My current questions...

Danie

After reading a little more, I've come up with a few questions.

My husband will be working in Thiravallur and (hopefully) my son will be going to school in Taramani (about 60KM distance between). What would be a good location to live? Ideally, I'd like to live in an area with families around my son's age (10). Cost isn't too much of a consideration, and if I don't come out of my fantasy world, I'm hoping for a dishwasher (or place to put one), backup generator and maybe a pool. That's my extreme Christmas wish list. I'm certainly willing to compromise...well, maybe not on the dishwasher

Flooding. With all I've read about monsoon...is it reasonable to rent a house instead of an apartment several floors up? Will the house flood?

Mosquitoes. How bad? Tell me like it is.

My son would like to know about poisonous spiders and snakes. While I think he'd be thrilled to see spiders and snakes everyday (not me), the poisonous variety would make him freak. (ok, me too)

I've read about appropriate dress etc. Do you have any hints/tips to know when entering India. The last thing we want to do is unintentionally offend someone.

One last thing, my family isn't thrilled about us moving to an area where there was a tsunami. While beach front property looks very appealing, is it smart to live there? What can tell my folks to ease their minds?

If you've read this far, thanks for sticking with me! Now I have to go think of other things for a while.

Thanks,

Danie

galahad

Taramani and Thiruvallur..hmmm.- u need to compromise somewhere.
I would say u rent an apartment in Besant Nagar/Tiruvammiyur/ValmikiNagar/IndiraNgr/Adyar ,Taramani is never more than 10 mins away.For ur kid,the snake park is 10-15min away.
Thiruvallur is easily an hour's drive.
I would even suggest "The Atrium,Kalakshetra colony,BesantNgr" to rent an apt.Has a great swimming pool,a backup gen,no mozzies,a good security system and enough 10 year olds.


Hmm...Tsunami!Well,I am one km away from the beach,and I survived the wave.If u gotta perish ,u will,no matter what.

Nick-H

I don't know much about Northern Chennai at all, and the word Tiruvallur seems to be spattered all over the northern part of my City Plan! If you could narrow it down a bit...

60Km? I didn't think Chennai was that big!

You might consider Anna Nagar: I know there is some posh housing there.
You should be able to get a dishwasher. She'll wash your clothes and mop your floors for you every day too, for a surprisingly small amount of money (and her program won't get screwed up by power cuts!)
You are going to have to make some lifestyle decisions. For example, do you want India on your doorstep? Would you prefer to be able to pretend it isn't there when you go inside? I would suggest you start asking yourself these sort of questions right now. I'm guessing that your husband's company will put you up in a hotel to start with, give you a chance to look around. When you do that you might revise all the thinking you did before!

Flooding: Flooding in Chennai (as I understand it) only really started last year, when it was really bad for a period spread over a couple of months. This year we only had a week.

Whether a house is in danger or not will vary from street to street, or even house to house! Check out if it is high or low, and ask the neighbours. Otherwise there is no need at all to banish yourself to an upper floor! (In my case, I am very glad we are not on the ground floor ).

If it was me.... (Expat salary? Envious, what, Me? ) I'd go for a house in one of those areas like Besant Nagar that Galahad mentioned. I'd try to find somewhere quite posh on the inside, with all the Western mod cons (and lots of Air Conditioning), I'd like it to be secure, but I would avoid the feeling of being stuck behind a high wall, and I'd try to make sure that I could see real life, and take a stroll to the local shop, etc. Seriously, you could end up feeling very lonely and isolated in a luxury cocoon.

(Actually, as far as the salary is concerned, not working may demand a simpler lifestyle, but I'm still glad I don't have to .)


Bloody terrible. Depends to some extent where you are, and the breeze of the sea seems to help. It is bad where I live, and very bad at our new house (a flooded empty lot nest door doesn't help). Get netting on your windows, hang a net over the doors, and sleep under a net. Excessive? I do all that, and still get the occasional bite, even now during the cooler months

There aren't any. Not in the city.
Even though Chennai is still relatively conservative, this aspect tends to be overstated. For own comfort (you will get stared at) don't expose much flesh. You'll find the local dress (eg Salwar Kameez) comfortable and suitable to the climate. But nobody will shreak if you wear jeans.
Tsunamis: how many thousands of years since the last one? (umm... I mean the one before the last one, of course...) I don't think it even affects property prices any longer, although the planning restrictions on how close to the sea one can build are now more strictly enforced.

slakhs

I would also go with Adyar / Besant Nagar option, reduce the commute for child, hubby can travel longer.


