At home, my roommate is quite amazed to see all the shiny matte-finished kitchenware from Bed-Bath and Home-Depot. As I have obviously forgotten how to cook, we have a bawarchi who uses most of the items now, without the slightest knowledge of their exorbitant cost. Among other things, there is also the iPhone dock, camera, Bose headphones, MacBook etc. from previous thanksgivings. Of course, I did sell off my GPS and the Honda Accord that came along with it. Being a US-return, undeniably I come with a formal training on: “Six steps to most effective bragging.” After all, I did conveniently forget to mention the words “third-owner 2002” along with the make and model of the car.

The bragging trait was actually dormant and deep-seated in my veins (and a few arteries), but lately it has emerged. It has allowed me to fit into my homeland I gleefully returned to 6 months back. Now I live in a world where a friend-of-my-aunt’s-distant-cousin’s-late-grandmother could easily tell you my exact monthly pay, down to the last decimal. (The only time you choose to keep your money private is when it is black in color. There is a lot of that lying around but let’s discuss that sometime later over a bottle of black label.) Another really common icebreaker is discussing the value in front of a certain non-metric unit: “square-feet”.

Money and possessions are the cornerstones of discrimination around here. They could very well be called the poor man’s race and color (Calling every Indian, “intellectually poor” and conversely calling the others, “rich and racist”). Speaking of color (oops @ the spelling), it does help that money has the power to buy you more fairness creams, talcum powders and other worldly facades. You may say that monetary racism exists throughout the world but it’s just too transparent in India, not as a consequence of the lack of aforementioned VFMCGs but because there is a huge gap between the two races, so huge that a third one is introduced just to fill it up, and now that itself is split into two. Rich people show-off, poor people cry at not getting to show-off and upper and lower middle-classers get to do both.

A typical middle class Indian would travel to his workplace on a bike (motor-cycle), always trying hard to be the first one at the traffic light (signal). Then he would vroom ahead only to be quietly over-taken by a honking Mercedes (literally blowing its horn). First he would drool all over his helmet at seeing a Merc and later laugh at the same expensive car and its owner when he passes it at the next light.

The culture of our country is such that an ability of an individual is actually his power of gloating. And it doesn’t change after landing in US. To quote anonymous, “You can take an Indian out of India, but you can’t take India out of an Indian.”

For example, if a desi sees a Harley or a Maserati just standing there outside a Taco Bell, his first instinct will be to stand besides it and ask a friend to click his photo. Then each one of his friends would take turns to stand besides it to have their pictures taken with different poses and some “with immense attitude” (Secretly I hope that one of these days the firang owner comes and slaps such posers and then he goes to jail for committing a hate crime). Last but not the least, they upload the pics and prove to the world that they stood besides that pricey item. Their world will now acknowledge that they look macho besides that pricey item (henceforth abbreviated to PI). Now feeling good about themselves (having successfully bragged about something that’s not theirs – a clear case of plagiarism) they would feel their stomachs groaning, reminding them about the paltry Taco Bell standing in front of them; that pricey item long gone.

Everything an Indian achieves has to have a monetary value; because after he achieves something big, he wants to go and buy the PIs he kept cuddling in his dream and show off that PI to the world rather than the achievement itself. I have no problems with Indians trying to be the Mavericks from Top Gun, but I would rather have them flaunting their flying skills than the F-14s they are flying in.

It goes without saying that the PIs should have a well-known brand so that everyone knows they are pricey. Even a lower middle classer is so brand conscious that he would also want to buy “Adidos” shoes or a D&G bag for the girl he is marrying. While on the subject…

Since the day I returned, I really can’t avoid the topic of marriage that my parents keep pulling out of thin air. I mean, can you think of a scenario as to how an Australian Open match can bring up a question like: “So, what type of girl would interest you?” Digressing and evading was so much easier when I was thousands of miles away and a few time zones off. But now that the distance is a few hundred kilometers, I am cornered.

