My Love-Hate Relationship

Today marks 5 years of me living in India. And like the title of this blog suggests I do have a love hate relationship with this country. Here are my reason’s why. Let’s start with my hate.

1)  I hate the way men in this country stare and humiliate women. I've seen tons of non-sense on television and in real life and no matter what there’s apparently no stopping them. As disappointing as it sounds, I've started to get accustomed to this so called ‘tradition’ and it’s changed me in ways that’s a little too personal to mention. Every day in this city/country is a struggle for women.  Possibly the biggest hatred I have for this country.

2) I hate seeing people run for buses here. My mom would back me up on this one. Don’t get me wrong I have had my fair share of running for trains and buses in other countries but the possibility of getting knocked by a car or tripping on a pot-hole or slipping in this nasty weather is so much higher than in other countries.  A couple of days ago here I am sitting in my car I saw an old man run, stumble and fall close to the wheels of a moving  bus. My heart stopped and luckily he was helped by another and nothing happened. He smiled and continued running. This broke my heart really. Everyday it makes me count my blessings. I jokingly say I sometimes live a struggling life or my friends do, this put me to shame.

3) I have an unconditional love for dogs and it saddens me that there are so many dying strays here. I barely do my share of helping. On the flip side, I know so many people who give strays so much love here it’s unbelievable.

4)  I hate the way work done here is so ‘for-the-sake-of doing-it’ kind of work. Pot holes are re-filled with temporary tar which will become a pot-hole again in a few months. Thanks to the condition of the roads, at the age of 25 I have a serious back problem. People don’t appreciate doing work here or getting work done here.  They’ll find a short cut to everything.

5)  Punishment for the bad takes forever to be ruled in favor. How is this normal I do not understand till today? From experience, the police I've met here are not what they seem and I have stories of 5 years to back this. Who do you go for help here?  In Switzerland, I was caught by a police for plucking a tulip because it was against the law. Simple example of how serious they take their job.

6) My dad once said to me that he hopes he never has to take an ambulance here for an emergency. Chances of a person making it on time to the hospital with the sad state of the roads and traffic here are slim. Not only people here are least bothered of an ambulance behind them to move, but if they want to, there’s no place for them to go.  God please be kind and never let a day like this come.

Flip side of the coin, here’s my love for this country....

1) I've never learned to appreciate music as much as I have in the past 5 years here. I've been introduced to new sounds, variations and my life, at-least in the music sense has never been better.  

2) The energy in this country is beyond me. There’s so much competition it makes me try harder every single day to stand out and kick ass cause if I drop the buck, I know I’ll easily be replaced. I love it, it gives me a high, and it gives me a sense of living. And you’ll only find it here.

3) I love how this city has so many options. There’s never a day in the past 5 years that I can say there’s nothing to do, no new place to go to. There’s a constant evolvement and it just makes living here a little more enjoyable and less monotonous.

4)  The people in this city are the warmest I've ever met. I've found a few assholes along the way, but the warmth from strangers is a little over-whelming sometimes.

Love-hate is a mind fucking thing. Happy 5 years to me!