2013-2019 was the time I was working full time in India and I was a typical corporate associate. Yup, I was a common “yes, sir” girl searching for appreciation, recognition, appraisals, promotion and day to day race. I vividly remember the first days in the Indian office, my excitement about getting something extraordinary compared to my peers in Europe. I was truly proud of my modern cubicle, office laptop, company ID card and all that perks like free drinks, corporate canteen, gym and library facilities everyone gets joining the company. The rat and money race increased significantly when I was offered an onsite opportunity in the UK in 2018. Being already in India – a foreign country to me, I went from offshore to onsite, I got the chance many people in India dream about: to go abroad, to earn in foreign currency, to post your new fancy DP on social media. Let me give you then a feel for what going onsite is like, let’s start at the beginning of the process.
Full-time off-grid life: how does a family of 5 live fridge-free?
If you are reading this post, I assume you might be intrigued by the way my family decided to pursue it. Already, moving to the farm life, instead of conventional farming, we head for a food forest plan, so what else might be interesting here? I assume, most probably, you were brought up in a home with a television, phone, fridge… Those conveniences seem obvious to many, so it seems almost unbelievable that someone (yes, my family) voluntarily decides to live without… a fridge. Well, it’s 2021, almost 2 years after we set up the decision, and I honestly may say that, is just a question of getting used to the fact we don’t have a fridge. Or maybe better say: we don’t need one, do you?
Living off-grid teaches you to be truly independent. Moving out of the city and starting your off-grid life, at some point brings the feeling of liberation from modern chaos but on the other hand, you might feel initially lost without all the so-called high-tech necessities in life. That’s what I experienced after having decided to live without a fridge. Would you recall your great-grandmothers (or grandmothers) times, living without electricity or running water? Perhaps they had to carry their own water to fulfill primary necessities – cooking, washing, cleaning. How strong and adaptable they were to be a homemaker. They definitely had an enormous knowledge of how to manage such obstacles and for me, and my family, following their footsteps, it’s the way to be back to nature, our roots, and land movement.
There’s 1000 better things to spend 50k INR on
Independence from power companies, saving money on electricity bills, helping the planet by reducing carbon footprint, having more space at home. Was any of these points you thought thinking about living without a fridge? With this post I would like to show how we live on the farm without any cold storage – no fridge, no freezer – and we eat well throughout the year. Are you ready to get to know how to enjoy your food more and eat well as you do so?
The first step we did for living without a fridge was moving towards seasonal food. Before we set up the vegetable garden on the farm that really brought our food, before the first seeds sprouted, we were simply buying vegetables & fruits from the market (or farmers we knew), the more seasonal and the more local they were, the better. How do we recognize which food is seasonal – simply checking which veggie stock is on top that time and its price (in-season food is always less expensive).
If we learn how to plan food preparation/storage/preservation, everything seems easily doable.
To start off, as an expat in India, I may say the best thing that happened to me was learning how to cook from local ingredients. I cook almost all the time Indian dishes at home and that solution brought us not only savings (foreign products are obviously available in India but in bigger cities, not here – and are relatively expensive) but peace of mind shopping-wise.
We buy just enough fresh products to last a few days up to one week. We divide them into easily perishable and longer-lasting vegetables. Similarly, we do for meat – we buy only this much to finish within the same day or maximum next day morning. We cook it right away to add to this. And that we don’t eat non-vegetarian food often – we reduced meat consumption to one per month. Vegetables that in our climate rot/dry a lot if not eaten fast are carrots, beans, moringa, ladyfingers.
Vegetable shopping: we divide veggies into short/long term freshness parts and use them in correct order 
Alternatively, we grow some of our food in the garden.
