New Delhi, India Report of what it's like to live there - 12/04/17
Personal Experiences from New Delhi, India
Background:
1. Was this post your first expatriate experience? If not, what other cities have you lived in as an expat?
No. Bangkok, Tokyo, Penang, Tel Aviv. And lots of experiences in and around Asia.
2. What is your home city/country? How long is the trip to post from there, with what connections? How easy/difficult is it to travel to this city/country?
USA. Lots of different ways to get here.
3. How long have you lived here?
Five months.
4. What brought you to this city (e.g. diplomatic mission, business, NGO, military, teaching, retirement, etc.)?
Diplomatic mission.
Housing, Groceries & Food:
1. What is your housing like? What are typical housing sizes, locations, and commute times for expatriates?
When we first arrived it seemed as though the jungle had overtaken our residence. Mud slicks in place of lawns and the low hum of the Aedis Egyptii dengue mosquito persistent through the undergrowth. With years of monsoon rain the whitewashing of the Lutyens-style bungalow columns had dissolved to in a red-streaked puce. Planters, for years untended, choked with the evolved remnants of a long-forgotten pleasure garden. Everywhere, a vague sense of sorrow and a somehow ineffable loss.
2. How would you describe the availability and cost of groceries and household supplies relative to your home country?
If you wish for anything beyond a 10 Rupee samosa on the street, you'll wished you stayed safely ensconced in your tastefully appointed Copenhagen home. Here, there is an array of eye-watering prices that puts Tokyo to shame. Seven dollar boxes of breadcrumbs, five dollar avocados. Luxury is anything not found in pollution-coated burlap sacks in a tragic streetside market. Diplomatic celebrations--chiefly national days--involve long traffic jams as hard-up diplomats jockey for a buffet line involving hard-to-find items like prawns, or anything with fresh vegetables. A sense of quiet desperation pervades these events.
3. What household or grocery items do you wish you had shipped to post?
Every time we leave the country we set out with empty suitcases, then pack them full of food. Recently I found myself, luggage strewn around and open, on my knees at the ANA check-in counter trying to move around precious items of food before a flight back to Delhi. Taking pity on my plight of having to live in India, the flight attendant let me carry four carry-on bags on my flight.
4. Are there any unusual problems with insects or other infestations in housing?
You'll basically see every kind of insect in your house. This is an issue you just have to get over.
Daily Life:
1. What English-language religious services are available locally?
Most things are in English, as Hindi is a dying language.
2. Would someone with physical disabilities have difficulties living in this city?
The irony of this question is almost too much to bear. This city presents mobility issues for the most hale among us. From squeezing between cards on unpaved lots to access stores, uneven steps, hanging wires, patties of cow faeces, broken pavements, and other obstructions at seemingly every other turn, this city presents a kind of hellish obstacle course for all its participants: willing or otherwise.
Employment & Volunteer Opportunities:
1. What types of jobs do most expatriate spouses/partners have? Locally based or telecommuting? Full-time or part-time? Can you comment on local salary scales?
If you're straight - your spouse is eligible for a work visa and can work on the local economy. Local economy starting salaries are about $100 a month. Which means your spouse will get paid less than your housekeeper. If you're gay - they're not getting a visa or work permit - so this question is moot.
Health & Safety:
1. What is the air quality like at post (good/moderate/bad)? Are there seasonal air quality issues? Does the air quality have an impact on health?
You better like wearing a surgical mask for five months.
2. What do people who suffer from environmental or food allergies need to know?
Do not, under any circumstances, come here.
3. What is the overall climate: is it extremely hot or cold, wet or dry, at any time of year, for example?
There are three seasons: Pollution, Extreme Heat, and Dengue. That basically means you can't ever be outside - making this post an excellent fit for a shut-in or someone with agoraphobia. In November, air pollution levels reach crisis proportions. Peoples' children get sick; our secretary's lung collapsed; respiratory problems spike leaving people packed in our medical unit's waiting room. Then, a period of extreme heat, followed by months of monsoon in which at least one person you know will get dengue or chikungunya. They say getting dengue the third time is the worst.
Expat Life:
1. Is this a good city for LGBT expatriates? Why or why not?
Imagine a time warp that sends you back to the year 1963, where gays stayed in the closet and polite people didn't talk about "homosexuality." Now, add a draconian law that allows for broad police power to arrest LGBT individuals for "unnatural sex" and you have the heady brew which is being gay in India as an expat. When I checked into the Embassy with my partner(who is 9 years younger than I am) everyone asked if my son was ready for school. There is an LGBT expat group populated mostly by older dead-eyed gay men in long-distance open relationships, trying desperately to arrange some fleeting liaison before their boyfriends return for a 72 hour stint.
2. Is this a "shopping post"? Are there interesting handicrafts, artwork, antiques, or other items that people typically buy there?
All of the pretty things cost more than at Anthropologie. That's sad.
3. What are the particular advantages of living in this city?
You don't live in Dhaka.
Words of Wisdom:
1. If you move here, you can leave behind your:
Sanity. Sense of dignity and self worth. Will to live.
2. But don't forget your:
Creeping sense of guilt as you watch your family suffer in one of the most polluted cities on the planet.
