Rambling, but I Need to Start Somewhere
It took me about a week to get settled in here. I think that's because there's no consistency of experience. Japan had that in spades. They've got me in very elite hotels, which exaggerate the colonial feel that I sometimes get elsewhere here. So I'm being served in a formal environment, which is not something to which I'm accustomed.
When I step out onto the street, it's a churning sea. It's difficult to describe, and I don't usually carry my camera around--it's large and I had some initial concerns about someone grabbing it on the street--unless I'm specifically off sightseeing, so I don't have many good photos of what I'm talking about yet. Even a couple of still photographs won't convey it nearly well enough. There's construction, loosely defined, everywhere. I think the climate is hell on buildings, so sometimes establishments are nicer on the inside than you'd think from seeing the exterior, but a lot of places are falling apart--and that's disregarding the shanty towns. It was a good couple of days before I saw any place that I thought I could stand living in. Due to the construction, there's rubble all over the place, serious poverty* among a portion of the population, and no discernible rules governing traffic or animal husbandry. Population density is high, it's ungodly hot from midday to mid afternoon, lots of street vendors and small stands, especially in certain areas, pollution, and all manner of other things contributing to sensory overload. That said, I think Pune is saner than Bombay. Any time I think I'm getting used to it, something will happen, like an elephant walking down the road, to remind me that I'm not.
Finally, at work, it's oddly similar to working in the U.S. English fluency is common here generally, especially among the middle and upper classes, and is a given at the office. This humanizes things enormously as opposed to, say, Japan, where the same cannot be said. Humour, common topics of conversation, the usual rhythms of white collar office life, etc., are all very natural. This is a nice place to work, and I don't experience many odd cultural moments. It's all very comfortable.
The constant transitioning between the three worlds, or really any time spent in public, can be disorienting.
*When I say poverty I'm not talking about what you see in Detroit, for example. That's the Nerf bat version of the real thing.