How it *really* feels to come back?
My earlier post about coming back to India had a bit of romanticism. This is more for the realists — some rants and complaints. EDIT: And some solutions I found in the past couple of days.
Traffic is a bitch
I could not drive after coming back. Atleast not immediately. There seems to be a secret unsaid language that everyone on the road speaks to figure out how to move on the road. I used to know this language, but have since forgotten.
Follow-up is a pain
Things break. They are built to be so. But what is not unreasonable to expect is to get it repaired quick and easy. But thats not so true in India. Every leaking tap and broken air-conditioner needs atleast a few phone calls per day to get the service person come and fix it. No wonder home services is one of the fastest growing category for startups — it desperately needs some organization.
Air quality remains wanting
The mornings are quite serene. Sun rising- its rays diffracted blood orange by the dust stirred up by street cleaners. Birds chirping- bicyclists ringing their bells. But suddenly a waft of smoke! Someone burning up leaves and litter leaving a trail of smoke. I don’t know how to solve this effectively, but I have a thought about how to improve air quality here. Will probably write about it sometime. EDIT: Here it is.
Flavors and fragrance everywhere
A walk on any street will easily put most of the senses in overdrive. The cuisines of the world, available on street side. Smell of water on dust, augmented by the fragrance of champa and mogra. The heat is oppressive but such small things brings oasis of respite.
Customer service could use a brush up
A lot of the places I went to with customer facing personnel (hello Vodafone, Customs), many people were busy shirking. Even if there was a queue of customers waiting to be served, they would avoid eye-contact with customers — busy doing nothing on the computer screen, and let the one person handle all the load. Only when a superior officer came, or an enterprising customer managed to get their attention, would they reluctantly begin to serve. It was quite apparent who were poised for growth at such places.
Ironically however, if a person managed to get you on the phone or via email, they just wouldn’t want to leave you!! Even repeated requests to unsubscribe doesn’t work (Hello Tata Indicom, HDFC!). EDIT: No wonder Truecaller is one of the most famous apps here.