But coming back to the topic, I have come to understand (after a lot of graphical and statistical analysis and almost entangling myself in strings all over my house) that the root cause of the Indian mentality of showing-off, boils down to marriages (Close second was ranking system in schools). Generations after generations, families have resorted to displaying their sons and daughters (nowadays in the form of very detailed Bio-Datas along with the family’s latest bank statements attached) to complete strangers for the sake of a holy bond. Families need to maintain their images by buying new and bigger PIs from time to time, just to stay clear of the “Log kya sochenge?” phenomenon. So marriages basically are two families that hold a similar stature (showing-off capability) in the society, tying a knot with the help of two scapegoats (bakras). Though love marriages have become commonplace these days, if the stature is not maintained, there is always the “Thehro! Yeh Shaadi Nahi ho Sakti!” scene waiting to roll.

In a perfect India, arranged marriages would be banned. This would solve most of the inequality issues. People would start doing things to make themselves happy and not to parade around their wealth. More patents would be filed (this seems to be important nowadays); knowledge would be on display rather than things. The quality of education would automatically improve. Less people would go to US and India would rise as a new super power. More importantly, parents would call their children only to ask about their well-being and do other small talk like the weather in Bangalore. There wouldn’t be any awkward conversations involving the “M” word.

I feel, if politicians don’t interfere, such marriages will automatically be extinct in the next few years. But till that day arrives every unmarried single Indian has the fall back option from being “forever alone”. On that note, I shall now exercise my fundamental bragging right and enjoy the perks of being Indian by creating a “true to life” profile on Shaadi.com and its variants.

Lastly, I vow never to speak or even think of bringing the western culture to India ever again. Oh wait, one last request to the film censor board. “Grow up!” Now I vow.

(Disclaimer: In this article, an Indian refers to me and the other average Indians. And India refers to the country that these other average Indians and I live in. If you don’t agree with any of these opinions just consider yourself an above-average Indian. Coz’ aren’t we all?)

[Image courtesy]

[Guest post by @AboveAvgIndian who blogs at lyrical-reveries.blogspot.com. If you would like to write for amreekandesi.com, please read this first, and shoot me a note.]

Related posts:

1. Coming Soon To a Little Town Near You
2. Return to India – Initial Thoughts
3. The Dollar is our Best Friend

Here’s Nima Srinivasan’s FAQs on the whole R2I Process

******

I returned to India this September, after 12 years in the US. I gathered there might be less interest in a long tome by “yet another returning Indian.” So here are some questions I’m sometimes asked on the subject along with my honest (ahem!) responses.

For those of you considering R2I, I hope it helps. A little at least.

What does it feel like?

Getting back to India today feels as much the norm, as leaving for the US during the 90s tech boom. And yet, you get that same sense of accomplishment of doing something you know many consider, aspire to do, talk about doing but not everyone can really pull it off.

If you take pride in being different, returning to India today (to Bangalore in particular) is not going to do much for your uniqueness creds. Based on my informal survey at the customs department here, there are about 8 families returning each week to this city alone. So you’re like just another litter-bin on Bangalore streets and can hope that you’re the one that will make a difference among Indians.

Why does one do it?

Because it’s possible that one of the bat$#^% Republican candidates could actually win the U.S. Presidential election in 2012. No… it’s really because of the untold Indian riches that await you in cash, kind and the women really do look like they dropped out of Karan Johar’s sets today. Obviously no – each of our reasons is very different but be pretty, dang sure that you want to do this and won’t whine about it once you are here.

India’s already tanking under the weight of crotchety, high maintenance NRIs who’ve suddenly developed an inability to handle its food, air, water, roads, spirituality, Indians etc. but thought it necessary to return to India! Unfortunately many of them won’t shut up about how India is not working for them. And the RIs (Resident Indians) who typically exhibit inordinate amounts of patience at the food, air, water, roads etc quality levels – have scant tolerance for ANY opinion an NRI has on these/other subjects. To be fair to them, it wasn’t very nice when visiting Indian tourists constantly complained about everything in America now was it?

I haven’t yet pegged down at what time one can successfully blend in and get sufficient creds where you can make a valid point about anything at all. My search is on for the RI acceptability threshold of an NRI. I will keep you posted once I figure that out.

You’ve still not really answered why you moved back. Why?

