Indian Samurai इंडियन सामुराई

You know that you have been living in India for a long time (and that you have watched too much of Game of Thrones) when you have the following nightmare:

You are in a rickshaw following your husband, driving his bike. At the signal you get down – for some reason you are wearing the same night-wear as in reality, a grey t-shirt, except that instead of stopping at your waist it goes  mid-thigh. You give a big cheek kiss to your favourite Indian and he almost pushes you away – a normal behaviour with many Indian men who fear public displays of affection (see this post) but not this one (you’ve not married him for no reason!).

A bit distraught you go back home, some kind of slum habitation, two-three rooms with mud walls and a plastic tarp for a room, in which you have just moved in after leaving your current apartment. There you rummage frantically through your cupboard, looking for your brown salwar (some kind of ‘Aladdin’ pants Indian women wear under their tunics).

Two men arrive and you hide. Then you think that you have done nothing wrong and therefore they can’t do anything against you! The confidence level is back, and so high that you go and tickle the three bulky guys who stand guard: “you and with your big-muscles and your tiny-brain you are not scaring me!”

Keeping calm, they just answer: “it’s not us you should be afraid of but them”. And there you see an army of women in sari uniform walking towards you and they beat you up for your shameless behaviour! Some kind of guardians of decency...

After three months away…

No I have not disappeared! I had thought (very naively) that I would have some time to “do my things” doing my maternity leave, like writing. But it went the other way around!!

And like if it was not enough to be haggard, drunk of fatigue, full of playful hormones (they say it is normal when you breastfeed), with a useless brain (not even capable to remember what I have done with a bottle of water I picked up two minutes ago – oh well, I put it in the cupboard, of course!), I got back to work, in a not-so-easy environment… And started yoga again (from 6 to 7 (AM!!))… But I am a Samurai, I can do it!!

My resolution of this getting-back-to-‘normal’-life is thus to start blogging again, posting every Monday instead of every other day…

And to start with, a video to remind us that some Indians don’t have it easy every day…

 

The website Excite.fr contacted me and asked me to answer some questions about being an expat in India! Here is what I prepared… Thank you Camille for your interest in my blog! 

Who are you and how was your life before leaving France? 

I am a French girl in my thirties, living in India since December 2006, and blogger from the very first day of expatriation!

I started working abroad (in India) right after I graduated from my business school. So I spent my last years in France as a student (at Reims and Spain with Erasmus), then as an intern, then as a traveler (4 months in South America to meet women working for fair trade)... Very rich years! 

What do you currently do? 

I'm manager in a company that sells food for dogs and cats. 

Why did you leave France? 

My escapades in Spain and South America had opened my appetite! I wanted to explore further by working a few years in Chile or Argentina. I found myself in India – me, Columbus of the modern times ;) (It was the only place where I had found a job quickly.) 

Why did you choose India to live? 

As told above, I believe that this is India that chose me rather than the other way around ;)

But I chose not to leave. At the beginning because I had too many things to discover. Then because I had interesting professional opportunities. And finally because I had been here too long and didn’t know better but to stay…

 Would you go back to live in France? 

Why not? At least for a few years. But I am not the only one deciding now, my (Indian) husband needs to agree ;) 

What do you miss the most about France? 

The serenity of the French countryside: the calm, fresh air, good food...

And of course my family and friends! 

And what do you miss the least? 

Difficult to answer... These winter days when you don't see the sun? These Sundays where everything is closed, no way to run errands or get a massage? These situations where no one is there to help you (with your plumbing, your laundry, your errands etc.)? 

Tell us quickly about your experience in India 

I've landed at night in Delhi, in the November cold. At the time I didn't even know it could get cold in India, you see how aware I was of the country! At the end of the exhibition I was attending in the capital I went to join my base in Pune (a student city and automotive hub 3 hours away of Mumbai), where I spent two great years, mostly partying and traveling.

Then came the time to move to Mumbai with a new job in the pocket. I spent the three following years mostly working (and still traveling around the country).

I was then transferred to Delhi for one year. I faced incredible professional challenges out there. And also personal ones since I broke up with my Indian companion of the last five years. But it was also a great year full of learning and fun (and traveling, always)!

 

I then returned ‘home’, in Mumbai. And less than two years later I was married and with a baby. This is where I am today, at the beginning of 2015!