I’m the ‘new kid on the block’ as a contributor to WHQ. I hope you enjoy my contribution as much as I will be enjoying sharing with you my experiences of this Aussie girl living life in exciting Incredible India as an Expat! This issue I’ll share with you just a little of who, what, where and why to set the scene for my upcoming contributions to WHQ Magazine.
After living and working in Hervey Bay QLD for most of my life, I threw caution to the wind and quit my long term 20 year job at Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology as a phlebotomist and followed my husband to India to work on an expatriate assignment which has taken me on the wildest, most colourful and exciting ride of my life as an expat spouse.
On the 5th January 2015, we left our family and friends from a land we call ‘OZ’ and flew across to the other side of the world to start living a life full of culture, colour, peace, confusion and major frustration in a place commonly called the ‘Mother Land’….India!
I live in a small Indian city called Vadodara with a population of around 5 million people. When I say small…. I’m referring to the mean average Indian city which is usually anywhere between 20-30 million people. The city of Vadodara is about 400km North East of Mumbai on the Western realm of India. We suffer with over 50 degree Celsius heat in the summer and monsoon seasons which are fierce with heavy rain and devastating flooding across the state. Vadodara is in the state of Gujarat which is a dry state for alcohol consumption, however as a Westerner there is a legal loophole to gain an alcohol license for a nominated yearly fee which I obtained from the police station to purchase a limited amount of alcohol each month, available from only 2 small shops in the city but must only be consumed within my home. Vadodara is not a tourist area so Westerners are somewhat of a novelty and I am elevated to celebrity status everywhere I go. It was a little overwhelming at first with everyone taking photos and wanting to just have a piece of me as such…… I’ve even had sneaky photos taken while I’m shopping in the supermarket pushing my trolley. Bizarre I know …….but true!
Prior to leaving Australia once the expat assignment contract had been put into place after many, many long months, we were then ready to apply for our Indian Visas. To work in India you are required to obtain an Employment Visa and to accompany a working spouse, an X-Entry visa is the essential document, both being valid for 12 months from date of the Indian Consulate granting such. There were quite a few documents and formalities required to gain the Visas however it wasn’t overly complicated just a little time consuming with the odd headache and nervousness of meeting timelines since the process is fairly lengthy. We were required to have full medicals to ensure we were medically fit to live in a country away from our own and then the ever seemingly ongoing vaccinations commenced prior to our scheduled depart date…typhoid/ polio boosters/ cholera/ Japanese Encephalitis, you name it, I’ve had the vaccination for it!
Once arriving in India, we were supplied with a local English speaking support worker to assist us with cultural integration and assisting us in sourcing our housing and setting up general utilities and bank accounts and showing us how to shop etc. It’s the little things when moving to live in a place like India which may stump even the most intrepid traveller. Traveling and living in a culturally diverse country from your own are two entirely different things….. I travelled to India on a cultural ‘holiday’ in 2011 so knew basically what I would see, smell and hear…..but I wasn’t quite prepared for the hurdles ahead with everyday living… This is where new friends and my support worker became vital lifelines for survival.
India is full of sensory overload for the human body. When you first arrive in India, your eyes just cannot believe what they are seeing in every direction, your ears are swamped with noises so different to that of the Western world and the smells are sometimes enough to turn the stomach of the most hardened to pungent smells. Hawkers easily notice you as ‘fresh prey’ and ascend swiftly trying to sell you anything from maps, a plastic Taj Mahal in a snow dome or other highly overpriced tacky souvenirs knowingly aware from your politeness you have just arrived in this strange foreign land and not quite prepared for their tricks and devious ways.
Poverty is everywhere and not secluded to the outskirts or tiny hidden backstreets. The poverty is ‘in your face’ everywhere you turn with people laying in the dirt beside busy roads, women cooking the families evening meal with nothing but a few sticks and an old pot, women checking children’s hair for head-lice in the gutter and youngsters happily playing butt naked albeit a little filthy next to busy roads. With saying this though, what is poverty? These people are the most grateful, happy souls you’ll ever meet….. Do they even know they live in what we describe as ‘poverty’? This is their life and they are making the absolute best of what is available to them and they accept that…. They’re not sad, they don’t want our pity….they just want enough to eat each day, cloth themselves, have adequate shelter from the weather and the large family unit to be together. In reality they are rich in life… They have each other and are striving.
In the year in which I’ve been living in India, I’ve been heavily involved with the local Expatriate group which offers valuable support to new and existing expats in the city as well as fundraising, support and visitation to charitable local groups such as local orphanages and schools. Most large Indian cities have such expat groups and I recommend to anyone traveling overseas on an expat assignment to join such group. Strong friendships are formed very quickly between its members and offer an instant family connection for essential support.
Over the ongoing issues of WHQ, I hope you follow my adventures and sometimes humorous stories I will share with you about Indian travel and everyday Indian life and hope I can inspire you to taste in life a little of what is so so different to what we know in the Western world as normal.
This is Incredible India!!!
BLOG: An incredible Indian journey with Merryn