Life for a female expat in Mumbai

A growing number of expatriate women are opting to make Mumbai their home. Here are some of their impressions of the Maximum City

From the scorching deserts of Rajasthan and the rain-soaked North East to the snows of the Himalayan foothills and the verdant Malabar Coast, India has it all. And it's not just the geographical and climatic diversity that has visitors pouring into the country; the nation's cultural richness also plays an important role in making India one of the globe's hottest tourism destinations.

But tourists aside, a number of foreign nationals are landing on our shores seeking to reap the benefits of one of the few booming economies in the world. For many of these expatriates, Mumbai is often the gateway to the wealth of the Indian heartland.

Life for the female expatriate, however, comes with its own set of unique problems and pleasures. Jan Q-Silver, comes from a small town, about a half-hour drive from London. Her husband made the shift to Mumbai for what should have been a period of nine months. But the nine months came and went, and now, 18 months on, Jan's still in Mumbai.

"Over time, our expectations of the country changed dramatically. The first thing to hit anyone coming into Mumbai for the first time, is the poverty. The beggars and the hungry children tapping on your window make you feel sad, and I feel very humble and grateful for our own upbringing. Although I must add that after a short span of time, we all get hardened to this."

Jan admits that at first she was a little afraid of the crowds of people she saw wherever she went. "I hung onto my children and my handbag, feeling a little insecure, though with time that has passed I now feel extremely safe here. I have been stared at, but I wouldn't say purely for being a woman, as my son couldn't understand why he was stared at either, but we were, and are, foreigners in another land," she says. "I have never been to a country where so many people smile, even when enveloped by so many hardships."

Elizabeth Flock, originally from Chicago, Illinois, came to Mumbai to be a journalist, and write a novel on the country. She is awestruck by the city's expansion past breaking point, and its unending celebration while doing so. She says, "I like Bombay [sic], although there has been some level of culture shock. More than the shock, it's the realisation that you are living in a place so different from your home, that everything you know has to be adjusted. I have found the people to be some of the friendliest I have ever known. People I barely know have opened their homes to me, letting me stay with them, sharing their meals with me, teaching me about the city, and answering endless questions. On the other hand, I have sometimes found people to be intrusive, at least the way I think Westerners can sometimes be looked at, especially on the outskirts of the city, but I think much of it is curiosity and difference in dress. Bombay is perhaps the most vibrant city I have ever seen, not only with its mass of people, working, ever in motion, but also in its constant building and rebuilding, the beaches, the traffic, the chaos."

For Pole, Joanna Gorczyca, three trips to India weren't enough to satiate her appetite for the country. And this trip, her fourth, she promises, is going to see her stay for longer. Gorczyca is well-travelled, and has seen her meanderings take her through Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, and Nepal. "But it wasn't the same as India," she says.
"This time I made the trip to India alone. I travelled through the deserts in Jaisalmer, rainy Madras [sic], silent and sunny Kerala, and later went to the loud and crowded Goa during the New Year." Gorczyca feels that Mumbai has charm and there's something deep and rugged about the city that keeps visitors coming back.

Some expatriates see their sense of wonderment with regards to Indian culture swiftly turn to open enjoyment, as was the case with Londoner, Natasha Crowe. Crowe, who has been working with the design consultancy, Fitch, for the last eight months loves Bollywood movies. Her recent favourite is Jab We Met, but she loves Devdas for the way it depicts the rich Indian flavours in terms of design and costumes; the grand opulence. She says, "I even remember lots of Hindi songs and keep humming them all the time."

The sub-continent is no strange place to Canadian,  Sparkle V Hayter, who spent some time in Peshawar, in Pakistan. She, like Crowe, loves Bollywood. "I have always wanted to live in India," says Sparkle, who made her first trip to the country back in 1986.

In 2007, Sparkle was offered a job, "out of the blue" to work for a movie channel in Canada, shooting interviews and promos related to Bollywood. "I jumped at it, and moved to Mumbai in August, 2007," she says. She further adds that her experiences have been mostly pleasant: "People have been great, taking me into their homes for fun dinner parties, lending me their cottages, teaching me things. I've had dinner sent from the most humble of slum dwellings and also from the most opulent of homes. I've gone to premieres and played Santa Claus's daughter for poor Christian and Hindu kids."

But Mumbai is not all a bed of roses for the expatriate woman. "A few times men tried to drug me. I was always able to distract them and switch drinks so they passed out and I got away," says Sparkle. "But they are the exceptions. The majority of men have been nothing but helpful, kind and protective."

Then there's the problem of getting an employment visa, and exorbitant real estate prices. Flock cautions: "It is impossible to come to India, get a job, and then get an employment visa. I don't advise anyone to try." And Crowe jokingly says, "The amount of money we spend to rent an apartment or buy one; in my country I can get an apartment next to the Queen's with that much money."
p_sugandha@dnaindia.net