Well, we moved to the US because that’s the only condition under which my 1948-born, pre-liberalization scarred, Tam-bram dad would let me marry my fish-chugging, Mallu, advertising professional boyfriend at the time. He’d said that it would be fine for us to return after about a decade or so if we still believed strongly that we wanted to live in India and not the US. He’d felt confident then, that EVEN idiots like the two of us would have the good sense to see that “US prison is better than Indian palace.” I paraphrase a bit. Twelve years later, we proved even more demented than he’d initially feared – as children and their spouses often tend to be.

But to answer the question “why” – well there’s kids’ education (old school CBSE), career opportunities for us, flexibility, have maids/cooks/drivers on call, being home, making sure my daughters and I had a relationship similar to what my mom and I have, save the girl child, ensuring beyond reasonable doubt that my daughters would NEVER say “pun-ee-er,” “lass-ee,” or God forbid – “Pack-is-tan”…quite possibly every reason you’ve ever heard.

Most of it honestly emotional, which makes it really tough to explain in this dubious piece on R2I. What I do know is that for us – this was the right decision, at the right time. When you feel that way, little else matters.

How does one prep to leave the US?

You’ll need to start the process about 5 months ahead. R2I forums have a ton of information that’s not organized in any form that’s fit for human consumption. If you’re lucky, you outsource that to your spouse. A fair division of portfolios on the basis of what drives each of you “less nuts” – definitely helps. So get him to sell the house/cars, deal with taxes, 401k, 110-220V conversion issues, passport/visa/PIO cards etc so you can focus on the other “tough” stuff like shopping. I kid of course! The division of labor must be fair…as declared by the wife.

I do strongly recommend taking the last week off, even if you’ve sent most of your stuff in a container. You’ll likely find that you need this.

How difficult was the move – on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 means “as easy as a nymphomaniacal hooker” and 1 means “as difficult as finding a humble, untainted politician in Delhi.”

It genuinely was a 10 on this scale. Yes, that easy. Many people have done it before and systems are fairly set. Even without doing insane amounts of homework and reference reviews, it’s possible to do this quite seamlessly.

Assuming your move isn’t sponsored and you have to pay to ship your own stuff back to India, it’s still totally worth moving your stuff instead of buying it all in India. The movers in the US and the movers/assemblers in BLR were positively brilliant. There’s something incredibly liberating about closing a chapter of your life and starting afresh when you are much-married and middle-aged. Getting rid of a ton of old stuff (including 24-roll film exposures!) and buying a Costco-load of new things is also as Chicken Soup for the soul as it gets.

What’s the settling process in India been like?

It’s been great so far. When I mention that, I’ve been told that my falling out of love with India will happen in due course. I have no way of knowing if that will happen and if it does, I’m moving to Burkina Faso, because it doesn’t sound real.

But on what our settling process has been like – it genuinely has been easy. It’s not necessary to throw money at everything to solve issues, but it helps to have reasonable access to it. As long as one doesn’t expect things to work EXACTLY the way they did in the US, there should be no reason for frustration. And to be fair, it is a different country with a ton of people so it’s rather ridiculous to expect it to operate in the same fashion as the US. Learn to get others to help or do stuff for you. The US is the land of “there’s an app for that.” In India, it’s more like “there’s a guy for that.”

You have IKEA flat packs that need to be assembled, there’s a guy who does that and does it well. You need emergency railway tickets to go somewhere last minute, there’s a guy for that. You need paneer in the middle of the day, there’s a guy for that one item, and he’ll bring it to your kitchen. You need an emergency mani/pedi – there’s a gal for that, and she comes home.

One completely random piece of advice I can offer is the recommendation to buy a dishwasher. It’s made all the difference to our lives, the attitude of our maid and general cleanliness (and low housefly index) levels of the kitchen. In BLR they sell the same number of dishwashers in a month as they do washing machines in a day. So yes, it’s in a fairly fetal stage in terms of market acceptance. But if you have mostly Pyrex, Corelle, wine glasses etc you are way better off trusting LG-bhai rather than Shanthabai with your fragile cargo.

Do you miss the US?

Quite strangely, no. It’s not like I didn’t have a fantastic time there, but it’s just that that was good and now this is good. The kids are doing absolutely fine and don’t miss it either. And they’re genuinely enjoying school. I’d well imagine that there hasn’t historically been a better time to be in India. So it’s all good so far. I do wish I’d brought a fly-swatter, but my super-sonic slippering skills are getting to be quite impressive.

