Year two of living and working in Delhi has begun. It feels a bit of a milestone to be honest. One U.K. based business contact of mine said to me last month I had managed longer than he had known others to achieve, and fair play for doing so. It had always been my main fear coming here that I would leave a stable job and then get here, find it all go wrong and quickly live to regret it.
But thankfully that has not happened. Anyone following along with this tale will know this life is not without its challenges, but the horror and scare stories I feared could materialise thankfully have not done so. I am pretty settled into the routine now here (more of that later), and while the working environment is quite foreign (again, more of that in a future post), the actual lifestyle and way of living is not that hard once gotten used to.
Since my last post a lot has happened. Professionally I have been in Goa a few times focusing on the opening of our new airport there (it’s not every day you get to open a brand new airport!). We had the Indian Prime Minister come and inaugurate the facility early December.
Then on the 5th January we opened for commercial services. Quite a milestone, and coincidentally it was on the exact date of my one year anniversary with the company. A nice culmination to a years work, with the airport opening with strong business from day one, and some very positive projections for the future.
The work is far from over though, although it is now shifting into more of a normal business manner, and not a project anymore. Goa will still feature heavily in my work focus – I’ll be there again next week in fact – it will just take a different approach now. It almost becomes more of my responsibility as the next step is to open for international services in a few months, so securing the international airlines commitments to operate from there is key. Realistically international airlines are more my focus than the domestic ones. The team here in India unsurprisingly are much more in tune with the domestic carriers, so I prefer to let them take point locally as that works better all round. So Goa may have opened, but now the pressure is more on me to deliver the next phase. Still, it will keep me off the streets and in gainful employment!
The personal highlight of the last couple of months though was of course… Christmas!
I’ve always loved Christmas time – not for the actual festival itself, but for the time off work. It is the one time of the year where you can pretty much be sure most other people I deal with on a business level will also have time off. So the email traffic, and the need to ‘do stuff’ falls away, and it is a time to actually switch off. In recent times I have always made it a plan to take two full weeks off over this period and enjoy the time away from work. I am fortunate to have been happy in my jobs over recent times, so it is not that I have been desperate to get away, but I am a firm believer that everyone needs time out on occasion, and to switch off. Working hard is good, but you can only stay focused if you also rest hard when you need to. There is something to be said for those recent 4 day week studies showing the same level of productivity. Not that there is much chance of that being adopted here. We have a 5 and a half day working week, with Saturday mornings (well, 3 out of 4) being working hours too. Although I personally treat that on a ‘if needs be’ basis, and respect it if needed. It is about the output, not the hours in my mind.
So being home for Christmas was really nice and a chance to unwind and just be at home. It is amazing how quickly it goes though. In the run up to the two weeks home there were a lot of plans to see people and do things, but before you know it the clock has ticked along merrily, and check in for the flight back is looming. Still, we got to have the neighbours over, see the family, get a curry with the lads, and generally just enjoy time back at home.
I also got to spend time with Bailey, my now 17 year old little fella. He is slowing right down now, and I am realistic that this was probably his last Christmas. His actual birthday is the 23rd December, so it was nice to have him with me on that day, and give him a little shuffle around his favourite park, sporting his winter jacket.
Leaving him when I have to go has always been hard but more so now, given his age and the potential that I may not see him again. He has had a good life though and is still happy in his tottering along old age. Not many UK based dogs can say they have walked around Central Park in New York, been to Niagara Falls, and sailed across the Atlantic on the QM2! His first couple of years were spent living with us in Montreal, Canada so he even barks with a Canadian accent…
The other good thing about being home was being able to run again, and I managed to get a few miles in the bag to finish the year. We also started what I believe could become an annual tradition with a dark, cold and very wet 10K loop around the local reservoirs of Swinsty and Fewston on the evening of New Years Eve. It was not fast or hard work, but it was invigorating to trot around with headtorches on and finish the year in that way.
Then on New Year’s day I did my own personal fitness test 5K around the local street ‘track’, just to see what I could really do and how far away from my best I was. I managed to just pip under 24 mins, which was a full 3 minutes slower than the pace I had at the same time last year. Although given the lack of miles run last year, I was happy enough with that. At least I know where I am starting the year, and on 1st January 2024 I will have to see where I am after two years here…
Having run a few times and got a bit of fitness back it did motivate me to actually get on the treadmill last week here in Delhi, and I plodded along a steady 10K while watching something on the iPad.
However my chest felt tight, and for a little bit I was slightly worried, although with hindsight I realise now that it would be down to the poor air quality, and the effect it was having on my lungs. Even indoors the AQI is not great. I have got 3 air purifiers in the apartment, and as I sit here right now the one with the sensor is showing an AQI of 60. Outside right now it is 371. Last week on the way home from work in the car one day, we measured 887 on a monitor.
50 is deemed to be a limit where alerts kick in, and 500 is basically where the ‘severe’ status maxes out. So, Delhi pollution is living up to expectations this winter for sure. It should settle down by March, but right now it is ‘stay indoors’ time. This weekend I have plans to.. go nowhere!
So I am back in Delhi, and back at work. It was sad to leave home and return, but not in a don’t want to be here manner. This experience is still worth the challenges that come with it, and I have no regrets. Although I cannot deny that the feeling that one full year being complete, and being now into the middle year (assuming I see out the 3 year term) is a good feeling as visibility of completing the mission (so to speak) gets nearer with each day.
The normal routine has resumed, although with some modifications.
