Moving to India

Hi,

I am of Indian origin, but left India 30 years ago aged 5. I am thinking of moving to Mumbai (my birthplace and cultural heritage) or Bangalore to experience India and how much it has changed.

I am in IT so getting a job should be easy but a job is only going to keep me busy 9 to 5 - is Bangalore or Mumbai an exciting city with lots of things to do outside of work? As a single guy, is it easy to mix and mingle with the fairer sex? From my convo with Indians I understand that it is a lot easier now - more so then most people make it out to be.

Look forward to hearing your opinions. Thanks.

Any job which will pay enough to live a reasonably comfortable life in Mumbai is going to keep you busy from 8 to 8 on a normal day - ie if you are lucky and have a short commute time by Mumbai standards.

There will be plenty of social opportunities to meet women.

It was easy in the '50s and '60s too. There was more leisure time. (Refer to the population growth). It's harder now due to commute and boss pressures.

Strongly recommend that you try a holiday or two first. Your birth, skin colour, genetics, etc etc do not in any way guarantee that you will like the India of today.

I knew one lady (of Mauritian-Indian origin), a fluent Hindi speaker and ex-teacher, a practising Hindu and student of Indian classical music and dance who took one look at India, on her first visit, and caught the next plane back to London. She thought that India was her cultural heritage too.

(Well, to be honest, it took her a couple of days, during which she got sick, but she certainly did not want to stay long enough to get better).

If you want to know what your next town is like, do you move there?

You have a great sense of humor, so thats a plus with the ladies.

Apart from visa issues (if any), IT profs are ten a penny. Getting a decent job might not be easy as you think.

Agree with Nick. I have a friend whose job it is to promote India as a place of study to Americans. It has been his observation, as has been mine, that oftentimes it is people of Indian origin who find it particularly hard to acculturate and cope with India. This could be down to many reasons:

- they've usually built up images of the place informed by what their parents and family have told them. These impressions are of no use today since that India is already a thing of the distant past. Not to mention, India is highly variable from within. North-South, East West, Urban-Small town.

-Growing up in an Indian family in Australia (or anywhere) is a very different thing to actually growing up in India. I have American cousins of Indian origin. They used to stress that they were Indian when in America, but when they grew older and visited India they realised they're actually much more American than Indian. (By contrast, my half-Swiss, half-Indian cousin is waay more Indian in his outlook seeing as he has been visiting India for a month or so every year of his life).

But of course everybody is different and experiences and responses to India vary widely. You might just end up loving it. (I hope you do!). But you should be aware of what to expect.

PIOs living in and loving India are aplenty and commonplace!

Do you speak Hindi or any other Indian language? I hope you've visited India before? If not, I'd also strongly suggest you make a few trips ahead of taking the full plunge.

Keeping an open mind and having a non-judgmental, patient attitude always goes a long way to making life in India rewarding and fun........

YES! These two things worry me the most! In western countries we generally work 7-8 hours a day and 5 days a week. I have heard horror stories about the work culture in India where the boss keeps an eye on how long their team is spending on the toilet, phone, etc. And the commute - that's is one strike against Mumbai as I would probably be living in Bandra and working in the New Mumbai?

The other thing that worries me is that in my entire life I have only seen 3-4 attractive indian women (besides models and actresses). One of the reasons for moving to India is to remedy this and meet more attractive indian women and also redefine what they are about. I have been going through gazillion of my indian friend's and family's facebook photos and their friends and I am yet to find an attractive woman (who is around 30 yrs old looking).

I remember going to Goa, having so many expectations. Within 1 hour of arriving there .. I packed my bags and took the next train back to Mumbai. Didn't care how sick I was. I mean come on going to the beach and seeing aunty and uncles swimming with their sarees, salwars, kurtas, chaddi's on. I come from Europe/Australia and wow this was a culture shock.

I have lived in about 10 countries and traveled to 80 .. yet India is definitely unique in the proposition it presents or lack thereof.

