What expats love...

What expats love...
The Hindu Business Line

... and what exasperates them about the city the world is increasingly `Bangalored' to.

India seems to have finally attained a new development index. Expats no longer expect monkeys and elephants to cross their paths. They now fear zipping cars and lane-jumping jacks riding 180 cc bikes. While most Indian cities offer the same hair-raising experience, Bangalore gives it in large doses, or so the expats say.

Most non-Indians living in Bangalore (about 10,000) wonder at the contrasts that the city presents: It's ironic that while the world's most sophisticated technology is being designed and developed in this Silicon City, when it comes to traffic management, the city just crumbles and turns into an overgrown village.

Dr Anna Goldman, COO, India, PPC Worldwide, who is here on a short eight-month stint, wasn't sure what to expect from the city. "I wasn't sure whether the landscape would be that of a futuristic city or it would be like the India I remember 15 years ago as a backpacker." Now that she's here, she's fascinated.

Glass and granite rubbing shoulders with heritage properties makes for an interesting sight. "Everything is so highly regulated in the West. To have a slightly chaotic lifestyle is fascinating. It takes getting used to but it is also interesting," she says.

For Lesley Jackson, CFO, United Breweries Ltd, life here has been quite a change from her country home in Scotland. "Where we stayed in Scotland was very, very green and very, very rural and I must say this has been a real contrast. It's been a long time since I stayed in a city and I'm not a very particularly happy city-dweller."

What attracts expats to the city is of course the climate... Bangalore's most-written about attribute. Of course, its status as the IT city of the country has also thrown it into the global limelight. Anna says she's basking in the city's guaranteed sunshine, a relief from the grey London weather.

Lesley does not agree. "I'm not really impressed with the weather because it has rained ever since I came here. There has been more rain here in India than in Scotland. One of the attractions of coming to Bangalore was to escape the rain," she jokes.

George Huang, COO, Huawei Technologies India, hailing from sweltering South China, is all smiles as he describes the weather here as `welcome' and says he is quite impressed by the greenery in Silicon City. "It's such a change from IT cities in China where there are only new roads and new buildings. It was nice to hear a bird chirp or watch a squirrel making a dash into my balcony," he says in characteristic understated Chinese style.

Having travelled thousands of miles from home, do these expats miss the social life that their native cities offer?

"Bangalore seems to have an extremely vibrant social life and does cater to different age groups," says Anna who is now part of an expat women's club. Though she has not visited the city's famous bars and pubs, she has done a lot of eating-out, which she cherishes most. "But I expected expats here to be more integrated which they are not." Though she has made several Indian friends through business contacts, she regrets not reading up on the city before arriving.

Lesley, on the other hand, had researched a lot on the city and so had Huang. As all of them are here on business, it also helped that their respective companies gave them some idea of the lifestyle to be expected here.

As if talking in unison, all three say they are amazed by the high levels of tolerance and patience displayed by the locals. "Sometimes I think cars are not very precious to people here. If some of the things that happen on the roads had occurred in London, there would be standing rows and insurance claims flying in their faces," Anna laughs.

Lesley attributes the city's entrepreneurial spirit to the fact that nothing is offered on a platter and people have to make it on their own.

As for work-life, the expats welcome the refreshing change they experience here.

Lesley is in an atypical position as the CFO of a brewing company. You won't find too many women in top positions in the brewing industry; even in a western economy this is rare, she says. On the differences in the work environment, she sure is glad that "I'm not surrounded by men discussing football and using bad language". Instead, she finds the people incredibly skilled and well educated.

"A lot of western economies will require Indian skills in future because they have a larger ageing population. There's a big opportunity waiting for Indians here," she says, but rues the lack of planned development of roads and infrastructure.

For Indians nervous about comparisons with Chinese efficiency, Huang's comment comes as a surprise: "Engineers here follow instructions and processes more readily than their Chinese counterpart. In China we have to enforce some of the rules. This must be one of the reasons for Bangalore's rapid development."

Anna finds Bangaloreans `very liberal' and likes the fact that they respect differences. "People here are interested in new ideas and new concepts, this could be because of the presence of a lot of outsiders," she reasons. All three have only one grouse: lack of infrastructure and terrible traffic management. If these gaps are closed a little bit, then Bangalore will be a better place, they say.