On Accommodations & Clothes in India

Because my office is located in Dwarka, New Delhi which is not a super fun place to live, I live in Gurgaon, Haryana which is a completely different state. Even so, it only takes me about thirty to forty minutes to Uber to work. We have an Uber competitor here too called Ola but for now, Uber is more reliable.

I live in a PG. We have nothing similar in the states except maybe a college dorm. “PG” stands for ‘paying guest’ and each PG differs extensively. My PG is houses sixteen working women all in their mid-twenties. It is not safe or culturally acceptable for a women to live alone here so it is extremely common to live in a PG.

When I moved to India I never dreamt I would end up living with sixteen girls. Before living in Nashville, I never had a roommate. I lived alone for almost six years so going from having five (!!!) roommates in Nashville to sixteen in India seemed like a lot. Turns out, it really is not. Sometimes I only see our cook or security guard for an entire day! Traffic is insane in India so it takes forever to get anywhere and employees work long hours and often on Saturday too.

Everyone I talked to before moving to India had advice on what to wear and what not to wear. I did a lot of research and felt pretty well prepared to adhere to all social dressing customs while in India. I was surprised to find that girls at my office all wear skinny jeans, converse, and t-shirts. I quickly ditched my fake Indian garb and decided to acclimate to the office culture. I feel much more like myself. Below is a typical outfit, definitely not much different than something I would have worn to class at Belmont.