Half way to go – food storage
Whether we buy vegetables or harvest from the garden, we need to know (and actually we learned it fast) which one to use first, which will last longer kept outside. In general, without a fridge, we need to know how to store fruits and vegetables to keep their taste for as long as possible, on priority. Storing vegetables the right way will keep them fresh and safe to eat. Storage areas need to be well-ventilated, dry and as dark as possible. Additionally, we keep the storage containers handy (until we build the storage room in our future mud house), so we can check on the products daily. If anything is bruised, needs to be cooked first. Whatever we miss in daily food check-up will rot or mold…. From experience, for dry food items like pulses, millets, grains, rice, we can say mud containers work pretty well in South India climate.
Keeping all food storage containers closed – farm life provides lots of rodents 
Mud pots work well for dry food items in Tamil Nadu climate
If you think that buying seasonal and planning your meals for a couple of days ahead is enough to kick off life without fridge – nothing like this, few more things to cover. Follow below.
Eat food that spoils, but eat it before it does.
List of vegetables and fruits we store at room temperature (Tamil Nadu climate-wise):
- Bananas -> did you notice if bananas are kept in the fridge, the skin goes black and they lose their sweetness? If they are unripe and green in colour you can cover them with a thick breathable cloth and leave for few days.
- Potatoes (sweet potatoes) – can be stored for 2-3 months in a cool, dark place.
- Watermelons -> they will lose their flavour and red colour if lept in the fridge for a long time.
- Tomatoes -> those aren’t ripe won’t turn red in the fridge. They need to be at room temperature and can be kept like this for 1-7 days.
- Onions -> 1-2 months in a dry, air ventilated place to keep them from sprouting. You can store onions and potatoes together ony if you want potatoes to sprout.
- Garlic -> best container that worker for us was a breathable bag. Using garlic for a month now.
- Cabbage -> it will last around 2 weeks as long as you protect it from bruisingtoo much.
- Pumpkins -> from experience I can say along time in a room temperature – around 1 month or so. BUT the condition is, it has to stay unopen. Once opened, I suggest finishing it within a max of 2 days.
- Bottle gourds -> didn’t notice any of this vegetables to rot after a week or so as well.
Does it mean we will not buy things that need refrigerating? Absolutely not. We buy them but eat first on priority, most preferably same day.
Storing eggs
We store them also at room temperature – can use them for around 2 weeks’ time.
Storing milk and curd
We boil the entire milk in the morning, just after milking the cow. To keep it fresh until evening, I’ll boil it a second time during the day usually after lunch. Curd stays fresh for 1.5 days.
As of now, the nuisance we fight with, are rodents. Whenever any food item is left unattended – mice have a feast.
Food preservation techniques in rurar Tamil Nadu
When lockdown started, how many of you got a bit scared that the food supply chain will break? That shops will have limited food and maybe – there will be little left for you? Sounds scary? Even if that didn’t happen, such a scenario might be possible. Would you be prepared with your knowledge how to preserve food that stays longer edible? There are many ways of food storage without refrigeration, people use canning, curing, fermentation, dehydration, smoking. Here in Tamil Nadu, and on our farm, we use 2 main food long-term preservation methods: pickling and drying.
- Sun drying – drying is one such technique used in India but Tamil Nadu with it’s dry climate and moderate monsoon season is just perfect for it. Chillies, applams, vathals, vegetables like tomatoes, brinjal, onions coconuts for oil extraction.
- Pickling – with salt and oil we can preserve and pickle a lot of things that wouldn’t stay overnight.
Many of Indians will know pickling happens across the country, but mangoes and lemons are the most often Tamilians turn into . “The Tamils make something called Varu Maangai or baby raw mango pickle. The pieces are washed, sun-dried, coated with castor oil and salt.
And one extra piece of news from Tamil Nadu villages
In some villages here in Tamil Nadu people use a similar method to grow mountain garlic. Across Kodaikanal’s Manavanur village, harvested garlic is tied up in bundles and placed over the fire. They are cured and then travel to the market — a tradition the locals have been following for years.
Popular in Tamil Nadu: mango pickle. 
Sun dryied chillies make them available for cooking for months.
