Call from India

Ohh yeah, totally!

If the person lived in a village or small town, they would probably use it to pay off loans on farm land or property. People there have (or used to) a very negative view of loans. So they try to pay them off as soon as possible. Farmers unforunately often commit suicide because of shame for not being able ot pay off loans. So much so that the local governments have systems in place to catch such situations and help the farmers before they do harm to themsleves.

Of course in the big cities, plastic has become a popular thing and the concept of only purchasing what you can afford is slowly going away.
 
Whenever I go to India to visit family, we usually spend about $1000 for a month's time. For that amount of money, we can get a driver to drive us around, people to clean the house and cook, and pay for all our food. A dinner for 10 of my relatives at a decent restaurant in a small city cost me about 600 rupees (about 15$).....

If I were to stay in the village, the food is even cheaper..there is no need to be driven around, and all you have to pay for is beer and whiskey.......the "untouchables" who clean the house, etc. etc. only ask for 50 rupees a week......that's fiscal responsibility at it's finest.....supporting a family of 4 on a buck a week......
 
What're is the QOL like in India's larger cities, like Bombay? And besides pay (which I'm sure would be low in comparison to US standards) what other benefits would there be for flying ex-pat for an Indian airline?

What are the better Indian airlines and what kind of fleets do they have. If I couldn't get on with a major here in the states, or pay and QOL just went to crap, I might seriously consider becoming an ex-pat in India or some other foriegn country!
 
$1500 was more money than this dude had ever seen apparently. Consider this: he was just the guide. There was also a driver. It was a 16 person bus..relatively new. There were 10 of us.

Each paid $43 for the tour. We left New Delhi as the sun came up and got back to the hotel by midnight. Included in our tour price: Breakfast at a roadside restaurant reserved ONLY for tour buses, Lunch at the Sheraton in Agra, admission to the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and some tomb, a snack for the ride home. So a tour for 10 cost us $430 for all that! and we tipped the dude $1500. The driver probably got a share of it I am sure.
And like someone else said, he was in a respectable job and supported kids and a wife.

Max,
Flying in India was SCARY 10 years ago. Not sure if it has gotten any better. If you have never read it, I actually witnessed the largest loss of life air collision in history going into Delhi.
http://forums.jetcareers.com/general-topics/35958-my-best-war-story-self-proclaimed.html

QOL in big cities? OK...imagine. India is about a third the size of the US and has 1.2 Billion people. It is crowded.
 
From what my students have told me, the pay is pretty good in India. You get a nice house complete with servants and a good salary. The problem, is that they have guys with 250 hours flying right seat in the big equipment.
 
There are a bunch of airlines in India now. Air India/Indian Airlines (now merged) are government and mostly hire ex-military.

Jet Airways is the largest private carrier. They have a pretty big fleet of 737s, ATRs and now A330s and A340s. They have a lot of foreign pilots. Air Deccan and King Fisher air are next in line. King Fisher is owned by the liquor tycoon and has ordered A380s to supplement the A320s they have now. There are some others too like Go Air and Spice Jet that are really new.

From what I hear (my company is working with the Indian Government), they are spending a lot on modernization of the system. This includes new airports, ground basd navigation, ADS-B etc.

I know a few people that fly for airlines in India. They live very luxurious lives and upgrade seats and equipment fairly quickly.
 
Mahesh said:
Ohh yeah, totally!

If the person lived in a village or small town, they would probably use it to pay off loans on farm land or property. People there have (or used to) a very negative view of loans. So they try to pay them off as soon as possible. Farmers unforunately often commit suicide because of shame for not being able ot pay off loans. So much so that the local governments have systems in place to catch such situations and help the farmers before they do harm to themsleves.

Of course in the big cities, plastic has become a popular thing and the concept of only purchasing what you can afford is slowly going away.
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I just read about this 2006 Nobel Prize winner from India who gave loans to poor people to try and get them out of poverty.


Nobel Peace Prize winner: 'Poverty is a threat to peace' - USATODAY.com
 
Mahesh said:
It depends on where you live. In big cities, you'll spend that pretty quickly. In villages, its a LOT.

Just taking food for example, you can spend either 150 rupees at a fancy coffee shop or 3 rupees at a small hole in the wall place. You can spend 2000 rupees on dinner or totally fill your stomach for 10 rupees. It just depends.

I can tell you though that real estate is very expensive, gas is very expensive and hotels are expensive.
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As someone who has recently flown a lot out of VABB and VOMM I agree with this statement, but think it's worth noting that the overwhelming vast majority (that's 95%+) of the population of India is still living on rupee 5000 per month or less... Which is to say $120/mo in cities where the costs have gone up dramatically due to the new "middle class" who are earning 10 or more times this in the various jobs the US and EU have outsourced into India for "cheap labor". There is great poverty and disparity between those who have and those who don't and it's quite sad. China is only a little better from what I've seen in that the "middle class" there is a little bit bigger, and the upper class even more so, but there are still over a billion people in each country in abject poverty.. What the solution is, I don't know....
 
Nismaxdan said:
So whats the New Deli Belly and how does one get it, or maybe I should be asking how does one avoid it?
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"Deli Belly" as it is commonly referred, is nothing more then a humorous term for nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrheathat often inflicts western visitors.

Usually it is caused by eating foods that contain parasites and bacteria that the eater's body is not accustom to. Drinking untreated water over in India also tends to do some people in, due to high instances of Malaria.

I got lucky during my stay. I had co-workers that were laid up in the hotel for days at a time, two had to be hospitalized. I never got so much as an upset stomach for the months I was in country, and I ate in some shady locations during my time there.
 
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