First few months

Introduction

As background, I am in India right now as part of a global transfer program with my company.  My wife and I moved here in January and will stay through December. 

Several people have asked for updates and so have decided to try a blog with full knowledge that there are two big issues with my attempt:

1) I don’t reveal too much about myself by nature, which presents some challenges with maintaining an interesting blog

2) The majority of my waking hours are spent working.  Due to confidentiality reasons, I can’t discuss much of what happens (or at least anything really interesting) during this time.

For those following my wife’s blog, this may be duplicative at times as she writes about everything!

Mumbai / India

Mumbai has everything.  It is amazing to see how developed the city has become since I was a child.  There are Gold’s gyms here, all the major pizza chains, all types of cuisine, etc.    I’ve even found a group that plays ultimate frisbee on weekends.

It is of course not one India but a very poor, struggling India and a rich, optimistic India. 

The big difference here (relative to the U.S.) though is how there are slums in every neighborhood.  Often the best city views in high rise apartments overlook the slums.  Imagine the poorest people making their homes in Lincoln Park, Gold Coast and the northern Chicago suburbs.  The visibility is largely a good thing since it makes you aware every day of both worlds.

Culture

The culture here is much more hierarchical.  I am called “Sir” at least a dozen times a day.  It still hasn’t become normal to me yet …

People generally also work longer hours here but are less efficient.  My guess is that the productivity is a wash.

Food

Knowing how picky of an eater I am, many of you have asked what exactly I am eating.

Breakfast is never an issue.  We have cereal in our house and eggs are always available when I travel.    When I am at home, dinner is rarely an issue since our cook makes all the items fairly bland. 

However, lunch and dinner can be a problem when traveling.  Sometimes the food is so spicy that I drink a 1L bottle of water before the main course!!  Fortunately, that has only happened a few times and there are usually crackers close by to tide me over. 

The Italian restaurants are fine but not outstanding.  We finally found a good one (with chicken parmesan not coincidentally) after five or six attempts.   The restaurants are all owned and operated by Indians so it’s not too surprising I guess …I try to imagine the Indian restaurants in the US if not operated by Indian Americans.  Fortunately, I also found a pretty good place that delivers late to the office so I have those dinners covered.

Finally, pizza!!  For some reason, Dominos is actually better here than in US.   Papa Johns is awful though  – worse than both Dominos and Pizza Hut.  Pizza Hut is the high-end option here (I think) but the US experience hasn’t made me want to try it.

Things I don’t like

There is often a need for constant follow-up to get anything done.  Fortunately, things work pretty similarly within my office as in the U.S. but we do need outside vendors for bank accounts, credit cards, etc. and this is where things get really frustrating.  For example, it has taken three weeks to get my wife an ATM card.  This involved an email or call each day from me or my assistant with the response “I am on it and will get back to you tonight”    Then of course there was never a call that evening.  It was not until I made contact though with someone very senior in the bank that suddenly this could miraculously be finished in 24 hours.   

There is also a lot of unnecessary process here.  To help those who of you have not been to India understand, I’ll describe a typical visit to the airport on a Monday morning.  I arrive at the airport around 5:45AM.  Before entering the airport though, I need to get a “pass” from the airline booth outside.   They sometimes need to stamp it but it is never clear when and why this happens.   I then need to enter a second line for my boarding pass.  Even if I printed from home, I still need a stamp on my boarding pass and I need to find someone to do that.    At some point, I also need to find an airline tag for each check-in bag.   I then go through security where at the end of the process, they stamp your check-in bag to note that you successfully cleared security.  At the end of security (where they just stamped your bag) about ten feet away, there is another guy to check that your bag was actually stamped.  I then go to my gate.  Once I hand over my boarding pass, there is another individual to ensure my check-in bag was stamped before entering the jet bridge. Then, about 50 feet away at the end of the jet bridge, there is yet another guy to check the tag just to make sure I didn’t find another bag somehow on the jet bridge.

Things I like

Did I mention Mumbai has everything (except for you of course, assuming you are not in India)

There is a lot of excitement here over the future of the country.  There is a great line from Slumdog Millionaire where the brother says “Now, it's all business. India is at the center of the world now, bhai. And I... I am at the center... of the center.”  Due to this growth, every company believes it can become a global leader and it’s really fun working to help them realize this goal.

Finally, the people here are incredibly helpful once they know you.  Our driver ensures we are never ripped-off on purchases when he is with us.   The ex-pat community is always available to help answer any questions.  My co-workers do everything possible to help me, such as letting me know when foods are “safe”, helping book hotels if the manager only speaks Hindi, etc. 

Overall, while I certainly miss aspects of U.S. life, it’s been a fun adventure so far.