Week One - Day 3!! We All Made It!

At 12:59 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Jack, Leo and I finally arrived in Hyderabad with the last four suitcases. It felt like the final piece of the puzzle clicking into place.

Since then it’s been a whirlwind of settling in. We are incredibly lucky to already have such a great support team around us: Ganesh, our driver; Momi, our housekeeper; and Vishal, Jack’s shadow teacher. Having familiar faces every day has made the transition so much easier.

This week has mostly been about learning how everyday life works here.

One of the first things we noticed is that everything seems to come in pouches. At home we buy canned pet food; here it’s all in pouches. But we’ve also discovered shelves full of pouch meals for people! We’ve been working our way through mango dal, yellow dal, kidney bean masala, chickpea tomato curry, soya coconut curry and a few others. We just ask Momi to cook fresh rice and suddenly dinner is ready.

Speaking of Momi, we’ve settled into a nice rhythm. She cuts up vegetables, makes fresh curd (which is so much better than what we buy at home), and helps with the prep while we do the cooking. It feels like a lovely way to share the kitchen and us making us excited about cooking here.

We’ve also been exploring where to shop. Q Mart reminds me a little of Whole Foods, price-wise and for international things like pesto for Jack or fancy granola while the little fruit and vegetable stands downstairs or the bigger one we went to today are becoming one of my favourite stops. The produce is beautiful, inexpensive and changes every day.

The apartment has taught us a few things too. Every room has air conditioning and a ceiling fan, but what really confused us was the switches. There isn’t just a light switch when you walk into a room. There are switches for the lights, the fan, the air conditioner, the hot water, and even many of the electrical outlets. Everyone here is incredibly conscious about energy use, so everything gets switched off when you leave the room. Room by room.

They also save the grey water from the showers to water the plants on the balconies. I love little practical ideas like that.

Our balcony has quickly become my favourite place in the apartment. Every morning we sit outside with a cup of tea and watch dozens of swifts swooping between the apartment buildings. They’re unbelievably fast and seem to spend the entire morning playing in the air.

One thing that’s really struck me is the contrast in the city. When it rains, the roads flood because there isn’t an extensive stormwater drainage system like we’re used to. But at the same time, there’s clearly been a huge investment in greenery. The undersides of bridges are planted, the bridge supports are covered with living green walls, and many of the overpasses are decorated with colourful murals of wildlife, local culture and famous athletes. It’s a fascinating mix.

Then there’s delivery.

I thought Amazon Prime was fast, but Jeff Bezos has a lot to learn from India.

Here, almost anything can be at your door in under 12 minutes. Our current record is a mop that arrived four minutes after we ordered it. Jason and I had a race between Blinkit and Swiggy to see who could deliver milk faster. It ended in a tie—both delivery drivers arrived at our door at exactly the same time. They had a good laugh.

Of course, Momi informed us that neither milk was acceptable, so now we order milk through… a milk app.

Apparently there’s an app for everything.

Ironically, while you can have groceries delivered in four minutes, you can’t easily get a debit card delivered from Canada. Jason is still filling out paperwork, proving he lives here and getting our landlord to vouch for him before the bank will send him a replacement card.

Some things move at lightning speed. Other things… not so much.

We’ve also learned there is absolutely no arguing with the pool police.

Jack and I went swimming three times without incident. On the fourth visit we met the woman who supervises the pool.

Apparently Jack was not allowed to take his shirt off beside the pool. You must first remove it in the change room, register your name and age with her, and then you’re allowed onto the pool deck. Once you’ve finished swimming, putting your shirt back on beside the pool is perfectly acceptable.

When we told Vishal about the encounter, he just smiled, shrugged, and said, “That’s India.”

And yes…

We rode in our first tuk-tuk.

We explored Golconda Fort.

We saw a camel walking down the street on the way there.

And I met a lovely group of expat women for coffee.

Every day something surprises us.

Every day something makes us laugh.

And every day Hyderabad feels just a little bit more like home.

Morning chai on our balcony…

Street fruit and veggie market…wild place and so cheap…