My normal week (aside from when I travel, which is relatively frequently) involves me very much being an office based employee, going into work for around 9.30am in the morning and leaving again around 6.30pm in the evening. There is no clock watching as I am at a level where I make my own choices and may occasionally work from home too, but in the main it is around those sort of times. I used to get an Uber each way – cheap and plentiful here. But my friend/expat colleague Gordon has moved into a new apartment for this year, and he is now relatively close. He has a car and driver that he pays for, so we have got an arrangement where if he gives me a lift I will basically pay him what I would have paid for an Uber (about 300 rupees each way – £3). Over the course of a month that can add up if used a lot, so for him it will help reduce his car outgoings, and for me it is cost neutral and provides a degree of reliability also. A win win all round, so long as Gordon doesn’t mind the extra journey time incurred in picking me up, in return for his ‘income’!
My office day varies all the time, and each week presents different focus areas according to whatever I am working on. I have a ‘cabin’ (as they are referred to here) on the 2nd floor of our 3 story building. It’s nothing fancy but does give me the privacy when needed. There are a lot of Zoom calls here, and the trend for large numbers of people to be on these meetings. But aside from these wider meetings I have regular one/ones with my team around each of our airports, and a lot of ongoing discussions with airlines – mostly the international ones from my perspective.
Lunch is held at the canteen which is on site in our complex of a few buildings in the airport grounds. This is a busy and bustling locale between 1pm and 2pm which is the core time most people head over there.
I try to steer clear of these times, and usually rock up for my Veg Thali (or similar rice based dish), a little after 2pm to avoid the rush. It is actually quite nice taking 30 mins or so away from the desk over lunch – a practice the Indians do well, versus the UK culture I had previously of lunching at the desk, sandwich in one hand, keyboard tapping with the other.
Given I am here by myself mostly, when I am back at the apartment in the evenings I generally put my VPN empowered iPad to good use. Local TV here is pretty pointless for me to bother with as it is very oriented towards the Indian taste for obvious reasons. My favourite half hour of the day is actually in the morning between roughly 8.30 and 9 where I just enjoy my cup of Yorkshire tea, a slice of toast and watch Sky News (the 3am local UK time edition..). It is nice to wake up to news from home. Then the evenings are similar with a keen dependency on the subscription services of Netflix, Disney+ etc., plus BBC iPlayer and equivalents being my staple diet.
Weekends are similar (when not working on the Saturday mornings), with a mostly peaceful existence. This is particularly true at the moment while the pollution is bad, and the temperature is cold (it will materially heat up from March). I don’t mind just staying in and having time to myself. Last Saturday though I went over to my new bosses apartment (fellow expat) with another friend for some drinks and nibbles. Nice to be social on occasion too, and savour the expat camaraderie. Ironically, he has acquired the apartment of my former boss who has now returned to Paris. So the walk home at the end of the night was the same as the one I did last year around this time when I was skulking in the shadows because of the Covid curfews at the time. Except this year I was allowed to be out, and didn’t have to skulk. I also knew the best way back to avoid the evening barricades on certain streets, so no wall climbing was involved this time thankfully. Plus, I know now the attitude to take with the local street dogs out at night, so they present less intimidation than they did last year.
When the weather improves though I will emerge a bit more and try and get some exploration done. There is still a lot to see here, and I will kick myself later if I return home having missed the opportunity to do so.
I have renewed the lease on this apartment, so Chez Jules 2022 will now be Chez Jules for 2023 also (well, until the end of November anyway). It is a nice spot relatively and I am familiarly comfortable here. My attitude towards the place has changed this year though.
I realise that last year I was pretty nonchalant in my living here, just using the furnishings and kitchen items etc. as provided. In reality the kitchen stuff was pretty naff and cheaper end, and I had always had that in the back of my mind but put up with it. But this year I have decided to make it more my own, and invest in better stuff to use. Well, I say invest – it is not exactly expensive here to buy such household items. So this last week has seen a steady stream of Amazon deliveries of basic items such as new plates, glasses, cutlery, another heater (to make the place warmer rather than just coping with the cold), a coat stand and quite a bit more. The last of such was delivered yesterday, and already the place feels much more comfortable. My day guard Vikas has been diligently inspecting each item that has arrived and goodness knows what he thinks. One item I did buy though was a thick blanket for him and Pushpender (the night guard) to use, as I couldn’t rest watching them sitting there shivering in the cold with no way to keep warm. It suitably complements the fan I bought them last summer to keep cool!
I cannot yet build the coat stand though as realised I haven’t got a screwdriver.. But Amazon can help with that too!
I have also just – while writing this – had some fresh food delivered from a local grocery store that the guy who just moved nearby has found. Apparently they have a farm on the outskirts of the city and produce what they describe as good and fresh items themselves and distribute with a few stores in Delhi and provide an online order and delivery service.
So I am taking the leap for the first time and going to try fresh milk (I’ve used powdered so far) and also managed to get some pre-mashed potatoes. I am not going to lie, I like Indian food and pasta, but there are times when I’d kill for some potato based dishes, with more substance to them! So I have got myself some mash and some meatballs for dinner tonight – on the trust that they should be safe. I’m 90% vegetarian here, but I am willing to try these lamb meatballs. It is a Saturday though, so if they do not go down well then at least I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow! That’s a constant semiconscious line of thinking here…
Although I am much more stable in that regard thankfully now. That said, since I last posted I did have my worst food episode with a night spent up and running (if you get my drift) and also coming out the top end too once. Not great. But over a full year to only be truly sick once, along with only a few ‘bad stomach’ situations (all of which were Goa based bizarrely) is not as bad as I probably expected before I came. Actually the bad night last month was the night I returned from Goa that day. I think I must have an aversion to Goan food and water…
So year two is underway, with a more complete home apartment set up, and a similar work year ahead to the last.
I miss home of course, and I do look forward to the day I complete this ‘experience’ and return. But for now, I am going to carry on making the most of this. I start this year with a much better idea of what I am doing now, and how to navigate these waters. Although I am not naive – there is still a huge amount to learn!
JC in India 
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