India (middle school, taxi driver, living)

[newyorkdoc]

Any Americans ever live in India?

My girlfriend is Indian (Int. Student here) and if I were to marry her I would consider moving there.

It would be selfish of me to only consider her staying here.

[Aiike]

There are Americans in India. However the majority are in Banglore where the IT boom industries are. Having said that there are alot of British people all over India. In one small village town I went to there was a British family who had been there for over 60 years and thier kids spoke better hindi than me. Anyway i move off point with that. Bassically there are Americans in the major cities but they are there mostly for global company jobs and the dreaded telemarketing sector jobs as India has a booming economy in both . Anyway hope all goes well and good luck with your decision.

[newyorkdoc]

Thanks! Do you live in India?

[Aiike]

Used to live in Delhi for about 4 years. I go back quiet often about once a year so i am quiet familar with it. If you have any more question dont hesitate to ask. Also out of curiousity which part of India is you girl friend from?

[newyorkdoc]

She's from New Delhi. I'm assuming we'd end up in Mumbai, because I'm planning a career in finance/economics.

[k350]

If you are not Indian then get ready for the stares and gawks and maybe even verbal and physcial harrassment of a white guy being with an Indian girl. No problme probably in the more modern areas, but stray outside that and you will get noticed and attention.

I spent a few months in India, must say i love traveling and all but India was not my cup of tea. I did enjoy it there but it had so many annoyances from the people it just drove me crazy. I remember I punched this guy right in the nose and broke it, blood everywhere and him squatting against a building yelling something, he grabbed my wife's arm, big no no with me.

It was even better because my wife speaks Hindi, no one ever expects some white girl to speak Hindi, we even got a free dinner at a restraurant in Agra courtesy of the owner after my wife ordered in Hindi, they were all quite impressed and the waiters kept coming over to speak and give things to see if my wife could translate.

I like a lot of the Indian family values, the strong family unit, more of what we would call "traditional".

[Viralmd]

I haven't lived in India, but was there for a few weeks on business.

I would no more consider living there than I would consider moving to Antarctica. The grinding poverty of so many people and the open suffering is more than I could take on a daily basis. I found it very disturbing and upsetting.

[newyorkdoc]

I've heard of westerners getting stares a lot actually. Why did the man grab your wifes arm k350? Are you Indian? (Not saying this is why he did, just wondering if you are.)

[60-minutes-II]

I've been in india before. Some taxi driver pinched my arm outside of the airport. I was pissed but I wasn't going to do anything because there were roughly 20 different taxi drivers all annoying me. But I found that to only be a problem in agra, new delhi, mumbai. While I was in other states you'd have the occasional beggers. MANY beggers. Remember it is not rare to be followed by 20 or more people begging or wanting to give you a service. It is very annoying and I would not recommend going to india if you have a short fuse.

[k350]

No, not Indian.

Westerners do get a lot of stares. Now I was with my wife who is rather a very attractive woman so this may have had some influence, I know though I do get stares and gawks cause I went out only once without my wife to get us some food, though I admit it was not at all as intensivly of a stare fest as when i was with my wife.

The guy was trying to get us to go to some tourist bureau and then started making some rather obscene remarks to my wife, she of course resonded back at him in Hindi, he then grabed her arm, she gave him a shove then I gave him a fist. I am not a violent person but this guy was very annoying and down right rude, my writing does not even begin to show the situation.

But that was a one time thing, though we did get in a few verbal assaults with people that were being outright stubborn (no, I do not want a rikshaw ride) we did not experience violence during our time there.

We walked by a school, HS or middle school, and those people about went nuts, i must say, it is probably less frustrating traveling as a single guy, those poeple lose all their marbles at the sight of an attractive female.

Which by the way, i am not at all saying Indian women are ugly because quite the contrary, they are not, but something about the "western/european white women" clicks in their heads.

Mumbia we had a whole lot less problems with it though, defintly a much more modern city and in my opinion the most progressive place on average in all of India though I did not visit every city.

If I were you I would go anyway to try it out, life is too short to stick around the same place all the time.