January 2009 - Posts - The Expat Blog

January 2009 - Posts

White Man’s Tax

Posted by Melissa A. Bell at 
This morning I ran over to the post office to mail a package to a friend back in the US. There was a long line at the Parcel/Checking/Everything Else window and no line at the Buy Your Stamps Here window. I wasn’t sure what I needed, so I opted for the no-line window. The postal employee looked at my package and passed it along to the man behind the...

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Cheering for Sri Lanka vs India

Posted by Ayeshea Perera at 
Noam Chomsky once called sports a "dangerous thing" saying it infused blind and foolish loyalty, be it to your home team, your national team etc. A friend and I were discussing this on the way home yesterday and he opined that it was cricket that kept the nation-state of India united. Coming from a country undergoing deep divisive politics...

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I enjoy being a girl* (even in Delhi)...

Posted by Melissa A. Bell at 
A long-time Mumbaiker just moved to Delhi with his Delhi-born wife. She was returning after six years of absence and, I found out, she was returning with some trepidation: "Everybody's been telling her how dangerous Delhi is for women, so she finally started believing it," my friend confessed over lunch. "Do you feel unsafe here?"...

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Sri Lanka - Change we need

Posted by Ayeshea Perera at 
Complacency. The one thing that Sri Lankans (myself included) are generous with. Increase the price of petrol. Close roads and hold up traffic for miles. Engage in blatant human rights abuses. Make the cost of living unbearable. Do all this AT THE SAME TIME and rest easy in the knowledge that after a general grumble and maybe a half hearted protest...

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meri jaan, the expat

Posted by Aruna Viswanatha at 
Normal 0 With Valentines Day one month away, we present an episode of the expat show on dating in Delhi. Since dating in India is a limited concept, and couples often tie the knot after knowing each other for only a few months, how do you manage to date the western way, without screwing it up or looking too out-of-place in India? Melissa, for example...

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I ♥ the FRRO.

Posted by Melissa A. Bell at 
If you had asked me last month how I feel about the lovely Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), I likely would have had a few choice words not publishable even on a random blog. I despised the place. I thought of it as a bureaucratic wasteland--mercurial, an emphasis placed on illogical rules, and run with as little efficiency as possible...

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Monumental Moments: Delhi in Threes

Posted by Ayeshea Perera at 
In this week's Expat show ( Listen now ) we try our hands at the "Lists" that everyone seems to enjoy making at the beginning of a new year. We look at our personal "Top 3" moments in Delhi - the good, the bad and the downright embarrassing! Here they are in no particular order - but as always, they are much funnier to listen...

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