Here is a laundry list of things which pinch you everyday as compared to the life in US:
No footpaths: It is an incorrect statement, really. If properly used, all of the Indian roads have footpaths and certainly have so much space -either the space is left out with weeds and trash or occupied/encroched by shop keepers. For all of that traffic and congestion, the best and easiest thing government can do is - release the footpaths to pedestians so that road can be fully utilized by vehicles. Now, 1/4th of the roads are used by pedestrians since they don't have any other place to walk and they jostle around with moving traffic. Rather than constructing large flyovers, government can easily release the existing space and reduce good amount of congestion. But, ain't going to happen with the attitude of the government officials in near future.
Another point that frustrates you is - there is no courtesy towards pedestrians. Drivers are merciless and even for a person living in Bangalore crossing a street like some sections of ring roads is a nightmare - you would easily wait 5-10 minutes before you may get a slight gap in traffic where you run for your life to cross the street - not a happy experiece. This happens at Zebra crossings where pedestrians have the right of way! This being a ring road. there is no signal that you can use either.
Rushing/random traffic: More than the heavy traffic, what frustrates you is the nature of traffic, which is very random - there is no right of way anywhere and people go randomly in all directions, if they can! Since signals take long time to get thru', any small cross street that can bypass the signal gets jammed up. The roads which are marked as two lanes, hold 4 cards in parallel + few more bikes. Needless to say about non-stop honking, which is a survival technique. Even with the random traffic, if people follow some discipline, it would be much more comfortable but again ain't going to happen in the near future! So, have to live with that ..
Unreliability of service folks: Guess you get what you pay for - true, you have workers availability in India for what you call at 'cheaper' price but they turn to be unreliable as well. Fortunately, most of the things are getting done by machines as well like in US - you can afford to get cloths washed by Washing machine (since most of the commute is done by cars, cloths don't get that dirty like before), dryer is getting common as well, you can pretty much see microwaver in every house etc. Some of the chores like wiping the floors, cleaning the dishes etc are still need to be done by maids since apartments are still not setup for dish washers.
House maids getting sick is a very common scenario. Also, they always run on advance salary - good way for them to get employment guareentee!
Place for kids to go out: This issue is resolved to some extent in an apartment setting since large apartments have play areas, recreation room, activities like Tennis classes, swimming pool/classes, karate class, dance class etc. Outside of that, activities outside are pretty limited - there can be parks closeby but parks don't have play structures like in US. They are maintained well in some areas but they don't let kids play on the grass. So, there is only so much kids can do in these parks. It will take a while before US returned can get used to play on the streets. Mixing with local kids/cousins does help since they quickly learn how to play in a parking garage or on the street where place is limited. Ofcourse, it is always Cricket and that can be played anywhere!
Food: This one is both good and bad - you have access to food outside (veg, if you are a vegetarian) but can cause issues if you are not careful. In some places, especially, when you travel outside, there are few choices - looking at the restaurant, you may not feel like eating but may not have much choice in that area. Compared this with US, you can feel pretty safe to eat out in any decent franchise or restaurant, without worrying about water quality or food hygene, even in remote places.
Work environment: May not be true for all of the companies, but I would say the work enviroment is bit inferior here. Most of the things are restricted so that employees don't misuse the facilities - be it the internet connection or stationaries. Things are getting better and slowly becoming comparable to US but certain things won't change that easily.
You don't get what you pay for: This is true - compared to US, for many things, you don't get whatyou pay for. Specially, true for housing. Housing in Bangalore in a 'good' locality is quite expensive - an independent 1800-2000 sq. feet of home can cost in the range of Rs. 1,50,00,000 - 2,00,00,000, which tunrs out to be $330,000 to $440,000!. And, there is only so much you can do about the locality itself - you might see lots of stray dogs, roads might be pot-holed, trash could be there dumped on the corner of the street etc. And, no getting around from that traffic.
Appreciate your feedback and comments, please leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not!) ...
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