Veering between scared and excited!

Haylo

Hi IndiaMikers,

Looks like I'm going to India!

To be frank, India hadn't been high on my list of place to visit, and while I've enjoyed holidays in Tunisia and Morocco, I'm not the most intrepid of travellers, having rarely ventured outside Europe.

However my (diplomat) partner recently learned that he's being posted to Chanakyapuri in New Delhi - a year earlier than expected () and will be there for two years. We're still waiting to hear which area his accommodation will be in, and whether it will be a flat or a house.

I'm not about to give up a great job and move away from my family and beloved English countryside, but it is possible for me to visit him there for holidays, maybe even to take a sabbatical and live there for a while if it works out. Despite my realising it's a great travel opportunity, guide books are rather warning-packed and the whole idea was feeling pretty negative until I learned even more about the country, and Delhi in particular.

Now I'm not sure whether to be scared or excited!

Browing the forums here, I've been immensely impressed by how helpful IndiaMike members are so hopefully this will help me err towards excitement!

Haylo

Swapnil

Namaste & Welcome to IM Haylo !

AwayFromHome

..That's one of the nicest areas in Delhi and (admit a partiality here), one of the nicest urban areas anywhere.

..New Delhi and the English countryside - I hope you didn't attempt to make any sort of comparison there.

..Be excited - you will love it -

(Just another place with a billion plus people who speak a hundred different languages, eat food that you will not recognize, wear clothes that will make Martians seem like your next door neighbours, can manage to make a bicycle function like a double decker, make russian roulette seem harmless compared to crossing a road, convince you that hard metal was serene after you have heard 3 bizillion horns scream blithely to no rhyme or reason, make you understand that the whole concept of privacy is just an unconfirmed rumor yet to reach India, and that IMers are out of their collective minds)

- or not!

Haylo

Thanks for the nice welcome, much appreciated.

Somehow, I don't think there will be any sort of comparison with ANYTHING! That's why it's going to be such a challenge, but if I can deal with the culture shock, I feel I have a lot to gain from spending time in Delhi.

Jury's still out on that one

Brisso

Hayley

Don't do it! Haven't you heard that every traveller to India is hassled, lied to, ripped-off, mugged, drugged, beaten, murdered and subject to a range of even worse things?

Haylo

Heh... You forgot to mention the traffic, pollution and food poisoning.

Fortunately, reading these forums, it seems that bad experiences are very much in the mind of the beholder and depends largely on the mindset of the visitor. Unfortunately I have a touch of the control freak about me, so "India life" isn't going to come naturally to me. If I'm to fit in I can see I'm going to have to let go of a lot of stuff. Which will probably do me good.

Btw, love your avatar, I didn't realise that Vince had made it all the way to Brisbane. If IMers are suffering from Random Pavarotti Disease, maybe you ARE out of your collective minds - and maybe I will make it in India after all!

PaulB

I think a good mix between the two will be a good grounding for life in India. I spent two months there last year, and loved it so much that I start a years employment in Noida next friday, and can say that nothing you wish for can ready you for all that india has to offer and nothing you fear can prepare you for some of the hardships that you may encounter. However I would always rather regret a decision I had made than an opportunity I had missed.

dzibead

Get yourself a copy of The City of Djinns by William Dalrymple and read it immediately. You'll want to hop on the next plane to Delhi.

When you're ready to go for the first time, get hooked into one of the Delhi meet-ups (check the meet-up thread here), which are held with increasing frequency it seems, and you'll meet a bunch of great locals and maybe some ex-pats or other visitors who are passing through.

Don't worry ahead of time whether you'll love it or hate it. And, yeah, leave the control freak part of you behind, or you will be in a perpetual state of frustration. It is what it is and you just have to "go with the flow". Given the set-up you'll have, with your significant other actually living there full time (and probably in relative luxury), you should have a pretty soft landing.

Cardamom

Welcome to India Mike, Haylo.
I think a mixture of being scared and excited is always a bit interesting You're in the right place as I'm sure we've all felt like that here at some point in our travels.
Keep us posted and I agree with Dzibead on the Dalrymple book - definitely read it before you go and while you're there

-C

brownboy66

howdy haylo - from chanakyapuri in Delhi, and welcome to IM.

Well yes......its a bit different here, but as AFH has said, chanakyapuri itself is fairly nice (wide, tree lined streets, etc). That doesn't, however, prevent the local wild life from being present - we have a family of monkeys that hang out on our roof (literally), there's a 2 ton bull that lives in our street, and a pack of stray dogs (very friendly and good for keeping the monkeys on their toes). Its one of the things I really enjoy about this city and suburb - wouldn't happen in the middle of some sterile european or antipodean city!

And as Dzi has mentioned - we have a very active and enthusiatic bunch of Delhi IM meet up participants (our next one is about 3 weeks away). I think once of the reasons it works so well its that people enjoy the opportunity to meet people outside of their usual crowd (work, expats, etc).

There too much to write about here in terms of living in Delhi, things to do, dealing with the change etc - so perhaps once you've done a bit of reading and had the chance to think about it you'll have a few specific questions to post here (for which the IM folks will no doubt respond to).

anyhoooo.....again, welcome.

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Aishah

Welcome to IM, Haylo and I think you will have a wealth of gems to discover in Delhi when you come! Delhi is one of my favourite places to visit - no doubt you've already checked out the Delhi forum here for all sorts of ideas of where to go, things to see, what to eat etc. Don't forget the Delhi Meet Up thread too, if you'd like to meet some fellow IM'ers while you are here.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

capt_mahajan

I wouldn't think twice.

A base in Delhi- and an upmarket one- and a chance to see an interesting part of the world.

An opportunity like this doesn't come everyday. I would consider the sabbatical, even if it is a short one.

Haylo

What a great response, thank you all SO much!
Great tip, I have just started reading it.

Even though I'd have to take unpaid leave to take advantage of it, I realise that I am exceptionally privileged to have this opportunity.

As PaulB said, it's always the things you don't do that you regret.

Given how friendly and helpful IMers seem, if there's a meetup during my visit, that would definitely be on my list.

Incredible to hear from someone who lives in the actual area my partner will be working in, hopefully he'll be allocated accommodation there too.

I'm having trouble getting my head round the idea that if I ended up staying for a while and trying and put a garden together, MONKEYS could be a garden pest. Crikey, over here, I thought that slugs were the bane of my life! Wow, am I in for some culture shocks!

I'm sure there's nothing in my Royal Horticultural Society pests and diseases handbook under S for simian...

*Wanders off muttering about monkeys*

AwayFromHome

You have a great sense of humor. I have a feeling you'll do just fine in India.

brownboy66

its noticeably less crowded then most parts of Delhi I guess. Consequently shopping is done elsewhere.

yes, but get use to it quickly and they sort of become part of the scene - as does all the wild life. We have squirrels that live in our fence, and they have the metabolism of a humming bird after 2 cups of coffee (even when standing still they twitch) - and then there are humming birds as well. Parrots are every where.

The monkeys can be a bit of a menace but they tend to keep their distance (I'm trying to encourage them to keep off the roof with the aid of a water pistol - and all its done is teach them how do duck and stay out of sight - very clever monkeys).