Do you have any caveats to this piece?

Note that this was the experience of my family of four and there’s absolutely no guarantee that yours will be anything like this. So yes, it’s possible that all I said will be of no help at all to you.

Caveat lector…reader beware, really.

******

Editor’ note: Apologies, but an R2I post without cows/buffaloes on the street would just be incomplete, and we cant allow that. All images (on this and other posts) copyrighted to amreekandesi.com. Steal them and i will chase you to hell.

[Previous posts on the R2I experience are archived here]

[If you have moved to India, are thinking of moving to India, already in the planning stage, or moved to India to move back somewhere else, and would like to share your experience, please drop a note at contact at amreekandesi dot com. Would love to share it with our readers]

Related posts:

1. Return to India – Initial Thoughts
2. The Dollar is our Best Friend
3. Stayin’ Alive

First the all important question. Why do you want to move to India? Seriously. Think again.  If you are coming back because you think India is this awesome place growing at a rapid pace where you would be able to enjoy all that life (and money) has to offer, then please reconsider your decision.

If you come expecting a thousand watt halogen lamp, the hopeful candle flickering in the wind might come as a disappointment.

NRI City – Greater Noida. “Bringing Singapore to India“

Return to India only if you have a very solid reason that will sustain you through the transition period (and beyond), during which you will crib about everything from the traffic, pollution, corruption, cows, buffaloes, and the silly speed bump outside your house. This reason could be work, family, emotions, a hidden treasure that you left under the tree on that plot near the house, the one that has been taken up by the newest unauthorized temple in town.

Come back because you want to do something for the country and put your brain to the nation’s development, and you will spend a good amount of time in disillusionment before you even get started. For India will tell you that it doesn’t need you. And that’s because India takes pride in disowning ordinary NRIs. Become governor of an American state, and then come talk to us. Or at the very least win a damn Nobel.

Come back because you want your kids to be raised with Indian values, and boy will you be in for a shock? Indian kids seem to have left America somewhere behind.

To be fair, the positives of life in India are many. No more visa hassles. No worrying about going out of status. No worrying about being an alien in a foreign land. The feeling that you can go anywhere and do whatever you want – its your country. Then of course there’s the Mangoes and the Gulab Jamuns, which virtually clinched the deal for me.

India can be a lot of fun, but only if your expectations are set realistically. I  moved to India a few months back after spending half a decade in the US. I suppose my transition period is still continuing, but i am happy. I moved back to be with family, and after many years i got to celebrate a real Diwali this year. I am overjoyed!

If you do decide to take the plunge, here’s notes from my R2I (as ‘Return to India’ is affectionately referred to) experience. If you find these helpful, don’t forget to drop me some moolah in the paypal account. (I may just let you manage the huge endowment my Nigerian uncle left me last week via email.)

Here’s a little checklist of things to do before you pack your bags and fly back to India. (Hopefully you will fly Air India, and hopefully the crew will have an argument en route. Nobody provides in-flight entertainment like a messed up Air India crew.)

Have a Plan of What you are Going to do in India.

Where are you going to live? What will you eat? What will you drive? What will you DO?

This cannot be overemphasized. India is a busy country with a lot of unpleasant distractions, and without a steady occupation you could easily get bogged down by the weight of the very heavy nation.

Have a clear plan of what you will do when you get here. Find a job. Prepare a business plan if the entrepreneurship spirit tickles. Buy a farm. Find a village that you will save from drought/cruel Zamindars/ The British/Pakistan. Form an NGO.

You get the idea.

Settle your Finances.

I closed most of my credit card accounts except for the most commonly used ones. I might get them also closed now. The bank account is still open, but most of the balance has been remitted

Make sure you close out all that is outstanding. Unless you are sure you will never come back to the US and have big contacts that might prevent you from getting deported from India, please don’t commit any fraud. Better still, make sure you actively find out and sort out all open issues.

Once you are gone and they are unable to trace you, your account will just go into collection and your credit will be forever ruined.

(Image courtesy – http://www.badcredithistory.org.uk/)

Settle your Apartment Lease.

