I haven't found a "city centre" yet, or is that just an Indian thing? And my colleagues are about as much use as a chocolate teapot when it comes to knowing where to get things. That's academics for you!

Antje

I was just idly wondering about India Mike when I stumbled across a post declaring that "a new couple had arrived in Kanpur". Great, I thought, some possible conacts.

It turns out that it's my own husband's post.



Anybody else about in Kanpur?

Indizen

Hello, and welcome.

Kingstonian

Hi Ommthree and Antje, welcome to IndiaMike!

Not sure how much time you've spent browsing around the forum yet - if you haven't already found them, you might want to check out some previous threads, such as (some of my personal favourites):

More Indian Odds than Ends

This last trip

Twenty-Five Things You Don't Know

She Sold My Clothes

I Fired My Watchwomen Today and It Got Kinda Scary

And, before I get completely carried away (this list could run and run), a thread which perhaps comes closer to addressing your point #4:
How To Get Indian Employees Excited

Have fun

LilBoy BigTown

Hi & Welcome to India

There are plenty of fine cities in India, I am afraid Kanpur is not one of them. It is, to put it harshly, 'a dump'.

I have only been to Kanpur once, and that was some 3 years ago. Not trying to make you feel awful and I haven't answered any of your questions either, but just couldn't resist jumping in and putting in my 2 cents worth.

I really hope it works out well for you.

ronsaik

Clothes etc: you'll have to make do with the crap mall.

Filler: ask for M-Seal from any hardware store.
An option that some people use is: fix a nylon mesh on the other side of the window frame. That way, you can keep the windows open without letting in bugs.

Water: don't drink the campus water, filtered or not. Buy a water dispenser and a 20 ltr Bisleri pack. You can keep refilling the pack.
Irrespective of how it smells, I don't think your water actually has any poo in it. Half your campus would have been crapping themselves to death, otherwise.

__________________
Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it!

ronsaik

For the benefit of others: OP is putting up at IIT Kanpur, which is a mostly self contained campus of ~400 hectares. he is not staying in the city per se, which could be a dump for all it matters.

Antje

Getting started and settled in Kanpur was certainly exciting. Though as ronsaik said, we are staying on campus rather than in town which makes things a lot greener, nicer and safer for us. We are provided with a very good flat (apart from the issue with the windows) and even have pretty reliable power supply.

We had a couple of trips into town. It's a very different story out there but we managed to go to the places we wanted to see (there is a fab-India clothes store in Kanpur - very nice - and the shopping center isn't at all bad in my opinion. We even had Espresso there. What much more European extravaganza do you want

We are aware that Kanpur is not India's tourist destination no 1. People have been telling us ever since the idea got out. While we'll do plenty of travelling as well, I do feel that we'll be able to learn a lot about India here.

ronsaik

Antje, from what you said about the water, it would seem to me that IIT Kanpur does not have an RO plant. I find that quite odd.
Of course, as an alumnus of IIT Delhi I could say 'what do you expect' :-), but the fact is that IIT-K has pretty solid alumni backing - someone should fund an RO plant there!

What do you teach?

EDIT: oops...antje is the wife who we have been told teaches Language. Ommthree is the husband who's visiting faculty. The question was to the latter.

ommthree

Hi Ronsaik,

I'm an astronomer really, teaching in the physics department here. I'll be starting off with some 4th year maths.

We are definitely going to travel a lot. The great thing about Kanpur is that there are lots of other places within reach. We just booked our first one: Lucknow.

Antje

Horay!

Boston123

Hi,

Re. 4.: Punctuality et al.. It can be done, but you'll need to spend some time up front, digging into detail. For e.g. clearly let folks know that you understand people getting delayed, but what you want is as much advance notice as possible, as it impacts your schedule. Also ask how they intend to notify you.. by cell phone( call, text/SMS?), or e mail? Or something else? I recall being texted at least 10 times( on a recent visit to India), as much as I get texted in the US.

Likewise re. processes.. sit down and ask them to write or sketch it out for you. Verbally describing something in the abstract is not easy, unless you sit down and probe each step of the way they take in coming to a solution or a desired outcome.

Or have you tried these, and are still not satisfied?

ommthree

Thanks Boston,

I'm getting a handle on it. I've found asking for exact times to be useful, and face-to-face meetings are better than phonecalls and emails, because they inevitably lead to things being put off again and again.

Of course, I'm willing to meet them half way. After all, I'm the foreigner here!