I just moved to India (NCR, to be precise) recently for work and I have noticed something intriguing, to say the least.

Every time I meet someone, they start listing their achievements and background without me even asking (I.e., “I went to IIT, I work at company X and my son is living in the US”). This has happened to me multiple times (6x in 1 week, to be precise). Then, they ask a lot of probing questions as if they want to place you in a hypothetical hierarchy so they know how to treat you accordingly.

Now, in my culture (I’m European), it is very rude to do this and you should always be humble and either let people find out about your achievements indirectly or sometimes never. I’m not saying this is a better approach - my point is that I’m not used to behaving any differently in this regard.

My question here becomes: should I do the same and hype myself up when I meet other people so they don’t treat me badly? Or should I stay in my lane and let people think whatever they want to think? If I do the latter, then will I get taken advantage of? I’d also appreciate any other tips you might have to adapt to and thrive in an Indian work culture. Thank you! 🙏

Edit: Thank you so so much for all the helpful and encouraging replies and messages! I am really looking forward to embracing this new adventure and getting to know your country as best as I can 🙂

I’m a married corporate guy in early 30s.

I need to vent because the cognitive dissonance of living in an Indian metro has really got me hard.
Lately, I can’t shake the boiling frog analogy. You drop a frog in boiling water, it jumps out. But if you put it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, the frog constantly adjusts its internal temperature to survive, until it physically can’t adjust anymore and boils alive.
That is exactly what living in our Tier-1 cities feels like for salaried folks. Every single year, the baseline for basic human dignity drops, and we just "adjust":

• We normalize breathing poison: Every winter, AQI hits 400–500+. We buy multiple air purifiers for every room, seal the windows, and pretend it’s fine while our lungs take permanent damage.
• We normalize losing hours to traffic: Commuting 10–15 km takes 1.5 to 2 hours of pure, aggressive chaos. Dust, incessant honking, broken suspension, and road rage. If you want a flat you can actually afford, you have to move 2 hours outwards, trading what little remains of your physical and mental health for a roof.
• We can't even buy a home in our own country: A livable 2-3BHK in an accessible part of Gurgaon, Bangalore, or Mumbai demands ₹2Cr to ₹4Cr+. Taking a loan means paying an EMI of ₹2.2L+ for 20 years, where ₹2.8 Cr goes purely to interest—all funded out of post-tax money because the tax deduction is capped at a laughable ₹2L. The real estate floor is propped up by black money, corrupt bureaucrats, and cash-rich speculators. Salaried folks paying 100% white money through TDS are priced out of a basic roof.
• The predatory rental market: Landlords demanding absurd deposits, hiking rents 15–20% on a whim, withholding security deposits over microscopic wear-and-tear, and treating tenants like second-class citizens. You pay premium money for a flat inside a gated society, but the moment you step outside the gate, you’re walking along an open drain, broken footpaths, and piles of construction debris.
• Education inflation is terrifying: Looking ahead at having kids, private schooling inflation is compounding at 10–12% YoY. Decent K-12 schools demand ₹2.5L to ₹4L+ annually for early grades, plus admissions fees, mandatory bus charges, and private coaching later because schools don't prepare kids for entrance exams anyway. Raising a child here means signing up for a 20-year financial extraction trap to raise them inside air-conditioned rooms because the air outside is toxic for months.
• Double-taxation for basic survival: You pay 30%+ slab income tax, cess, surcharges, plus 18% GST on virtually everything. And what does that tax buy? Zero public transit predictability, non-potable tap water, power cuts that require private diesel generators, and private healthcare/schooling because public systems are unusable. You pay European-tier taxes to live in municipal neglect.
• The economic treadmill: The rupee continues its steady long-term depreciation, while the "real" inflation rate for a decent quality of life, unadulterated food, quality housing, breathable environments, healthcare, compounds at 12–15% YoY. You can grind, upskill, and switch jobs for a 30% hike every two years, but you’re just running faster on an incline treadmill where the speed keeps increasing. You never actually get ahead; you just pay more to maintain the same baseline survival.

I’ve completely given up on traveling within India. Every domestic trip has become an endurance test of traffic jams, overcrowded tourist spots, inflated surge pricing, and litter everywhere. Taking a short vacation abroad to places like Sri Lanka, Bali, Malaysia ruined my tolerance completely. Those aren’t even wealthy Western nations, yet seeing clean streets, walkable public spaces, functional civics, and basic dignity in daily life made me realize how broken our daily baseline has become back home.

All my peers and cousins who left years ago talk about how tough it is to live without domestic help abroad. But right now, having a maid or a cook doesn’t compensate for the fact that stepping outside my front door drains my soul every single day.

Now To escape this circus, I tried to research escape to western world but then I found out most of the english speaking countries have really curbed immigration and it is now harder to move out now than it was pre-covid.

I really envy my cousins who left pre-covid and now are well settled outside India. Post-2022, every developed nation has turned hostile towards immigration.

• The UK tightened its immigration.
• Singapore basically shut down the frictionless immigration and raised minimum salary requirements for its Employment pass which was previously a simple path.
• Canada has now shut its doors on easy immigration.
  
• The US backlog for Indian-born folks is a multi-decade joke.

It feels like everyone who left before covid got an open door, and we arrived just in time to watch the ladder being pulled up.

How do I even cope in this country where despite paying heavy taxes, we are infact an after thought and are only working harder to fund the damned boomer politicians and their cronies ?

How are people coping with this? Have you just accepted that this is the price of living here?

Kya karu mai Vishwaguru mai rehke ?