India ..helloooo anyone there?

[movingtoindia]

Hi.. am moving to Delhi from the UK in the summer. Any mn-ers with experiences they'd be willing to share? Having a recce soon to find house, primary and secondary (intl) schools and so on, and not finding the expat sites brilliant tbh. How do you find life in India? What should I know?
Thanks..

[movingtoindia]

thank you cali!

bumpers

[4gotoindia]

Yes, we're going to India. We will be living in Tamil Nadu for a year from end July. (I've posted a similar message a few months ago - with a different name - but didn't get much response.) Have you used Indiamike? I've found people there really helpful.
Will be interested to hear how things go with you... I've got a 5 yo and 15 month...
4gotoindia

[movingtoindia]

Hi 4 and thanks and sorry to take so long to get back to you, we are rather an exclusive crew aren't we

We'll be in Delhi.. so we won't be neighbours sadly.. how are things going so far? When did you do your recce? Did you do one? 15 months is a busy age to relocate.. mine are older

I'm looking forward to it -- are you?

What is Indiamike?

[4gotoindia]

Hi Moving,
Things going okay so far - we're well on the way with sorting out jabs... last few to do. (Did you go for rabies, by the way?) We haven't done a recce as such. Dh has worked out there before, and I've spent a few months visiting him (but about 8 yrs ago... so before children). He will be going out for 2 weeks in July, to try and find us a house and look at schools. Then we all leave last week of July. We're both working full-time, so schools / childcare (as well as house!) probably the biggest things to sort out. Yes, really looking forward, with a bit of anxiety thrown in!
When do you go out? I'll be really interested to hear about it!
best,
4

[4gotoindia]

ps - forgot to say. Indiamike is a website re india. It has a great forum... with all sorts of information. There is an expats section (including a thread 'moving to delhi') which you could spend hours reading. All sorts of useful info, and lots of v helpful people use it.
best,
4

[movingtoindia]

Well this is another long gap sorry perhaps we will coincide one day! but I am at that early stage of being totally caught up with filling in form forms form, for schools, visas, telling people and so on. A recce will be quite soon I think, next couple of weeks we'll both go but leave the children behind. The website you pointed me to is fantastic the best one out there! I'm a bit frustrated though by not being able to see pictures of houses anywhere on the web. I want to show the children the kind of place they could be living but Indiamike gives a really good idea about the pros and cons of the "farmhouses" which would be where I'd love to live were it not for the traffic and so on. I'm not working -- will you be working full time in India too?

I am most definitely looking forward also, but you know I love the "normal" life I have at the moment, which offers the children lots of opportunities for independence and is "staff free" I'm not sure I really want to go back to having someone permanently in the house and putting the children in the car for school every day. Where we live in London the school is just round the corner it'll probably be a half hour drive next year

Anyway at some point we'll have to do catting or emailing or something to keep in touch no idea how it works but will work it out. Don't want to keep missing you it seems we are the only two...

And no, we haven't done rabies. Are you doing rabies? The school requires more than they've had so we'll be headed off to the docs before July.

[BBBee]

good luck

[angy74]

Hi,
Probably a bit late now...moving2india and 4gotoindia.

Its going to be really hot in the summers...both delhi and tamil nadu before the monsoon starts...probably july-aug for delhi and june for tamil nadu...

Rabies isnt a requirement....Hep A and typhoid yes, antimalarials as well.

Any questions...please feel free to ask.
Will know more about delhi as compared to tamil nadu..

[madcows]

Hello angry,
Where in India are you? Yes, we're expecting it to be hot hot hot. Hottest in TN is April-May, so at least we're avoiding that. And we're planning to have at least one room AC (which we didn't before).
All sorts of questions... do you use car seats? did you get them there? Can you get things like high chairs there?

Moving - would love to hear how your recce went.
best,
4
ps - we didn't do the rabies either.

[angy74]

Hi madcows
its angy...not angry!!!
Not in India anymore...but lived in Delhi and other places for a long time.
Nobody uses car seats in India...you can still get them in big cities and towns from big departmental stores...can be quite expensive( in indian rupees). High chairs are very easy to get , just about anywhere in any childrens store. they are quite cheap as well.

Most of the middle clss...probably upper middle class have the whole house air conditioned...if you are planning to stay longer...you could have AC in all the bedrooms. It becomes very humid during rainy season and fans are not very effective then.

In delhi....if there is an electricity problem( which usually there is), then AC's wont work. Fans will work on an inverter backup

[4gotoindia]

hi angy... sorry about that. Glad you're not angry!
I know no-one uses car seats (or indeed seatbelts), but I don't know about the expat community. Were you there with small(ish) children, and - if so - did you use car seats?
Glad to hear you can get high chairs. (the sort of thing I'd never have noticed before I had childreN!)
Living there before we never had AC, altho' we did invest in a cooler... but things are different with kids. We'll be getting a fridge as well, which we didn't before!
thanks,
4

[angy74]

Seatbelts have become compulsary now atleast for the front passengers....but you know how the indian law system is...

Coolers are good enough....you could even rent AC's for 3-4 months from the local shops...just in case you dont want to buy one.

I have 2 boys..4 year old and 9 month. They love India as there are no restrictions..no car seats...though for me, it took getting a bit used too, with the younger one in the lap.