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When I was considering moving to Powai everyone would look so pleased and instead of mentioning the 3 supermarkets, many cafes and bars and restaurants they would mention the wonderful Hiranandani Hospital. In response I would laugh and say I had no intention of making use of the hospital but I recently had reason to visit and thought I'd share the experience with you. Firstly the reason for going to the hospital was following a curious incident with a dog in the nighttime on

I have a cook. She is an indulgence I have hired due to my dad visiting, and me struggling to see how he was going to survive in my haphazard lifestyle of cobbled together tiffins and eating out every night. He is 87, frail, unsteady on his feet and like most elderly people a creature of habit. I decided what I needed more than a maid was someone who could come in whilst I am at work, and make dad his breakfast, and later some lunch and in between those two meal times make a

When I saw the very shocked faces of recent vistors when I was pointing out a local establishment as a place I wanted to visit it struck me that perhaps I have become acclimatized to life in Mumbai and may be a local. Shops that I passed in my first weeks of arriving that seemed dirty and chaotic and full of cholera and typhoid suddenly seem very respectable and full of good offers. Why pay 100 rupees for a stainless steel bowl in a shop in a shiny mall when The Home Shop in

I’m just back from a week of rest and recuperation in Old Blighty. (Didn’t know that the word “Blighty” coined by the colonial British abroad is derived from the Urdu word “bilayati” meaning foreigner or European?) I hummed and aaahed about making a trip back home so soon after arriving in Mumbai but after 10 weeks here when the choice was between 5 days leave to be taken before the end of March either hanging on my own in Mumbai or basking in the love and warmth of my family

I saw this poster in Bandra sometime in the first 2 weeks of arriving in India and took a pic of it in a "how interesting" sort of way, not knowing that in a few weeks time I would be using the Snabbit app to avail of maid services. But more on that in a bit. The very day I arrived in the flat, within about 3 hours of being in my new home a woman knocked on the door asking if I needed a maid and offering her services of cleaning and cooking for 3 hours every day, 6 days a wee

So many of my friends have written to ask if I have moved out of the hotel yet and found a flat so this is an update blog for those concerned for my welfare. I am out of the hotel and here it is. The balcony of my dreams. On the 22nd floor of an apartment block in a neighbourhood of Mumbai called Powai I have found a place to call home for the next few months. It was a flat I saw in the first week of searching and which I set my heart on from the moment I saw it. It is a bri

I am completely blown away by India's tech for living. I am glued to the Android phone that I cannot use properly in order to live my new life as an apartment dwelling independent woman. Firstly, I completely rely on Uber to get me from A to B when I am not in prisoner transit. In the evenings and weekends when I am not being driven to and from work I use Uber for all my transport needs. In India Uber offers a range of vehicles to suit your journey And your wallet. For exam

This weekend I took advantage of my sister visiting and yet another Public Holiday, (the first of four in March alone!!) and I made a trip to my ancestral state of Punjab. As we travelled along the wide roads of Punjab, gazing out at fields of green as far as the eye could see we also saw many Sikhs driving past on motorbikes with flags waving, and lots of bright coloured banners and people milling around in various locations. So I learned that Punjab also has a public hol

I've fallen behind with my posting recently as I have had an absolutely mad couple of weeks. On February 20th I finally moved out of the hotel that has been my home for 33 days and into my new apartment in Powai. My new apartment with a balcony! And I can report that I have sat outside on my balcony exactly zero times since I moved in! Almost as soon as I moved in I set out on a work trip to Chennai and then on to Bangalore and as soon as I returned from that I set out on a p

I have had two health aberrations in my first month in Mumbai and surprisingly neither has involved the digestive tract anywhere along its route. The first was about a week ago when I came down with some sort of 24 hour virus which made me slightly hot and feverish for a full day and then left me snuffly with sinus issues for a few days after. I think I mentioned this in my chai blog. Other rememdies offered by my work colleagues were ginger steeped in boiling water, photo ab