Even if you can break the lease, you will likely have to give some notice period, so it might make sense to time your move around this issue, especially if you live in a big city like New york where rentals are as complicated and expensive as they are.

You could buy a little car in India for a month’s rent up in the Big Apple.

Sell your House.

If you had the good fortune of buying a house, then selling it off may be a good idea. Be sure to factor in time for the sale while planning your move.

Ship your Stuff

This one’s the fun part. Basically there’s two shipping modes. There’s ocean freight, and there’s air freight. Ocean freight goes by the container load. You can get a full container, or do an LCL (Less than Container Load) shipment. This mode is relatively cheaper, but takes a long time. A few months at the least. Dont dump all your undies in the container.

The other option is air freight. This one would typically be by the pound, and comes out to be much more expensive than ocean shipment, making it not very practical if you are shifting an entire home, furniture and all. Me, i didn’t move any furniture. Just books (lots of them), clothes, and assorted stuff. I flew them to India, and it took about 10 days end to end. Pretty neat.

I did have to go to the airport to get my shipment released and pay the duty. You get to pay a discounted duty if you can prove that you are transferring residence.  The duty officers would open all boxes in front of you, and come up with an estimate of the total value of the shipment.

There are many shipping companies whose services you could use for sending your shipment. The very helpful person from my shipping company  pointed out though that it may be much cheaper to send everything directly through the airline instead of going through the shipping company.  As in, you send via air freight directly with the airline, and take out the shipping company middleman. Somebody please try and let me know how that goes. It was too late by the time i got this info!

Do a Dress Rehearsal

Ideally, before you move back come stay in India for a month or so to get a feel of things. This is especially important if you haven’t been to India for 5-10 years. A lot has changed since those prehistoric times.

Good Luck with the Move.

Make an informed decision, and plan your move thoroughly and in advance. If you have done your homework well, things will be smooth. Otherwise a cross continent move can be a very stressful experience.

The good news is that they don’t travel by boats anymore. No one in India will be able to call you a FOB.

Some Useful Resources:

NRIOL
R2I Club Forums – This forum was a blessing. Any question that you have about the move has probably already been asked here. If not, then there are people more than willing to help out.
GaramChai’s R2I forums
NeoIndian’s 40 resources to plan your move to India
Ashish’s initial post before the move, and the one year followup!
This blog by Mahipal who is going to move to India in 2010, and already planning the move.

Related posts:

1. The Travails of an India Returnee
2. 100 Days in India
3. Return to India – Initial Thoughts

So who among us has ever tried this? I would like to hear from you.

Most people wont even be fit enough to balance themselves from the slippery, narrow perch high above the ground, me thinks. Not to mention the drop from that height.

Paints a grim picture in my head!

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A few months back in the run up to the Indian general elections, PM Manmohan Singh promised to turn the economy around in 100 days. That hasn’t quite happened yet, but amreekandesi’s 100 days in India haven’t been any less exciting than a Harbhajan Singh driving his Hummer around the streets of Chandigarh.

I am happy.

Happy to be back home. Happy to not be an alien in a foreign land. Happy that i will not miss important events in my family. Happy that i can get my dose of Gulab Jamuns without undertaking that long trek to Jackson Heights.

India is crazy. There is no discipline. There is pollution. There is crime. There is no courtesy.  There is no power, nor water. There are scoundrels for politicians who would sell us all for money if they could. You sweat so much in India.

India has gotten so expensive. It is often said that Indians going to the west would convert all the prices into rupees and get scandalized. Its the reverse for me now. I find myself converting prices into dollars and getting shocked at realizing that a lot of stuff is sold for prices comparable to what you would get in New york.

It’s taken a while to come to grips with this new India. This new India that keeps changing rapidly, for good or for bad only history will tell.

A Paranoid India.

Earlier when i used to come to India for my holiday trips, the family would go to the new swanky malls that keep coming up like Agarwal sweet corners from back in the day. Right at the entry, i would be x-rayed and then patted down. Shoulder, chest and butt. I would protest, but to no avail.

Here in India we are constantly under scrutiny. They make those funky mall complexes, and then treat everybody like a prospective terrorist.

