JC in India

As of today, I have completed 25% of my planned time in India. I have a three-year contract which runs to the end of December 2024. It is actually a normal employment agreement with a fixed term, so technically I could resign earlier, or by mutual agreement it could be extended for longer. But for now my intention is to remain here for the duration of the contract, and then move on to something else afterwards. So, if it all plays out as expected, I’m a quarter of the way there!

It has been an interesting first quarter for sure, with some of the key experiences outlined in previous posts on this site. Being honest I was expecting before I came here that there would be occasions when I would regret making the move, and I would wish that I had not come. However, I can gladly say that hasn’t actually happened. It has not been easy at times, and often I have found it quite difficult, but I have not had any moments of genuine regret. I cannot deny that part of me is looking forward to the end and to moving on from India, but that is different from regretting the choice to come here, and I believe the positives and the experience overall continues to outweigh the negatives.

Daily life here requires effort. Simply heading out the door requires navigation of roads that are ‘less orderly’ than we westerners may be used to. It requires management of the systems and processes here which are often very foreign to our nature. And it sometimes requires a need to exert influence and authority to get things done. Things sometimes do not just happen easily here; you often have to be quite forceful and proactive to manage normal daily activities. This is more applicable to me as an expat as there is usually a degree of uncertainty of how to deal with me by some more local people, and language can be an issue. My day guard Vikas and I have a common vocabulary each day with the same greetings and gestures, as he barely speaks a word of English.

He was actually away for a few weeks recently and his replacement knew one phrase – ‘good morning’. So, each morning, evening and night whenever I came and went I was always wished a ‘good morning’!

Inherently my nature is more peaceful and passive, and I’m quite private generally, being perfectly happy having time to myself and doing my own thing. So I have had to adapt my style quite significantly to cope with this less private and more openly bustling culture. I will surely return a more accomplished problem solver after all this.

But it remains fun. It is a novel experience to be different and to stand out, and my lifestyle here is very much integrated into India. I do not live in an expat enclave, I go to the local shops, I take local Ubers for transport, and I eat local food in the canteen at lunch. Our company only has a small number of expats, with only 7 of us in my circle out of a company of thousands, but an office of hundreds. So, my life here is truly Indian in nature. Ok, I live in one of the nicer locations, with second tier country embassies scattered around nearby, but going outside the door it is still a rare surprise to see a fellow westerner. A quick google search tells me there are around 30,000 British expats living in India, which considering the scale of the country (1.4bn population) means fairly thin coverage.

For me though, a key part of the experience is the integration with the real India. My apartment lease expires in December (on Christmas day itself coincidentally), although I am intending to extend for another year, which means I will spend the first two years here in Vasant Vihar, south Delhi, with my cows and street dogs outside.

I think it is possible I will move somewhere else for year three as it could be good to see a different side for the final year, but that’s a decision for this time next year.

The next few months leading up to Christmas will be a bit of a travel whirlwind, with a couple of weeks in the USA starting early next week (hello 16.5hr nonstop flight to Toronto to start!). This will be followed relatively soon after with a week in Australia, a flying visit to the UK for a long weekend straight after that, a few days in Istanbul, and then finally back to the UK mid-December for two weeks at home. I’m very much looking forward to that. Be nice to stop for a while.

As for 2023, I have not made any specific personal plans yet although there will be a standard pattern to the year orientating around certain industry events I will attend, along with the usual patter of airline meetings etc., plus my time back at home.

But for now it is time to focus on getting through the rest of this year, and then recovering at home for a few weeks before starting round two!

The final part of this year will see the climate change, as now is a bit of a seasonal turning point. The temperature is falling, and for the last few days it has been in the mid 20’s centigrade, and I’ve actually not needed to have the air conditioning motoring away all the time. Plus, it has been tipping it down these last few days, which is kind of seeing off the last of monsoon season.

Next week it is forecast to get sunnier again, but still stay below thirty degrees, so actually we are in a relatively pleasant climate window. Sadly though it won’t last long… Diwali is on the 24^th of October, which marks the start of what is unofficially known as ‘pollution season’. The country will go mental over Diwali with fireworks and celebrations which kick the pollution levels up quickly. Plus a nuance of Delhi is it surrounded by rural areas where field stubble is burnt over the winter (technically not permitted but when did that ever stop anyone here!), which causes Delhi to be engulfed in the resulting smoke. When combined with all the other pollutants, and the colder denser air, the city pollution levels sky rocket. The AQI (Air Quality Index) will regularly go above 400…

I have heard of one company here that encourages its foreign staff to leave Delhi as often as possible through the winter. An air purifier is a must. It is said that a day outdoors in Delhi during this season has the same effect on your lungs as smoking a pack of cigarettes. Obviously running in such conditions is very inadvisable. My mileage is so low this year my fitness will have plummeted versus my pre-India levels, but that is a sad necessity of being here. I have only run around 250 miles this year so far, whereas this time last year I had clocked about 1,100 miles. I recently worked out a local roughly one-mile loop around roads which are comparatively peaceful.

