Help me Understand India and the Indian Culture

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Philster, I asked a similar question about living in Delhi. I’d imagine there are cost of living differences, and it depends on what you mean by “living very well,” but I gathered it was possible to be pretty comfortable in Delhi - nice apartment with phone/cable/internet access, part-time cook/maid, driver - for about $1,400 a month. An “expensive” movie theater cost Rs. 150 (about $3.25) per ticket. Never went dancing or eating out at really fancy restaurants, but my guess is places close to expensive tourist hotels (it IS possible to pay $180+/night) are likely to be equally pricey. I’m sure gouda and maleinblack have a lot more they can add on this score.

While I think of it… if you shop for gifts and see prices marked in US dollars rather than rupees, go someplace else - you’ll pay way too much otherwise.

62

Well Philster it totally depends how “well” you want to live.Let me give you certain costs that will give you some idea about your expenses.
Since you would be living in Mahape, which is on the outskirts on Bombay,renting a place(provided your firm does not provide one) would be pretty cheap.A large 2 bedroom hall kitchen flat with some furniture would be something like Rs.10,000($225) at the most.If you want to hire a maid to get your house cleaned and clothes washed etc the charges would be anything between Rs.450 to Rs900($9-18).Dont expect a english speaking well dressed maid though.
Most high end restaurants (Khyber in Colaba,Cafe Royal,where Bill Clinton went,also in Colaba)would be something like Rs.1500 ($30) for a dinner for 2 along with drinks.A movie ticket is like Rs.150 in the new international level multiplexes as sunfish said.Cable charges are Rs.300($6) a month in which you get like 100 odd channels including CNN,BBC,various sports channels,MTV etc.The internet situation is pretty tricky here though.First of all,the dial up connections are not blazingly fast,the average speed you can get is like 5 kbps.Dialing up your ISP is not free,you have to pay something like $1 an hour inclusive of ISP charges to surf the net.
Well if you are in Bombay then you are guaranteed the best night life that India has to offer.No other city even comes close.There are a lot of trendy modern discos and pubs for you to visit.They usually have foreign D.J.s. In discos Beyond 1900s(Inside Taj Mahal hotel) is a popular one , also in the reckoning are Fire and Ice (Lower Parel),Mikanos(Worli),Velocity(Tardeo).Pubs that I like are Head Quarters,Geofferey`s and the ever popular Cafe Mondegar.The night life is active till 3 A.M on weekends and like 1 AM on weeknights.I think the last movie show you can catch for the day would be in Sterling Cinema(VT)-the 11.30 PM show.
If you are looking for sports there is not much I can write about.The only thing that generates mass hysteria here is Cricket.Other sports like Hockey(Field not Ice),Soccer,Tennis etc. do not have the same amount of exposure or fan following.
Although watching a cricket match inside a stadium with thousands of hysterical fans is an altogether different experience.I think there is a India V/S Australia Day and Night One day match on 1st of November.Try to catch it and make sure you get the tickets booked well in advance.
You can catch lot of live sporting action on TV though(ESPN,Star Sports).UEFA Champions league,NBA,MLB,CART,Formula 1 etc are shown live.Certain pubs and discos show F1 races and Socccer matches of big screen.Try to attend those too.
Hope you find all this useful.Feel free to ask for any clarifications.

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sunfish, the cot is known as a charpai (literally translated: four legs). Personally I don’t find 'em too comfortable, but they do add to the ambience of a dhaba. And you’re right - it’s great to just sit there and watch the world go by!

Himachal Pradesh (and for that matter Uttaranchal too) is a beautiful state. I didn’t do much trekking on my trip - it was mainly driving. We covered pretty much the entire western side of the state in about 15 days… it really is a beautiful region!

Delhi sux :smiley:
Yeah, about them currency notes… they’ve only recently stopped stapling notes into bundles of 100. As such, there are plenty floating around with pinholes at one end!

maleinblack, the club at the Taj is now called “Insomnia” (either that, or I’m getting names mixed up again :smack: ). Nice little anecdote: about a month or so ago, I was in Bombay over the weekend - out with friends, we wrapped up partying at around 4 a.m. Sunday morning, and headed over to Trattoria for a bite - we had to wait 40 minutes for our table!! Night life in Bombay goes waaaay beyond 3 a.m.!

Philster, seeing as your work will be in Mahape (still can’t place it on the map!), I’m guessing you’ll be put up in the vicinity itself. If so, I doubt you’ll find anything remotely entertaining within at least an 8 kilometer radius. All the action is where the wealthy live, and that’s way down in south Bombay… rather distant from where you’ll be (i’m guessing). You’ll be looking at a 60 minute commute into town at least, no matter how you travel. More reason to hope for company-transport!

