Quality of life on 19,000rs/month

SlowerThanU

I'm curious to know what kind of life I could maintain on 19,000rs per month living in Bangalore. I'd like to be in a safe neighborhood, within walking distance of food/groceries/supplies and have enough money left over to eat out a few times a month and enjoy the city a little. My goal would be to spend my time writing and exploring India and the neighboring areas.

Is this possible?

Freereedsqueezer

Not sure about Bangalore but I have friends from Kolkata. You can 'get by' for around $500 US, no worries for around $1000. From what I've heard Bangalore is trendy and spendy although maybe on the outskirts you could do OK? Not much help for you I know but my 2 rupees worth anyway....good luck!

__________________
Freereedsqueezer

SlowerThanU

Bangalore is appealing because my wife already has a friend there, thus a kind of built in network of friends already. I've checked craigslist and there are a ton of places for between 5000-8000rs per month in Bangalore, just not sure on the neighborhoods. Thanks for the input.

tsk1979

19000/month in BLR, forget it.

__________________
good morning

SlowerThanU

Wow, really? I don't expect to have a driver or live in maid which seems to be such a popular demand for expat's living there. Just a meager existance that gives me time to write and explore. So it just can't be done, huh?

brishti

tough - but doable.
heck - this is india, anythings doable, just like in any other country

you have to first hone into the area you wish to live in STU [slowerthanu]...
rent etc will follow thus + monthly expenses etc.

auto's [the usual public transport] is a tad pricey - since nobody goes by the meter and yadayadayada...

first - area - rent... lets then figure out the additonal costs therein.



:brishti

pentakon

is possible. i spent the same money back in goa and did not was hard to enjoy of time.and goa is much expensive compare to other india..

Indojingai

Hi, you'd really need to be Indian to stretch that money into anything more than hand to mouth. Lots of lifestyle changes.

I see that you are in OC. There's an OC meetup thread, perhaps you could pull together a meetup.

I miss in-n-out burger.

__________________
I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.

Anglo_Indian

why wud u wanna live in India for $500 a month?? wud u want to live in Tennessee on that amount?? yeah you could - and possibly have the same kind of lifestyle... around very similar people.. get the picture???

Ok seriously if you wanna live on 19,000 a month then look for a place that rents for under 5000 a month (maybe share?? or live with a family??)... and 14,000 for extra expenses should be ok... dont know how you would be able to afford traveling around India.

Another option - look into Ashrams (if there are any) in Bangalore - many of those kind of places are very peaceful, very cheap, very clean, and cater mostly to foreigners... so you would feel at home there.

SlowerThanU

Have you been to Tennessee? Yes, there are places here in the States where you could get by on $500 per month, but I've seen them all. The goal is to get away from the rat race and explore a new part of the world, a place rich with history and culture.

I appreciate all the input, it's definitely given me food for thought and I know a few areas I need to research a little more now. I've dug around on craigslist and I'm encouraged about the possibility of cheap housing which was my main concern.

Anglo_Indian

You are completely delusional if you think moving to India especially Bangalore is getting away from the Rat Race???? This is the Rat Race now... there is much more aggression in Indian cities than anywhere i've seen in the US.. be prepared for awful traffic, lots of road rage and in-your-face people... they might probably be nice to you if you are white.. but no indian cities are far more stressful than anywhere in California.

ananda2193

might rather try here for that money.

www.atitlan.com

libertycanyon

To answer your main question:
I know native Indians who have survived on 19,000 a month and lived on their own, but they don't have much fun doing it in Bangalore. And I fear the informal foreign tax, which is strictly enforced on all outsiders and basically doubles your expenses compared to a native Indian, would do your budget in. Especially if you want to travel on the weekends, eat out and do anything else besides work. As an example, my husband and I took several long weekend trips from Bangalore to Hampi, Goa and Coorg and spent at minimum Rs3000 total PER weekend to these places. And we are cheap travelers: taking buses, staying in the cheapest hotels and homestays, not eating in expensive places, traveling off-season, and my hubby speaks the native languages so he can get us pretty decent prices. Though he hates having me along as he calls me his "walking dollar sign" and swears prices go up when they catch sight of me. Also, for "going out" in Bangalore expect to drop a bare, bare minimum Rs100 for a basic meal and more like Rs500-1000 if you are with your girlfriend for a night out. That's for a few drinks, a meal and some kind of entertainment. Even if your rent really was rs5000, you'd burn through the rest of it in autos, food, and basic expenses before you even got on a bus out of town. Making Rs19,000 a month in Bangalore is kind of like making $1000 a month in a major US city. Can you survive? Basically. Can you have much fun doing it? Sure, if being "in a safe neighborhood, within walking distance of food/groceries/supplies and have enough money left over to eat out a few times a month and enjoy the city a little" are NOT things you care about having.

Now for my real rant (No, that wasn't it. Sorry):

(To add way too much more to what Anglo_Indian has already said so clearly...)