As we are now in that temperature/pollution sweet spot I have managed to do a few runs outside, when the AQI was ‘only’ in the low hundreds and the temp was ‘only’ low 30’s. Today would have been ideal to run as the AQI is currently 64, but the heavy rain means most roads are partly flooded and the mud/waste around the streets stirred up by the rain makes it not worth the effort. Treadmill later again therefore… I just have to make the most of options to run when I travel, and hope that when I leave India in a few years I will be able to rebuild my fitness levels.

I was in Goa last week for a couple of days with work, and the air quality there is much better normally, but the roads around where I was staying were, how should I put it… ‘carnage’. So running wasn’t viable.

I go to Goa every couple of months as it is a core part of my current job focus as we are opening our new airport there soon. Goa is obviously known for its tourist business, being a beach region. I have always had some comedy of error situation though on each trip to Goa. It is the only location I’ve been ‘ill’ (aside from less serious grumbles) due to food, but aside from that mostly I’ve had transport challenges. Each time the company arranges a driver for me, and it has always been a different one so far. I mentioned in a previous post the Goa road experience of driving on the wrong side of the motorway which remains fixed in my memory. The traffic congestion on a trip a few months ago meant I very nearly missed my flight back to Delhi, having taken 90mins to go just one mile. Plus, on two occasions now the driver booked to pick me up hasn’t showed up. So, my association with Goa is of always being a bit of a hassle.

This last trip I had a full day Sunday there as I was transiting there from Hyderabad where I had worked on the Friday and Saturday morning, so I decided to book myself into a hotel closer to the beach and have a ‘tourist day’. Turned out though that Sunday was a ‘dry day’ (no alcohol sales allowed) in India as it was Gandhi’s birthday, so that dampened the dining experience! Although what it actually inspired was everyone to go for it on the Saturday night beforehand from what I could see. I also had inadvertently booked into an area along the beach which was notoriously busy with local tourists, and that became quickly apparent when I went for a wander around on the Saturday afternoon when I arrived.

Also staying in the Hard Rock Hotel, seemed a good idea at the time…. Still, it was a little different to the hotel I stayed in previously which is brand new and very near our new airport but more inland. It’s a nice hotel but at the time there was only myself and one other guest staying, so this time I wanted a little more ‘life’ given I had a day off there. I got what I wanted for sure… Given the crazy busy area outside the hotel I instead elected for a bit of pool time. Although one thing about some Indians is a seeming lack of adherence to personal space and privacy. I had the whole pool pretty much to myself, and loads of empty seats all around. But where did the noisy family of three which a small child decide to sit? Of course they did…

I did get to experience a bit of the main town of Goa though, Panaji, with coffee and lunch with one of my team and a quick potter round the historic parts following a meeting in the town. It was a pleasant surprise and actually more appealing than some of the beach areas, with remnants of the old Portuguese colony in the architecture, and some rather cool little roads to meander around.

Plus, some great coffee in a little local spot you had to know about. Which thankfully my companion did!

The most memorable part of this short trip to Goa though was watching my driver outside the front of the office while I was waiting to leave after the day, pushing his car with a group of guys trying to jump start it. The battery had died. Half an hour later, another car sourced, and I left him to it. Maybe one day I’ll have a smooth trip to Goa!

As I start upon completing the second 25%, I feel much more familiar with this country now. I know my way around, and how to manage and get by under most circumstances. Returning from my Goa trip last week it was nice to get ‘home’ to Delhi. I’ve adjusted now in my mindset, and I am comfortable here in Delhi as I feel a familiarity with the place, and the comfort that comes with that. There is of course a lot more to learn and a huge amount of the country yet to see. There won’t be much opportunity during the remainder of this year, but as we get into 2023 I want to focus on seeing more of the country that I have yet to visit, along with some more near region locations such as Nepal, the Maldives, etc. I need to make a conscious effort to go places more at the weekends, and I have yet to really see Old Delhi since coming here, although I did experience it during my backpacking travels many years ago.

The adventure may be 25% done, but there is a lot more to keep me occupied in the coming 75%.

And that’s not even mentioning the work I’m here to do, the reason for all this. The aviation business is keeping me busy again!