It’s best to ask the batch of Indians who’ve come what the night life in Mahape is like - for all I know, it might be rocking, given that so many BPO units are in that area!

When you do find yourself out on the town, most of the good clubs have a cover charge on entry (ranging from Rs. 400 to Rs. 800 a head). Drinks start from about Rs. 300 onwards, depending on your poison.

64

$180 a night is possible if you really, really go all out in Bombay. $100 is a reasonable estimate for a good night out.

65

** gouda**
$100 is good for a week for me :slight_smile:

A lot of advice to sift through for Philster. Another note, it’s way,way hotter and muggier in Bombay and Chennai than anything you have experience here. People complain when the temperature goes up to 100 here in Colorado. Thats the average daily high in Bombay. Combine that with 90 % humidity and you’ve eternal hellfire at your doorstep. Chennai is even worse. I went to Chennai one summer, and boy, I ain’t trying that stunt again. I know you will have a cool car and office, but just expect a lot of heat if you are going to reach there in summer.

We hosted a lot of American students when I was growing up, and the number one complaint from girls was that people stare too much. I know this has been said over and over again, but if you have female colleagues, it’d be a good idea to warn them beforehand.

Someone mentioned elephants on the streets. I haven’t seen any elephants on the streets in India, only in zoos. Not in the last ten years anyway. You don’t even get to see cows nowadays, only dogs…oh, for those halcyon days of my youth.

I think you probably know pretty well how to survive and prosper in India, but there’s something most people didn’t tell you. You should travel as much as possible. India is pretty complex, and each place has its own culture, its own aura. Go to as many places as you can, because it really is an amazing experience for westerners. And when you do, try to avoid those plush hotels and find something smaller…believe me, it’ll be worth it.

Onward and upward my friend (or is it downward?)

66

$100 is good for a whole month for me :slight_smile:

67

Special request from co-workers:

Advice about eating with silverware, or just eating with the right hand. Is silverware available, and when not, should one eat with left hand in lap?

Please advise. As always, THANKS!

68

In restaurants silverware ought to be available - I never ate in one that didn’t. A couple of roadside dhabas only seemed to have spoons available, but that was uncommon.

Even if silverware is available, and especially in less formal eateries and at people’s homes, folks will still eat using their right hand. What this entails is tearing off a piece of a naan or roti (chapati) and using it to grasp chunks of meat or vegetables, which you then pop in your mouth (or eat bite by bite if you tore off a largish piece). It takes some practice to learn how to tear off a piece of a roti using only your right hand. My technique involves using my middle finger to hold the roti to the plate, grasping the edge of the roti between thumb and forefinger and then tearing. If your colleagues want to practice on their own before they go, grab some pita bread and give it a whirl.

I’m by no means pefect at this, and occasionally will get exasperated and use my left hand to hold the roti to tear off a piece with my right hand. People understood that this wasn’t my usual way to eat and didn’t seem to mind the “transgression”; in fact a few expressed surprise that I was managing so well with right hand only. :stuck_out_tongue:

By the way, using your naan or roti to pick up food means your fingers will inevitably get a little sloppy. I think just about every restaurant I ever ate in provided a little bowl of hot water with a chunk of lemon floating in it to wash your hands with after your meal. Neat!

69

By the way, after seeing hawkeyejo’s and gouda’s posts it occurs to me that I was tallying up estimated monthly expenses with some extra one-off stuff that was peculiar to my situation. You should easily be able to get by with no more than half what I said before, so figure on $700 or less (unless you’re living Donald Trump-style).

70

Let’s see, $700 according to sunfish should be enough. Hmm, thats roughly 35,000 rupees.

Holy Quackamoly, Batman, you would be living Donald Trump-style

Thats assuming the company would pay for most everything.

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

I guess it all depends on how much of a party animal you are. If I had my way even $700 would not be enough.

71

If there’s not a bowl of water provided and you eat without utensils, do get up as soon as you’re done to go wash your hands. I didn’t know you were supposed to do that, even though I always had, and when eating some home cooking at some of our Indian friends’ house recently, I sat there, feeling slightly foolish, continuing the conversation, not wanting to rudely interrupt anyone the way we would have if we’d been at home. Our hostess finally said something like “Wouldn’t you like to wash your hands now?” after a bit… we giggled about it, and she told me her mother used to say that if you don’t wash your hands right away, it’s bad luck; specifically, the house will be robbed!

72

Heh heh heh. True enough, I keep thinking that Philster would be paying his own housing and transportation expenses, but maybe the company is picking all of that up in lieu of giving a housing allowance or the like. If so, whack off still another chunk of my estimate.

Maybe to help get a little perspective on lifestyle and income… this article says that middle class-level income in India starts at about $1,800 a year.

