Neighbors and neighborhoods provide your daily dose of adrenalin

 Pooja at Navaratri- On our street.

In the US, you can stay hidden from your neighbors for a really long time.  We did not speak or make eye-contact with the house next door.  Now, we are not classified unfriendly.  We knew everyone in our neighborhood, where we were the Chairman of the Block Action Committee and the Neighborhood Watch.  So much so, our friends continue to call us after we have relocated to India.  In the US, a good neighborhood is where the school district is extremely good and there are no cars hoisted on cement blocks. 

In India, it is the neighbors and not the neighborhood that makes the difference.  They can protect, impart knowledge, reveal deep secrets of the area, best shopping deals, make your life miserable and demystify daily chores.  Our neighborhood has a little bit of everything- yuppy condominiums(flats), street houses in narrow by lanes, old cozy homes and modern monster houses. The area has easy access to everything- restaurants, markets, beach, doctors, public transport and friends!! But the main attraction are the sounds.  I am not talking about the washing machine or the pressure cooker whistle.  I am talking about the birds tweeting, sounds of kids playing, live classical music ....

The sounds of our neighborhood really make it worthwhile to wake up every day!  The lady across the road does not miss a single happening. She was able to pinpoint that our driver had not shown up for 4 days in a row.  She protects our house.  The neighbor to the right plays the volume up on the afternoon oldies music for the whole street to hear.  In the morning, the neighborhood senior bachelor chants the prayers for the whole street and then turns to news radio.  Then there are holy prayers on the loud speaker from the neighborhood temple, mosque and church.  As the day progresses, we have the vegetable vendor hawking his fresh items of the day, traveling tailor with the machine over his shoulder,old paper wallah (recycle industry), auto rickshaws and so on.

This is a big change from the suburban California living that we have become so accustomed too!!  You need the neighbors here. The lady downstairs takes care of the gas delivery, courier and the laundry delivery when we are out.  Of course, we contribute as well.  We share the open/close of the water valves, pump and motor, cleaning the garden and watering the plants.  The kids are constantly running up and down the stairs. It is possible to leave them alone in the compound and not constantly watch over them.  They test food at both homes and select where they want to eat.  Do they play XBox/Kinect upstairs or Nintendo Wii downstairs?  Is it iPad or iPad2?  Is it Noddy coloring or painting pots? and so on. 

Kids develop close friends from the neighborhood, not just from school.  This is why you need to move to India.  Forget about the comfort of drivers, cooks, maids and convenience of home delivery on everything.  There is little privacy, noise pollution is everywhere and things are dirty. But it is India.