Although you dont have to be scared of snakes in city, there was a Hindu news about 2 days back about a snake inside an MTC bus, in Mount Road for that matter but suspected to have got in from suburb. Ignore the news and enjoy your stay.

Nick, the Thiruvallur you see all around north of Chennai is the district while Thiruvallur, the town is North-west of Chennai, 42 Kms from Central and outside Metropolitan limits. It is a sort of commuter town. Frequent local trains ply from Central (self-promo warning:- check my blog) but I would think a company car (or bus) is involved.


Cheers
Slakhs

Danie

Nick, this is good news. I'm hoping it's one of the Tiruvallur's that are closer to Chennai. Looking on a map, I thought it appeared quite far heading west on 205.

We'll spend a week in (possibly) January on a house-hunting excursion, then come back here to finalize arrangements. There seems to be a lot to do with physicals, shots and other arrangements that needs to be taken care of. We have a nice lifestyle in the US and I'm willing to compromise on that but I couldn't live in a cocoon. No, I'm far too social for that. We homeschooled when we lived in the UK for 3 years. I'm sure I'll find it difficult without my husband or my son around while living in India. I do hope I find things to occupy myself and manage to stay out of trouble!


You're glad you don't have to work? Or you're glad you don't have to have a simpler lifestyle? (Who's naughty now?)


Thank you for not sugar-coating it.

Other than dress code...are there any faux-pas I should know about in advance?

That's my husband's point of view as well. Unfortunately, my mother isn't subscribing. Granted, my mother hasn't much of a clue.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to sleepon it and see what else comes to mind.

Kind regards,

Danie

Danie

That was quick, huh!? Are there any Christian churches in Chennai?

thanks,

Danie

slakhs

Quite a lot, some 2-3 centuries old. St Thomas, St Mary (a few of them), St George, St Andrews, Luz Church, Loyola are just some of the bigger and well known ones

Cheers
Slakhs

Danie

Are they all Catholic or other denominations as well?

Thanks for the info!

Danie

Nick-H

From what Slakhs says, it looks as if I'm probably wrong about Tiruvallur.

I guess it is like Kanchipuram to the South of Chennai. You can be in Kanchipuram district a few minutes out of Chennai --- but the city of Kanchipuram is miles away. Sorry about that!

There are heaps of Christian churches here. My wife is Christian and attends both RC and Pentacostal services. It's easy to expect that everything here will be Hindu: that's not at all the case, and you will find all different religious buildings scattered around all over the place.

As to cultural faux pas ---- Indian culture is such a huge subject it is difficult to know where to start! Don't wear shoes in other people's house... ... loads of stuff on this site.

I think you will find plenty of stuff to do . So long as you don't end up isolated in an apartment or behind compound walls, you'll also find that many people here are friendly and easy to make contact with. Curiosity is rampant (don't be offended, but do decide on you limits as to what you tell and what you don't) and some 'friendly' people will disappear after satisfying it...

I really don't think a week is long enough to find a home. A month just might do .

You should do some looking around and exploring for yourself, not just check out a shorlist of very expensive property (but you'll get your pool, probably ) from some expat relocation agency that will charge you even more than the pretty steep charges that even ordinary agents here charge. Umm... make that a 'could': who am I to tell you what you 'should' do?

Oh, and I go for the non-working, simpler lifestyle! To give you an idea of the spread, my wife and I live in a two-bedroom, comfortable flat which is the top portion of an independent house in a pleasant area, for Rs6,600 a month unfurnished (which is at least two to three times the salary of a shop worker). I know one British Expat working here: he pays 90,000 for his furnished sea-view house with pool, and saw other places well over 100,000!

Merchant

There are lots of Christian groups in India. Most of the mainline Protestant churches (Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc.) came together to form the unified Church of South India (and the Church of North India). The Catholic Church is independent and widespread, especially in Kerala and Goa, which was a Portuguese colony. There are two indigenous churches in India--the Syrian Orthodox and the Mar Thoma Church (the latter claims direct descent from Thomas the Apostle, "Doubting Thomas," who is thought to have brought Christianity to India in 52 AD). There are also sundry modern churches, with connections to groups in other countries, like the Baptists. And there are uncountable evangelical churches, some indigenous and others part of broader worldwide evangelical groups.