You know, Philster, we can all speculate until the cows come home about how much it would take to live comfortably, but I don’t know how useful we’re being under the circumstances. :slight_smile: Why not give us an idea what “living well” means to you?

73

Touche’!

Okay, let me get around to ending some speculation, including the last by ** sunfish **.

Based in Mahape. Office is Intelinet, about 1 hour thrill ride away. All this is in/around Mubai.

We will be put up at the Renaissance Hotel for at least the first 6 months. We will have car service to and from work, and even to and from the airport. Our partners at Intelinet have a fair amount of experience with Westerners. I mentioned Madras earlier because work will eventually be processed there, too.

Our shift at work will somewhat match our US hours (so we’ll be in the office when our US counterparts are in the office simultaneously)…so we’ll be working from about 5pm to 3am local Mumbai time, give or take a half hour.

When I say ‘living well’, I mean the ability to eat out regularly, have an above size apartment there, have the place cleaned and have other general things taken care of, and the ability to go out and experience night life without worrying about cash. But, come to think of it, my apartment and apartment upkeep will be provided by my company, and I’m certain I’ll have a food budget from them. Even limited entertainment costs are covered.

Pardon me for not just spurting out my income, as coworkers will pop in to read up on your advice contained here in.

Based on what you’ve explained, and considering all my money is essentially play money, I probably won’t be turning down any opportunity based on cost. I make a very good living.

I’m am a very young 36 years old, American Italian with classic Italian features. I suppose I will draw stares. I also anticipate a fair amount of hospitality from our partners there. One Indian business friend has already mentioned his family and how they would love to show me this or that. Regardless, so much time will be spent independently.

I want to be warned, be smart, cautious and adventurous all at the same time.

74

No worries, Philster, I didn’t intend to pry into personal details here in public. :slight_smile: It’s just that I personally am low-key by nature and can make myself comfortable pretty much anywhere, so I was trying to get a feel for what your preferred comfort level was. Frankly, with housing and transportation costs covered by your company… a grad student at my alma mater with a yearly stipend of $16,500 would not be worrying too much about money, and I don’t think you will be either. :wink:

If you have time to yourself and money to play with, please please PLEASE go see and do things elsewhere in the country too. You will not regret it. With classic Italian features you will get some looks, but believe me when I tell you that you won’t stand out anywhere near as much as any of your colleagues with fair hair and/or very fair skin - they will be in for the most stares. But again, that experience will happen much more often outside of urban areas than within them.

IMHO you’re approaching this experience with a great attitude - I think you’ll have a blast once you settle in a bit and get comfy. [sub] Any chance you might have room in one of your suitcases for a stowaway? :smiley: [/sub]

By the way, if you or any of your colleagues, especially the ladies, have particular questions they’d like to ask a little less publicly, please feel free to fire off an email to me and I’ll help in any way I can.

75

sunfish, I promise I’ll get out and about. I think you’d be disappointed if I didn’t!

76

Hell, I’LL be disappointed if you don’t!

You’re gonna tell us all about it when you go, right?

77

I’ll be back with follow up questions. Things are heating up here and we’ll have more questions.

Of course I’ll let you know when I’m going.

78

You will be a king there, dude!!!:smiley:
People in India mostly know english, to language wont be a probelm. But to be frank, the Eng wont be the American or hte Queens Eng that one expects.
Also, people in Mumbai and MAdras (Chennai now) are very professional, so you wont face any probs there. And I dont think you will be stared at in either of these places, as these are big tourist destinations. Its only in the smaller places.
To get a better milage of your Indian visit, be sure put up an act of a fascinated westerner, and you may even get free meals.
Watch out for your pocket, though.:wink:

79

about the limp handshake, limp, it isnt the normal way of introduction in india. in fact, many indians dont learn to to handshake till they graduate!! :eek:
i have lived in gujarat, and i can vouch for the limp handshake there. mostly, the gujaratis dont make any body contact, male, or female. just a wave of your hand, or just a ‘hi’ will suffice.
hope this helps

80

Okay, I am sending my first batch of folks out there this week for a month, and I’ll be out there in December, then January.

Some Indian visitors are here already learning our processes and have asked us to take them electronics shopping, which we did.

They bought a couple of fully digital camcorders. They intend to tranfer the data from camera-to-PC. "Firewire’ was pushed as being able to get the data from camera to PC much faster, which I agree with. It would require an installation of a PC card in the PC to make it work, along with cable.

Our Indian friends balked at this, saying their PCs wouldn’t be able to accept the wire.

After some confusion, they never made the jump to Firewire. I am confused because they seemed to acknowledge the PCs are what I’m familiar with, and the Firewire card would be installed, which means the wire would fit (???).

I’m confused.

Is there something that I am missing here that would prevent them (are PCs that different overseas???) from tranferring the camcorder digital media quickly via Firewire to a PC in India???