Expats in India- Living in Delhi

We have lived in Delhi for one and a half years. My husband came half a year before us – so he has actually been here two years.

Everything. It is simply amazing how different it is from the United States – the people, the landscapes, the living, the history, the traffic – absolutely everything. There never seems to be a dull moment – there is always something interesting happening right outside of every window.

I don’t think disappointment is the right word. There is a lot I do not understand – just as there would be a lot about America that someone born and raised in India would have a hard time understanding. I do get very frustrated that so many children seem unattended on the streets. The poverty is always evident and watching children suffer is not easy. Some people feel that you can train your heart to become numb to it – I do not believe that at all. It is at least as hard to see today as the day we landed in Delhi. Maybe it’s even harder because I really don’t see it changing. And I do worry about what will happen to all the people on the streets as the Commonwealth Games get closer. I have heard they are going to move them all somewhere so that visitors to the city see a cleaner city – but I am not sure where they will all go.

The hardest part about relocating was simply the transition to a new place. My husband and his company worked hard to make sure everything worked and that what we needed in place was in place. But it is difficult to leave a life you were very happy in. We knew this would be the experience of a lifetime and it surely has proven to be that – but we certainly do get home sick every now and then.

We really keep to ourselves in the neighborhood. Partly because we aren’t home that much and partly because most of our friends don’t live in our same neighborhood. One of the hard things about living with and becoming friends with people who move often is that you know you will lose friends – of course, you will get to make new ones – but it takes a lot of energy to really make friends. So we have not really invested in getting to know our neighbors that well.

The man that lives on one side of us is not happy about our generator. He thinks it is too loud. We have not found a common ground on it and that certainly makes it difficult to connect on other levels. The house on the other side of us is under construction so no one is living there now.

There is a group of boys that play soccer (football) in the park in front of our house and our son has joined in on the games many times. He feels very welcome in doing that and enjoys the social interaction that offers.

We do have domestic help and that is frankly quite an adjustment. It is very nice to have dinner on the table and the dishes washed and the beds made and the laundry done. But it means that you have people around you all of the time. People who have opinions about how you should run your house and buy your groceries and on and on. I would prefer more time without so many people involved in my daily life. We have toyed with the idea of living here without staff but it is not easy to maintain a house and have a life outside of it. So we get very frustrated sometimes but always do our best to remain grateful for the help. We understand that they really are doing their best to be helpful even when they don’t approach things the same way we might.

One thing I struggle with is trust. We have fired several staff members for various theft issues. It is very difficult for me to know who to believe and trust.

That is a very funny question to me. I love my children dearly and enjoy spending a lot of time with them. But I have never felt that I could offer them all a proper school system can offer them. They all go to the American school and are enjoying their time there. It is a nice community of people who are all in a similar situation. My children are enjoying their time in India too. My husband has insisted that we make the most of it and travel. That has really helped make this the experience of a lifetime. They miss home too. So how they are doing just depends on when you ask me. Most of the time, they are doing very well.