Living Well In India

This article is for people who are spending or planning to spend maybe 6 months or more in India; we mean living well in the sense of getting the most out of your experience and going deeper into the spiritual richness of India.

Living well in terms of carving a full life out of your time, we recommend joining a yoga group. Not only will this improve your health and give you more energy to enjoy your time more, you will meet like minded people, locals ands migrants and yoga is a very social, friendly and safe way to become a part of the community. If you are in a metro city you can simply Google nearby classes, if you are in a more rural area, you can either ask the family or hostel manager that you are staying with or start one yourself with someone who knows the basics.

Living as a vegetarian may seem like a strange suggestion, but it will probably stop you getting sick as the way meat is cooked often disagrees with western stomachs. Being healthy will definitely help you to live well.

Buy your fruit and vegetables from your local market in the morning and evening rather than at a superstore. In India, the best quality food is found at the markets and the more you get to know your local providers the more confident you will become in what you buy and what you cook. The markets and bazaars are also the best place to find out what's happening in your area, what events have buzz, where the good places to shop are, where are the fun places to go at night etc.

If you like music, pop into the local music store, my favourite store is in Bandra, Mumbai and it is called Bhargarva. A family run shop, it has traditional Indian instruments like the sitar, sarod and harmonium and it is where I bought my first guitar, shofar, wooden flute and made lots of friends. It is a typical Indian music store, people come in to play the instruments, drink tea, jam and buy music. They also do repairs so top musicians come in all the time to get alterations on their instruments done and you can find out what gigs are being planned this way as well.

Choose one person a day to be charitable to. Often in India the poverty and suffering can be overwhelming. Seeing so many people in need is upsetting and if you give all your change to a child beggar and another 6 appear when your change is finished; you end up feeling awful. Know that you can't save everyone but give something meaningful, a glass of watermelon juice, a meal (not that expensive) from a roadside cafe to a homeless child, an old t-shirt, the money you were going to spend on a beer to someone in need. You will feel the benefit and then you can sleep at night knowing that one person is doing better because of you and it will help when you are faced with the massive inequality present in India.

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