My last post took note of American arms sellers camping in New Delhi (see here). This post is about the increasing number of expats/professionals (including Americans) who are making India their home, and feel more than welcome here.
Dave Prager and Jenny Steeves (photo above), who arrived in New Delhi from Brooklyn in 2007, say: “Unlike most countries in the world, Indians love Americans.”
Their delightful blog – Our Delhi Struggle – is fast gaining in popularity. I must admit that although I was born and brought up in this city, Dave and Jenny know more than I do about the current status of New Delhi! They provide a colourful, impressive and sympathetic insight into this vast, modern and, often, chaotic metropolis.
Whether it be for temporary assignments or permanent job changes, the shrinking American job market is making a move abroad more enticing, says News Day.
“Dave Prager, an ad copywriter at Wunderman in Manhattan, got a call from human resources on July 25, 2007 and was offered a position with the company in New Delhi.
“By Aug. 1, he was in India. Prager (born Denver, Colorado), 31, moved from Park Slope, with his wife, Jenny Steeves (born Israel), 30. Overnight, he went from toiling on an ad assembly line to a management position.
” ‘In New York, … I was one of a 100 copywriters,’ said Prager, who spoke by phone from his home in India. ‘But here it’s a massive jump in career responsibility and experience that I never would have gotten in the U.S.’
“The good news, though, is that Americans can take advantage of a cheaper cost of living in many foreign countries. In Prager’s case, his rent in India is only about 60 percent of what he paid in Brooklyn and he now has two bedrooms, three terraces and modern appliances.
“In the short time Prager has been in India, he’s already kissed New York goodbye and adjusted to life in New Delhi.”
To read other news about expats in India, please click here…
A sample post from Our Delhi Struggle blog:
Fast food occupies a far different role in American culture than in Indian culture. In India, fast food is a symbol of aspiration, and is priced and patronized accordingly. In America, fast food is priced to the low end of the market and pitched to appeal to everyone. My Indian coworkers proudly tell me of taking their dates to McDonalds; my American friends would have been horrified.
Most Americans are connected with the fast food industry as both patrons and cogs in the machine: a job at a fast food restaurant is a rite of passage for the upper-middle class on down. My wife cooked Pizza Hut pizzas as a teen, and I manned the cash register at a Denver-area burger establishment until I was fired for unsanitary orthodontic practices. (Don’t ask.) Once you’re older, fast food is either a diet staple or a guilty pleasure, depending on your socio-economic status. It’s accessible to all palates and affordable by all classes.
Because of the ubiquity and uniformity of fast food restaurants, and especially because of the relentless global march of brands like McDonalds, fast food is a part of America that neatly symbolizes the whole. The phrase “mcjob” entered the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2003 defined as “a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement”. The prefix “mc” can be added to any word to evoke pejorative associations of cheapness, blandness, homogeneity, and lack of authenticity; critics deride people who live in McMansions and worship in McChurches (and vote for McCain).
But even within fast food culture, Taco Bell occupies a strange niche. While Subway is McDonalds for sandwiches, and KFC is McDonalds for chicken, Taco Bell is not McDonalds for Mexican food. Taco Bell skews its marketing towards an aspect of American culture that’s less spoken of then McDonald’s family image but certainly just as pervasive: drunk diners who enjoy gastrointestinal discomfort.
Taco Bell is at its best after eleven PM, when you’re on your way home from being out with your friends. And Taco Bell’s advertising embraces that, calling it “the Fourth Meal,” prodding you to “make your after-party sizzle” with a Crunchwrap Supreme. Combined with its reputation for spiciness, Taco Bell’s role in fast food culture is similar to curry vindaloo in the UK: you eat it when you’re in an abused state, literally gleeful in the knowledge that it’s going to burn coming out in the morning. (It’s a macho thing, I guess.)
“The one thing that comes to mind at three AM after a night of drinking,” says Craig Pullins, a Chicagoan currently living in Delhi (and as eagerly awaiting Taco Bell as I), “is a Chicken Grilled Stuft Burrito.”
“Goes right in, comes right out,” adds Jennifer Jordan Keeler, a 29-year-old illustrator from Denver.
“I love tacos,” says 30-year-old Christie Clifford, a video editor from New York City. “I love everything about them and Taco Bell has the cheapest tacos around. They may be dog meat, but they’re cheap.”
I relate these sentiments to highlight the odd relationship Americans have with Taco Bell: we say negative things, but we say it with fondness, nostalgia, and a faraway twinkle in our eyes. In spite of her opinion of the food quality, Christie and I and our other friends spent countless evenings happily patronizing a Brooklyn Taco Bell in our weekly pre-bowling ritual.
———-
In India, Taco Bell will join a rapidly crowding fast food market aimed at the middle class. Perhaps because of the competition the corporate group expects, their executives were suspicious and secretive with me, refusing to confirm even mundane when’s and where’s, much less engage in dialogue about the challenges of marketing ethnic food to an audience unfamiliar with that ethnicity. Aparna Chopra, Marketing Head of Taco Bell India, was audibly uncomfortable with me on the phone, finally agreeing….
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.