Honestly, have you been to Bangalore? I'm asking that as a serious question, because I have (even stayed for 4 months, married a native, lived with his family and friends and am moving back there in a month) and I can't imagine anyone else who has ever been there recommending or even considering it as a place to "get away from the rat race." If you have not been to Bangalore or at least an Indian city, I'd really go visit first before considering moving there. Like most of urban India it is basically the beating heart of the rat race of the world and I am really curious, and more than a little surprised, when I read about people wanting to "get away from the rat race" who are looking at India, and not just India but an Indian city like Bangalore as the place to do that. I mean, what!? Westerners have been deluding themselves into seeing India as a place to lead a more spiritual and simple life for at least 40 years now. I recommend reading Gita Mehta's Karma Cola:Marketing the Mystic East for a native Indians very funny and very sad insight in to this delusion. Written in 1979 but obviously still relevant today. And since you list "be in a safe neighborhood, within walking distance of food/groceries/supplies and have enough money left over to eat out a few times a month and enjoy the city a little" I actually question your commitment to escaping the rat race at all. You really can't have those things and not have the rat race as well. I'm sorry but that is the hard truth. The rat race makes those restaurants, bars and food/groceries/supplies you want easily available and affordable possible. And believe me, people in India are just as eager as any American to have all the comforts the rat race can dole out. And as for Bangalore night life. hohoho. With a ban on live music in bars being enforced, and with almost every young Bangalore resident I met mostly watching American TV, listening to American pop music and wanting nothing more than to be suffering at your end of the rat race, you could hardly call Bangalore a great place to see Indian culture and history. History and culture are about as valuable to the average Indian as they are to the average American: mostly useful for the occasional holiday from work to binge on food and fireworks, or as an excuse to justify whatever political program they are trying to force on people. The one westerner I did meet in India (and one of the few people at all I met like this in India) who was living the true life of an escapee from the rat race (living deep in the hills of Coorg, but still working in a homestay there) had never even been in the rat race to begin with. He just never lived that way, though he lived in cities all over the world and is over 60 years old and has had to work for a living his whole life. This would take me along time to fully flesh out, but basically the rat race is in your own mind.

No country or city on earth is going to make your life simpler, richer or easier; only you can do that for yourself. No place is more or less rich in history and culture than any other; these are perceptions based on your preferences for a style of culture or a kind of history. If you want to experience a different culture and history, than please read more and understand more about that culture and history before heading off there. I'm not a capitalist at all and I myself am working towards getting out of the overly materialistic culture that exists everywhere in the world these days. But I've learned through hard experience that spiritualism and simplicity are not in any one place. They truly are in your mind. Simplify your life NOW, where you live. Contribute to the history and culture of your own place before running off to hunt it down in a foreign land. You might as well line up behind all the other colonialists who have marched in to India, not for what it IS, but for what you WANT FROM IT. That is colonialism. Whether it is money, or spiritualism, it is not something you can honestly or decently go hunting for in another land.

Believe it or not, I don't want to discourage you from trying what could be a great adventure. My real advice is: go for it! But with your eyes wide, wide open. Bangalore is an exciting place, with lots of interesting things to offer and I actually really like it. But Bangalore and India itself won't change your life. Not really. You will change your life, you'll have to, if you let yourself see India for what it is and not what you wish or imagine it to be.

SlowerThanU

Man, you guys are way too serious for me. I appreciate all the input, really I do. By saying I wanted to get away from the rat race I meant working in a cubicle farm and spending 6 hours a day in meetings. I'm sure the city is crazy, in fact that's part of the appeal. But if you've got all day and no where to be, no clock to punch, no meeting to make then it doesn't really matter how hectic it is.

I get a small retirement from the military every month and the goal/challenge/dream, what ever you want to call it, is to try and make it on that. Sounds like the popular opinion is that won't happen in Bangalore and that's fine.

The appeal of Bangalore was simply the fact that I already know a couple of people in the city. For me it's more about the location in the world, not that particular city. I do plan to take a trip there next year either way just so I can check it off my list.

Libertycanyon, honestly, I think you need to relax a little. I'm sensing a little tension because I'm American, and that's fine, I'm used to it. And maybe you just misunderstood me, or maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but I have no delusions about India. And I agree, just going to a new place isn't going to make my life any richer. But the experiences will.

libertycanyon

Sorry for the raving. I did try to warn you it was a rant! I should have said "in general" I didn't really think I understood exactly what you were looking for and I should have said that more clearly so I do apologize if it felt like I blasted my furnace at you. I was more going off on the general idea I've heard of here and elsewhere of India as a simpler culture or place to live. That really sets me off, but it doesn't mean you needed to hear it!

And dude, I'm American! No tension there. I actually like this country and miss it when I am in India. And I miss India now I'm back in America. Have fun, and I really wish you the best of luck with anywhere you travel to or live. Really!