At the office, every day the security chaps will check my bag. In the morning, and in the evening. I lost it earlier this week when he actually reached inside my bag to turn things around. WTH! Not too sure whether it was the humiliation caused due to all these checks, or the concern over all those germs coming my way in these swine ridden times.

For all its paranoia over terrorism, the US is way easier to live in. I was never patted down even at airports.

Getting anything done is such a headache. You open a bank account and they need a million documents to prove who you are. You get a DTH television subscription and they too need a proof of identity and a full set of documents.

God forbid you try to get a loan – there will be calls made to random neighbors to ascertain that you aren’t a criminal. I got to know after moving here that as part of my pre employment check, they actually contacted my neighbor to check my credentials.

A Lawless India.

An elderly man got stabbed to death in a Delhi bus as he tried to stop some goons from eve-teasing/pickpocketing. A bus driver somewhere in Bengal got killed by a truck driver who rammed his truck into the driver’s body after he wouldn’t let him pass on a single lane road. A journalist got beaten up by goons whom he tried to stop from molesting a woman.

What the hell is wrong with Indians? For the smallest reason, mobs start going around destroying public property. Road raged people don’t hesitate in killing others over petty matters.

Whether it is shortage of police staff, corruption, or just ineptitude of our law enforcement agencies, you are happy as long as you are not in trouble, because its a free-for-all in this country.

A Rude India.

All along we keep harping about Indian hospitality and politeness, but things seem to have changed now. In the mad rush for survival among the millions of people all over the place, we Indians have forgotten all basic rules of civility and etiquette.

It’s all about me. You can got to hell, but my life is more important, and i need to get my work done first.

Above all, An India that is Home.

India has its shortcomings, but it is home. For all the problems, there is the comfort of knowing that you are in your own country, in your home.

Before moving back, somewhere in my mind i used to have these images of a progressive India where people have begun to care. An India that is poised for greatness. An India that is going to be the next developed country.

All those visions have long fallen down one of the open potholes in Gurgaon.

Our government may shout itself hoarse about the new world order where India needs to be a permanent member of the UN security council, but all that is farcical. India is a poor country where the people don’t have access to basic amenities, where women (or for that matter, anybody) need to think twice before going out,  where politicians are busy spending crores on statues while the country rots away in draught, where farmers continue to drink the fertilizer that was supposed to give them rich harvests, where millions of people continue to live in abject poverty while the Shashi Tharoors find shelter in fancy suites in 5-star hotels.

I love my country but love cannot be blind, and i was never one afraid to call a spade a spade. India needs to wake up and do something about the pathetic state of affairs, before it is too late.

All said and done, India is an adventure, and i feel like a little child learning something new everyday. I may crave for the Newyork style pizza from my favorite Ray’s Pizza, but the Gulab Jamuns more than make up for it. Besides, i can finally go to a McDonalds for one of those munchilicious burgers. (The American McDonalds don’t server any Veggie burgers)

Like they say, I’m Loving It.

(All images copyrighted to me)

Related posts:

1. Return to India – Initial Thoughts
2. All About Returning To India
3. The Travails of an India Returnee

So this guy called up the RJ (Radio Jockey), and they were talking. Bhai saab was an MBA student from FMS (which by the way, is one of the top management schools in India).

RJ: So what are you planning to do after your MBA?
Bhai Saab: Bas yaar, ek achhi si ladki chahiye. A nice girl to marry.
RJ: Abe so you dont need a job. A wife is all you need?
Bhai Saab: Yaar job to mil hi jayega, but finding a nice girl is more important.
RJ: Ok. Well, good luck. So who do you want to dedicate this sing to?
Bhai Saab: That would be my girl friend. (Said very matter of factly)
RJ: WTF! If you have a girl friend, then why worrying so much about finding a wife?
Bhai Saab: Arre, she is just a girl friend. Shaadi ke liye to i need a nice girl.

Me: Gasp!

Maybe i am too old to understand this thinking, but nevertheless, WTF! Is this how our youth thinks these days?

Related posts:

1. The Travails of an India Returnee
2. 10 More Tips to Survive India
3. In India, Kindly Adjust

Everybody has been going crazy due to the incredible heat. Farmers have been going crazy in the absence of rain. People are dying. Farms wear a barren look. Everybody is yearning for some respite.

