My inexcusable lack of cross-cultural insight

It has recently come to my attention that my blog does not provide my readers with enough cross-cultural content. Apparently I've been hogging the spotlight and have not devoted ample space to "information on Indian life." Typical Nate, right? I assumed you wanted to hear more about my resume. I stand corrected.

My hope has always been to write about my experiences (when they are merited) and those who read my entries would be able to gain insight to my life, the life of an expat in Bangalore. However, I can only accurately represent my life, which is quite unique because there aren't many people my age working here permanently, or at least for longer than a few months. I was part of a pilot program that brought 7 Americans to Bangalore to work for IndiaIT, the first of its kind to my knowledge. The success of this program was encouraging enough to cause IndiaIT to hire 130 American college graduates who will be living/working in India for 6 months beginning in August. It would appear that the life I lead will become more commonplace in the future, so I will concede that this blog could potentially serve a greater purpose than simply posting pictures of drunk expats and my weekend trip to Ooty.

I do realize that I have the opportunity to provide insight to those who wish to learn more about the Indian subcontinent and lifestyle. If nothing else, I hope that I can encourage more people to work abroad, especially in India where I feel many of the problems faced in this country can be solved with the help of foreign direct investment. So I'll answer the rather pointed questions that have recently come across about life in India:

Q: Is it exactly the same as in the US?
A: No.

Q: Is it non-existent?
A: No, life in India exists.

Q: Is it impossible to explain verbally?
A: No, it is quite possible to communicate my experiences verbally.


I know, this information can be a little unsettling! All kidding aside, the person who asked these questions raises a valid concern and maybe I should be more responsible to those who would like to use my blog as a source of information. So in the spirit of making this more of a conversation than a lecture, I propose this:

Send me the questions or topics of interest that you would like me to expound upon. I could always feed you useless information, but I think it would be more interesting to get cues from those who would read. Also, after living here a while I'm sure I glaze over some interesting aspects of life that you may want to hear about.

After all, I feel that stories about monkeys (which are certainly aces in my book as well, Dan) get less interesting over time. Most recently a clan of wild monkeys broke into Laura's kitchen (Scott left the window open) and ravaged her newly replenished food supply (they ate the almonds brought by Laura's mom). I have recently armed myself with an airsoft gun and sit on Laura's balcony picking off the enchroaching monkeys out of trees. I've learned one thing through this adventure: I need to get a bigger, more powerful gun.

See! I have yet to receive a question and I've already given you valuable information about what it's like to live in India. That's just a taste of what's to come!

But if you don't send me questions, I'm going to assume you want more monkey stories and pictures of drunk expats. Believe me, there's no shortage of either.