After 8 years of running a busy home in Pune, here are some myths about living in India..
1) Getting a gas cylinder is impossible - with the tatkal scheme, you can now get not one but two, and the elusive regulator, within a week (Yes, ignore the LPG shortage for now... it's just a temporary short term thing)
2) Getting a phone is impossible - well, not even a topic for discussion any more, but even 8 years back, we got not one but two connections, got them shifted from one to another location, and have had not more than 4-5 downtime days in all this while. And we did not have to pay a single rupee, ever.
3) Getting admission means long overnight stays at the school - no, Sanam got admission in the prestigious DAV Public School with no donation, no queues, no interviews, no phone calls from influential politicians
4) Getting your house registered means paying hefty bribes - we got ours in a matter of half an hour; no money asked, none given!
5) Traffic police are corrupt - well, I have been stopped for overspeeding, wrong format of number plates, wrong entry on one way streets, wrong parking, licence and paper checks, using fog lights, breaking traffic signals - most of the times I have been let off with a lecture, and a couple of times I was issued a proper ticket (though the cop did offer me an alternate convenient option which was duly refused)
6) There are no good roads in India - take a short drive on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, or the Pune-Goa road, or the Mumbai-Goa road, and you will see for yourself. If I can cover Pune-Mumbai in 45 mins, or Pune-Goa in 5 hours 15 min, I really have no cause for complain, do I?
7) Government offices are inefficient and corrupt - try the PMC tax payment center or the MSEB office in Aundh, and you will surprised at how good things have become!
If you have similar positive experiences, I would love to hear from you - only the positives please, I know we can find enough negatives, and that is not what I am interested in knowing!
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