I have an OCI so no issues with Visa. But I think you are making assumptions. My skillset is very unique and I have seen lots of job ads in india for my skills. Money is ofcourse ridiculously low. What I earn in a fortnight here or in Europe I will be earning in a year in India but then I am not going to India for my career or money .. those are just side distractions to keep me busy when I am bored of having fun and traveling.

all your points are very good! My family left India in the 80s and the thing is you hold on to the ideals and ways of India from that era. Whereas India has moved well on and I think some [Indian women's] western nature will make westerners blush. So I am coming there to experience this change of culture and to hopefully update my beliefs and my beliefs about India. Or not.

I speak, read, and write Hindi and Marathi (my parents made sure of that). I have visited India many times before but within 3-5 days get bored and hate it and fly to Brazil or South America to live and enjoy life. I am of the thinking that taking the full plunge will make me invest more in spending extended time there.

Is it just me or do attractive Indian women think they are god's gift to men? Whereas in Latin America or Eastern Europe beauty is SO common that women can't use it to their advantage.

Where does one even begin. Sigh. I hope some Indian women (or any women) come along and offer their thoughts. In the interim all I will say is that you as yet seem to have a very wrong attitude with which you've been approaching India generally...

If you're expecting Indians to behave like South Africans or Australians or Brazilians or to look like them you'll be sorely disappointed. India won't change or behave like anywhere else and the onus will mostly be on you to fit in with the ways of India.

If you've already made up your mind about how Indian women look and behave then I have a feeling little will change that...which is a pity..

Sometimes it's a terrible place for a man to live. So much female beauty. Too much!



Then my previous comments really don't apply. For most people, emigration is a much bigger thing than they might think, but for people like you it is just another country to try living in, so, hey, just do it ...and enjoy the adventure


Ok, so there are very many women locked into doing what their families tell them, and messing with that can even be dangerous ...but there are lots that are not, and not only the wealthy westernized ones. The coy, shy, retiring thing is somewhat a myth. But you've been here... you must have noticed.

Damn... I'd like to be 30 and single in India. The single bit probably wouldn't last long, though.



It's just you. Or the people you mix with.

On the other hand, Indian women ARE god's gift to men.

Actually, I notice the opposite thing... Indian guys are so used to the beauty they don't seem to notice.





(sent using that popular mobile app... nobody wants to know that, except... E&OE)

This is cracking me up.

Don't do it!

I would get the feeling that the lovely lasses were avoiding me. I am paranoid that way.


If there are just 3-4 of them, they would think that, I am sure.

Have you heard this from Groucho:

"I sent the club a wire stating, "PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER".

- Telegram to the Friar's Club of Beverly Hills to which he belonged, as recounted in Groucho and Me (1959), p. 321


Source

In a similar vein, any attractive (or not) gal that likes me has to have her head examined; she must have real bad taste.




.

A woman (not Indian and not "30 yrs old looking") offers her thoughts:




You, kid, have a lot to learn about India, about women, and about life.

OP wants to have a good time with women, for which he is leaving his rich career and wonderful life behind, and god knows why, he is looking at India for his adventure which only has three or four beautiful dames.

If I were you, I would not even venture close to India, imaging a group of 30 crore males, give or take another 30 crores, trying to woo the four lucky gals...apart from many unpleasant situations you may find yourself in, the moot point is that the hospitals in India are not worth spending the rest of your life.

I have an OCI so no issues with Visa. But I think you are making assumptions. My skillset is very unique and I have seen lots of job ads in india for my skills. Money is ofcourse ridiculously low. What I earn in a fortnight here or in Europe I will be earning in a year in India but then I am not going to India for my career or money .. those are just side distractions to keep me busy when I am bored of having fun and traveling.

Most junior IT workers I know are on a basic of 2lakhs per month. you are claiming you are on about

2 lakhs = approx 2000GBP . * 12 = 24k per year

which is a fortnights wages for you. THis means you are on 24000 * 25 = 600000 pounds.

600k Pounds per year. Stop smoking the Waccy-baccy

What do the luckier contractors get these days? Back in 1980-something, a friend of mine was getting UK£1,000 a week. Mind you, I think it was a first and last for him.

Especially the ones for the criminally insane.