To write my first blog is not an easy task. Since weeks I am thinking about how to start.

Now, I have to start somewhere: When I decided to do blogging, it was because some of my friends kept telling me „You should write a book“. Well, maybe, my life took some interesting turns but I am not a born to be writer!

So I decided to share some of my experiences by blogging. While my focus will be that of living in a different culture (I am German living in India, which hardly could be more opposite ) my blogs will also include my past, because my past shaped me to be the person I am now.

Also, I decided to write in English, which is more difficult for me but I also want my non-German friends to be able to read it.

So, here I am, in India. First of all, I want to say, I LOVE INDIA. And yet, it challenges me every single day.

But somehow it is good to be challenged, isn’t it? The one thing I am learning in India is that things can be seen from a completely different angle then how I have been conditioned all my life. And daily I am reminding myself, what a great thing this is.

As a German I love to control everything. I need a plan for everything. That’s the first contradiction. Here planning seems to be done only so that you don’t need to go by the plan. Everything is a flow. And that’s the beauty of India and why, I think, many westerners love India – It connects us to a much more natural way of being.

So, my biggest latest accomplishment is: I bought a car and started driving in India. I am here since four years and I never thought I would be able to do this. But the Pandemic forced me to, if I don’t want to be just stuck at home.

Seeing the traffic here always made me think, that it’s like a metaphor for how life is organised in India. With a limited set of rules but one important one

– GO WITH THE FLOW!

People don’t indicate, they drive on the wrong side of the road or they all want to be first in line on a red light, like the formula one drivers on the starting line, let the fastest push everybody else to the back. It’s a chaos from my German perspective. My worst fear is that I am not reacting fast enough by my rules oriented driving style and would hit somebody. But well, when I keep calm and trust, somehow there are guarding angels watching this chaos And yeah not to forget! – I learned to use the horn; it surely is safer

So, all my driving on the German „Autobahn“ could have never prepared myself for the Indian roads.

And I am super proud that now I am almost comfortable on the roads here.

What is the Indian traffic teaching me?

The importance to challenge our own perspectives and values, especially when we are convinced that our way is the better way!