Moving from Zurich to Bangalore
In 2017, I decided to give India a try. I was somewhat apprehensive as I was very aware of what I will be giving up, most importantly, my freedom of movement. At the same time, I was excited to be close to family. I was somewhat looking forward to settling into "domestic" life which is filled with dressing up and celebrating the festivals that I grew up with. The typical nostalgia of someone who never lived in India as an adult.
I had to choose Bangalore due to work. In that concrete jungle, we were lucky to find a nice apartment, out of traffic noise with view of lake. It was about 16km from my office though, which is a very long distance in Bangalore.
Few things I noticed, and some surprised me -
1. Bangalore is a concrete jungle. Gone are the lakes and trees. It is polluted, it is noisy, dusty.
2. Road infrastructure is a mess, like really a mess.
3. Air and water are totally polluted. Noise levels are very high. There is garbage and stink of garbage everywhere. This was not surprising, but still an assault on all my senses as I had gotten used to squeaky clean and quiet Switzerland.
4. People have zero reliability. We had to call 10 times before someone would actually show up to do any work, and they would usually not do the right job in first go.
Some things that were positive -
1. Apartment living is very nice. You live in this large 500+ apartment gated community and you don't need to step out of it at all. You can buy everything online and get delivered, there are all sort of classes of kids inside, all festivals are celebrated inside. It is green and maintained.
2. Banking etc. in private sector is very convenient
Biggest advantage was of course family. My mother could visit my multiple times a year, we could visit cousins.
But overall my stress level was very high. When I was on the road in cab, all the noise and air pollution exhausted me. When my husband was out on road alone, I was constantly worried about his safety. When we were driving on road, I was sometimes literally in tears, worried that we are going to crash into the next car or some motorbike is going to hit us. I hope I never have to relive those nightmarish drives. I have heard it is better in other cities.
I had to choose Bangalore due to work. In that concrete jungle, we were lucky to find a nice apartment, out of traffic noise with view of lake. It was about 16km from my office though, which is a very long distance in Bangalore.
Few things I noticed, and some surprised me -
1. Bangalore is a concrete jungle. Gone are the lakes and trees. It is polluted, it is noisy, dusty.
2. Road infrastructure is a mess, like really a mess.
3. Air and water are totally polluted. Noise levels are very high. There is garbage and stink of garbage everywhere. This was not surprising, but still an assault on all my senses as I had gotten used to squeaky clean and quiet Switzerland.
4. People have zero reliability. We had to call 10 times before someone would actually show up to do any work, and they would usually not do the right job in first go.
Some things that were positive -
1. Apartment living is very nice. You live in this large 500+ apartment gated community and you don't need to step out of it at all. You can buy everything online and get delivered, there are all sort of classes of kids inside, all festivals are celebrated inside. It is green and maintained.
2. Banking etc. in private sector is very convenient
Biggest advantage was of course family. My mother could visit my multiple times a year, we could visit cousins.
But overall my stress level was very high. When I was on the road in cab, all the noise and air pollution exhausted me. When my husband was out on road alone, I was constantly worried about his safety. When we were driving on road, I was sometimes literally in tears, worried that we are going to crash into the next car or some motorbike is going to hit us. I hope I never have to relive those nightmarish drives. I have heard it is better in other cities.
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