The Beginnings - An Expat Tells Her Story: A Move from Sillicon Valley to Bangalore

chillibreeze writer — KC Comal

It was official. We would go to India for two years, timing it so that our daughter returned to California for high school, while our son would return to his elementary school. Firmly repressing my fears, I spent my days in a whirl of weeding out and sorting our home into three categories: take with us, store for when we return and why on earth did we ever buy this? (As it turns out, there was very little we cannot find here in Bangalore, but more on that later.)

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Several flights later (and God bless the airline official who thought of putting hand-held Nintendos in the armrest of every seat) we reach Bangalore on a cool, crisp summer night. Customs and immigration were smooth sailing, but the traffic outside the airport as we waited for our luggage made our 11 year old look at me and say,” It’s like being transported into a scene from a movie". I had to agree, at close to midnight it was like being caught up in a Carnival in Brazil: cars honking, vendors hawking, taxi cab and hotel reps soliciting and soccer commentaries blaring from cars and two wheelers.

We had agreed before we left that we would leave our American expectations of instant gratification behind, so it was with wry grins that we watched our luggage being knocked off the trolley and scattered before the wrathful gaze of several converging car drivers. Being India, several watchers raced to the rescue, and soon we were midst a huddle of laughing men, all strangers, who helped carry and load our car with my 8 suitcases as we dodged and scuttled through the traffic behind them. It was to be emblematic of the days that were to follow, laughably frustrating moments interspersed with moments of total reliance on the kindness of strangers.

Shipping everything but the kitchen sink gave us the option of living in a bare house at either the origin or the destination. Figuring that living in a furnished apartment would be cheaper and easier in India (wrong on both counts) I opted to ship our things almost as we boarded our flight to India. Feeling smug about the options the Internet had opened up, I had found and booked a furnished apartment (aka serviced flat in India) over the Internet.

The apartment was as good as promised, clean and very comfortable, with two male housekeepers with whom we tried various languages, before coming to the conclusion that we didn't speak any mutual language and are communicating with a mixture of pidgin English and Hindi. It doesn't help their impression of our obviously limited intelligence, that two minutes after they explain laboriously that we had short-circuited the electrical wiring within minutes of reaching (the limited conversation was something like this...)

"one AC OK,
two AC OK,
one hot water heater, OK,
two OK,
all four same time NOT OK"

my husband wanders by, having missed the whole conversation and asks if he can turn on some more appliances. “No, no, sir. One AC ok, two AC ok……” Meanwhile the kids have discovered a huge swimming pool outside and a large playground, and are excited to go exploring. As we start unpacking, the numbness caused by a 24 hour journey starts to wear off and we delightedly realize it’s going to be a grand adventure after all!

Read The Beginnings, Part Two

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Looking for web sites that list available houses for rent in Bangalore?

KC has compiled this list of websites to help you hunt a house - in no particular order:

http://www.expatriates.com/classifieds/bng/housingavailable/

http://bangalore.click.in/manage_post.php?page=3&cmd=view_
posts&cat_id=41&parent_cat_id=41&opt=&age=

http://www.moveandstay.com/property_finder.asp?keyword=India (for corporate housing)

http://www.bangalorelocal.com/action.php

http://bangalore.craigslist.org/apa/?displayMode=printFriendly

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A few good books you should purchase upon arrival

Click here for a Complete Book List for Bangalore Expats.

Visit an 'evolving' article about One Day Tips and Weekend Trips for Bangalore Expats.

 

 

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—About our writer:

"KC refuses to limit herself to one label. Among the many hats she wears are: Full time mom, part time writer, teacher, chef, art collector, gardener, quilter and extremely good vacationer. She has lived in Northern California for close to 20 years and has spent most of those years stopping frequently to smell the roses and plant some lavender. After two decades in Silicon Valley her husband will be working from Bangalore. KC has two children, a 12 year old daughter and an 8 year old son.