When the respite finally arrives, what do we have?

Massive (in the true sense of the word) traffic jams all over the city. Flooded drains. Submerged underpasses. Missing electricity.

The Moolchand Underpass went Underwater

Water water everywhere
Not a chullu bhar to drown

I personally endured a 5 hour commute when it usually takes just one. My colleagues didn’t fare any better. From newspaper reports, nobody reached home on time that night.

The ordeal was to continue into the next day though. Another long commute to work. Some people reached their offices. Some gave up midway and went back home.

And they all stood patiently…waiting to get to work

Even though Delhiites aren’t quite known to be patient!

This from the biggest city of one of the self-proclaimed superpowers of the world. A nation aspiring to greatness. A PM who wouldn’t take anything less than a permanent seat in the UN security council.

The MCD officials were probably too busy inventing people on the payroll to worry about basic stuff such as cleaning up flood drains, or whatever else it takes to keep a modern city from getting drowned after a little downpour.

As usual, the game of passing-the-buck has begun, and nobody is going to be held accountable for the sad state of affairs in the capital of India. Life will go on.

Jai Ho, my dear land of ironies.

Related posts:

1. Swanky, Swankier, Swankiest
2. Stayin’ Alive
3. Return to India – Initial Thoughts

First time to Gurgaon, and i was pleasantly surprised. I felt like i had suddenly come to a new land. It’s a veritable jungle mein mangal. There is some amazing architecture on display in the swanky office buildings coming up all over Gurgaon.

As you cross the Toll plaza, here’s what the view looks like.

Is it a building? Is it a ship? Its the ship building!!

The ship beckons you into Cyber City – and suddenly you are in a different land.

A land of shiny towers and architectural marvels. It’s a little stretch of land, but a lot of imagination. Each building has its own character, its own persona.

It’s unlike anything i had seen elsewhere in India. My jaw dropped the first time i was in the area.

Somehow i get reminded of the Las Vegas Strip, a strip of very unique looking casinos. This road could well be a different sort of strip. There’s Ericsson, Sapient, Standard Chartered, RBS, PWC, Oracle, HP, and more technology powerhouses in those gleaming towers.

The fabulous architecture isn’t just limited to the Strip. Elsewhere in Gurgaon, such beautiful buildings are coming up all over. This one’s one of my favorites.

The funny thing is, people tell me Gurgaon isn’t for living. It’s dusty, transport is a big problem, amenities are an issue, etc.

Looking at all those shiny buildings, you would think it’s a world class city in the making.

Related posts:

1. Newyork From The Top Of The Rock
2. Popping the Pirate Party
3. Damned If It Rains. Doomed If It Doesn’t.

A lot has been happening, and overall i am very happy to be back home. Being in India is a fun experience, but i have yet to get fully settled down, which is the reason for the lack of updates on amreekandesi.

I have a lot to share. My experiences, my impressions, my observations, my frustrations, little things that gladden the heart, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I have sweated like a water tap. I have lost four pounds. I have cursed out loud at the ridiculously idiotic drivers on the roads. I have exhausted the quota of Safeda mangoes, and moved on to the Chausa. I bought a car. I had my dear home theater system’s power supply burn out due to a faulty transformer. I used to sleep less, but these days i am sleeping lesser. I have had occasion to call up 100 (police) for the first time in my life. I travel across three states to get to work, everyday. (See how dramatic i make it sound!)

I have been in India for a month now, and have yet to have a day of complete relaxation. But i am enjoying every moment, and now it feels like i have always been here.

There is so much going on, and i cant wait to write in more detail. Don’t give up on me yet.  I will have some longer (and less hastily written) posts soon.

Related posts:

1. 100 Days in India
2. Coming Soon To a Little Town Near You
3. Return to India – Initial Thoughts

WTH is a Dollar store doing in Delhi? First the prices everywhere seem to be directly converted from dollars, and now this?

Somebody please tell someone that people in India earn in Rupees, not Dollars.

Related posts:

1. Turn of the Tide
2. Stayin’ Alive
3. Return to India – Initial Thoughts