I thee wed. The average age in my new place of work is just 33.9 years old. I am being incredibly nosy and trying to find out as much as I can about the people around me; not just in the context of the job but enquiring about family as well. The cultural training on India on the global mobility app shared by HR warned me to expect my colleagues to ask about my personal life because Indians do not separate their work and private life in the way that Europeans might. Family is

I couldn't include an evidentially accurate image to accompany this post because I am not yet familiar with the data privacy laws of India and I couldn't bear to have my website shutdown in only the second month of operation whilst I still have so much to share with you. But I think this image encapsulates my cheery new car game to play during prisoner transit to and from the office. It can actually be played by anyone, in any vehicle, on any journey, but I am not sure I'll

The Indian obsession with chai is well known, I don't need to tell you about it. And it is highly likely you have tried it at some point but if you haven't the Chai Latte at Starbucks is a pretty good "in the spirit of" Chai substitute in that it is hot, milky, spicy, sweet and comforting. No honestly, trust me. But I accept that it is interesting that Chai Latte is not an option in Starbucks India. Too embarrassing I guess. Or a trade descriptions violation. Well, I felt unw

My current obsession is tiffin. Having almost secured a flat with a balcony, more on that in another post, the next thing I need to move closer to being a real Indian is a tiffin. Tiffin is the most peculiar of things: something so rooted in the Indian DNA but such a juxtaposition in the work place where discussions on the use of Generative AI are held over a couple of stainless steel tins of vegetables and curry that some poor woman started cooking in the early hours of the

Let me introduce you to my new identity in the workplace, "mam". I know that this is the spelling of my new name because my driver uses it when sending me a text. And yes, you read that right, my driver. Every morning at 9:00 Ajit is waiting outside the hotel in a white Toyota "High Cross". Every evening he is outside the office at 18:30 ready to drive me back to the hotel. Some might be thinking this is the height of luxury but it's beginning to feel more like a prisoner tr

Happy Republic Day! Today is one of the 14 public holidays in the state of Maharashtra that I will experience during my secondment. I will miss the last 2 of the year; Diwali and Xmas. But 14 is still a whole lot more than the 8 of the UK. I asked a few people at work what happens during Republic Day and how is it celebrated and where and how could we get involved. It seemed to be a community based coming together of people to sing the national anthem and raise the flag of

To balcony or Not to balcony, that is the next question. In my head I have pictured Malgudi Days meets Tales of the City for those readers of a certain age. Fairy lights adorning a little balcony, with wrought iron railings, packed with mismatched plant pots with all sorts of plants and flowers, a cacophony of colours and fragrances. There's a mosquito candle thing on a bistro table with chairs and the table has a couple of random plant pots on as well. Simon's description wo

Contents Warning: This is a humourless post because I have currently lost my sense of humour. Temporarily I hope. I have been hunting for more permanent accommodation for a number of days now and it is mentally exhausting. Where to live is consuming the most brain juice. I work in Navi Mumbai and the best analogy I have come up with to help you all understand my challenges is that Navi Mumbai is like the Purley Way in Croyden. You probably wouldn't want to live on the Purley

And here we are! 8 hours and 30 minutes after leaving London we reached Mumbai, and with a relatively easy time at immigration we were here in our temporary hotel accommodation. All was very smooth. We spent the weekend exploring and there is so much to share with you I’ll spread it over a number of blog posts. But for now let me share that I have started my new role and had my first day in my new office. I was given such a wondrous reception, with a garland and flowers and a

I love my coats. The one I am sporting in this photo of my last day commuting in to London this winter is my waterproof coat for cold temperatures. It’s fantastically warm, keeps me dry, and I’ve pretty much been living in it since mid-December. And in any other year I probably wouldn’t emerge from it until the end of February. Then I might need to wear my waterproof coat for mid-temps, or my waterproof coat for warmer weather or if I’m lucky I might move straight away to my