First Few Days
01 Nov 2022 - Tanmay Jha
Funny Experiences
Drinking water
On the first day back, after I woke up at 3AM due to jet lag, I decided to go and make some coffee. I was still a little sleepy, and right when I was about to take the first sip I realized that I had used tap water to make my coffee. Habits die hard!
Heat
I moved back at peak of summer season, and promptly turned on the AC. It was set at 25 degrees. My room felt quite warm to me, and I thought the AC was broken. I opened the door to inform my parents about the broken AC, and a heat wave blasted into my room. The AC was working just fine, my tolerance for heat had just gone down dramatically. 25 degrees is roughly what summers are like in Seattle!
Security Check
At the airport, while quite jetlagged and sleepy after a long journey, I went and stood in the wrong security line. This one was exclusively for women, and I got amused stares from all the cops. I can’t remember 100%, but I don’t think TSA lines are gender specific
Stares
I went for a walk at 6AM, wearing my usual attire of a blue t-shirt and salmon shorts, and I kid you not everyone on the street stared at me like I was from Mars. I think it was partly the red shorts, partly me not being used to the Indian habit of staring anymore, and partly the fact that it was 6 AM and I was just walking on a main road, but man I finally understand what white tourists mean when they say Indians stare lol.
Traffic
The first few times I tried to cross a road, it felt like playing squid games (remember the Korean Netflix show?). Indian drivers tend to press gas instead of brakes when they see someone crossing the road.
Over the years, the car horn had become a sound of danger for my brain. It signaled an imminent collision or a massive screwup. Here, you honk when you overtake someone, lest they swerve into your path. The ride home from the airport had me jumping out of my skin at every horn, although I am glad to report this ceases after a few weeks
Colgate
I like to call this my first reverse culture shock moment. I was at the supermarket, and figured I will pick up some toothpaste. Reached for Colgate, and it was a Colgate Vedshakti with Neem, Amla, Tulsi and Clove. I remember just being stunned. I had been using Colgate for years, and I had never dreamt that they have an Indian version with all these spices.
A few months later:
Halloween
A few kids came to my flat in Lucknow for trick-or-treat. Apparently social media hasn’t been the only US export around here.
Negative Experiences
Banks
The banking sector runs at snail’s pace, even for big private banks. Things don’t happen on promised timelines, and you have to follow up with the relationship manager to get things moving. Public sector banks are particularly atrocious, although that shouldn’t come as a surprise. I have described this more in the blog on financial stuff
I went to a state run bank to open a PPF account, and when I was there I realized I had no idea what to do and who to talk to. I got bounced around from counter to counter, until I went to the manager and told them I will close all my accounts if no one helped me. That got things smoothened up a bit, but I would strongly advise not relying solely on state run banks!
Hygiene
I went to a popular restaurant, and the restroom didn’t have soap. That is the restroom that staff also used. It was a little jarring, and it’s perhaps advisable to stick to home cooked food as much as possible. At the very least, it’s worth visiting a restaurant at least once if you order from there frequently. It will give you a good feel of their hygiene.
Roads and rent
In Bangalore, the condition of roads is surprisingly bad and bumpy, given the size and wealth of this city.
Due to a combination of increased hiring and salaries, the rents have skyrocketed (increases of 50% year over year are fairly common, and 3BHK are going for 75K). Apartments gets rented out in a day or so. It is a very blink-and-miss situation. Be ready to put down a deposit on the spot.
If you are a bachelor, you are going to have a very hard time renting an apartment. This is one of those social conservatism things that are extremely annoying, and I was thinking of buying a place simply to circumvent this. If you are afraid of irresponsible youngsters, charge a higher deposit, and screen people according to age/job profile etc!
Cabs
Bangalore Traffic is legendary for being very bad, and I think that requires no introduction. However, what surprised me was the bad situation around cabs. Ubers seem to be in short supply, and the prices are through the roof. Even short distances like 2 kilometer are 150+ INR, and during peak hours you can expect a minimum of 350 for a 5 km ride. At the same time during rush hour (5-7PM), you will be lucky to get a cab at all. Mostly the apps get stuck at “matching you to a nearby driver” and eventually time out. If you have to get somewhere in a pinch, you can’t rely on cabs.
Flooding
I was in Bangalore during the 2022 floods, and they took me by surprise. The immediate area where I lived did not see much flooding, but a lot of newly built areas got flooded. While the rains were heavy by local standards, they barely lasted 2-3 days and were not extremely heavy. I definitely was expecting water logging and roads being a mess, but I was quite unprepared for the scale of flooding witnessed here. Parts of the Outer Ring Road (adjacent to the tech corridors) were like a river. My sister’s office got flooded, and they found cat fishes there! I am told that a big part of the problem (other than heavier than normal rainfall and illegal encroachment on the drainage systems), is that a lot of the new tech fueled development has been done irresponsibly, with builders (in nexus with politicians) draining and rezoning low lying areas including lakes and building swanky high rises and commercial towers there. The flooding was waiting to happen, and there doesn’t seem to be an immediate solution. This is just one reminder that trusting the system doesn’t work in India, and you have to actively look out for yourself. For example when renting or buying a place, do due diligence to make sure the building has a freshwater connection, and is not in a flood prone area.
Work culture
While tech compensation has exploded in India, the work hours also seem to be quite long. Most people I know end up working 10 hour days regularly, and evening calls/meetings seem to be the norm. Periods of heavy loads mean 12-14 hour days. Burnout seems to be rampant, and I have noticed a surprising amount of people willing to quit these very high paying jobs (50 - 70 lakhs) to take a break.
Positive Experiences
Power cuts have become very rare. At least in Lucknow, cleanliness and road conditions are quite good. Mobile internet and broadband speeds are comparable to the US. Ubers and Olas are cheap and plentiful In Bangalore, power cuts are also very rare, and cleanliness is still pretty decent.
Grocery delivery is smooth and cheap. In Bangalore, BlinkIt and BigBasket do 15 minute delivery for essentials and next day delivery is available for a wider assortment of products from BigBasket and Amazon. Next day prime shipping is also quite common.
Having someone to cook your meals and do the dishes/cleaning is quite a life changing thing. Don’t expect mind blowing food or a super high work ethic, but it will simplify your day to day life quite a bit. Outsourcing the whole grocery shopping-cooking-cleaning cycle has made my life and health quite a bit better, since I mostly ended up getting takeout in the US. Treat your maid/cook well, be a little flexible but also firm if they start misbehaving (like being frequently late, doing a bad job etc.). Just like managing anyone, treating people well, being flexible and keeping them accountable goes a long way. A little bonus every once in a while for some festival or if their kid is sick will also help. Just please don’t treat them like disposable robots or talk down to them. They are hard working people who make your life quite a bit better.
If you work in the tech sector, there are tons of startups building all sorts of things here. India is an exciting place to be in