Few principles we always follow
- We grow part of our food not to be dependent on the grocery stores. Living on the farm and growing our own food (the ultimate goal is to be fully self sustainable) makes it difficult to estimate how much harvest we’ll get from one season. Would you imagine for example cooking daily (yes, daily) the same dish from the pumpkin that grew in your garden? We neither. Anyone would be bored having same dishe in served in exactly same way, isn’t it? That’s why we rotate dishes – one ingredient, many cooking ideas.
- We shop fresh (no-refrigerated) veggies. When byuing vegetables or fruits that we know we’ll not keep in the fridge, we always, ALWAYS, select those that were not refrigerated. Once any produce has been refrigerated, it will quickly go bad, if not stored in the fridge again.
- We select no-bruised vegetables. Don’t get me wrong with this point. I don’t want to convince anyone to select only beautifully grown, ideal shaped vegetables… no, no, no. Not this way. It’s about not accepting any bruises, overripeness, anything that might be shortly rotten or have insect holes.
- We buy realistic quantity of food. When you cook yourself, you usually know how much do you (and your family) consume. Buy this much than you can comfortably fit in your storage areas, and cook without products getting spoiled.
- We are careful about veggies transport. Making sure nothing smashes the shopping bag as that will accelerate waste!
- Washing only what’s urgently needs washing. I prefer not to wash vegetables before longer storage (obviously those that need washing) but if I do, I get them all totally dry before storing. If they are not dry, they will just start to rot.
Final note about living without refrigeration
In a farm lifestyle, we manage, with limited chances of daily shopping (grocery shops are away around 6 km from our house) we like to have enough food stocked up from few days to a few weeks. We have rice, daals, flour in excess to use when the shopping option is not much available (that actually happened during the extended lockdown in Tamil Nadu).
Now you learned a bit about seasonal eating, food storage and learned how to implement different types of traditional food preservation, is there anything left? Would you be ready to live fridge-free?
I would love to hear your comments on this! Was the post interesting to you? Did you learn anything new? Or maybe I didn’t cover some of your kitchen tricks that may be useful in fridge-less life? Thank you very much for reading this article. I am curious if you have/had any experience of yours? Any comments? – please share your experience. And if you liked the article – share it, click “Like it” and “share it” with those who may need this knowledge.
Edible food forest – from fallow wasteland to 5 layer food garden in Tamil Nadu
If one day somebody had told me I would live in the middle of Indian nowhere (actually it’s in the heart of Tamil Nadu) setting up a food forest and self-sustainable farm – I’d probably share my most sarcastic smile and say: no way! But while time flies, life can be perverse, so here I am, in the beautiful land of Tamil Nadu, living off the grid with my bicultural family, learning how to live self-sustainable life.
One of the first projects after moving to the village in India was to turn the barren land into a green, food jungle. The idea was simple – whenever you turn your head, you’d see an edible plant, every day you wake up and watch through the window – you’d see snacks that could satisfy your cravings. The plan was brilliant but one year ago in 2020, I would definitely not expect how much planning, designing, and work will such a project require, indeed. What did we focus on this year and what did (or not) achieve?
Layers of the Forest
How did we plan and organize our food forest? From the very beginning, we wanted to have plenty of different plant varieties typical for the Tamil Nadu climate. We’ll definitely think about expanding the number of varieties but until soil doesn’t work with us fully – we need to be satisfied with local saplings.
During the food forest setup, we focused mainly on 2 things: food forest layers (multiple layers of plants stacked vertically to increase overall production) and perennials. What we recommend for your saplings/seeds planting, take into consideration “up”, “down” and “out” dimensions. The biggest layer will be trees (we planted i.ex. mango, jackfruit, tamarind, teakwood, sandalwood), which need full sunlight. The next layer will be small trees (banana trees, pomegranate, lemon trees), next shrubs (i.ex basil, tulsi, medicinal plants) that grow with less light. Intermediate between these two classes of plants is the vines (we used seasonally: bottle gourds, pumpkins, ridge gourd). Next, there are the ground plants (i.ex. groundnuts, urad daal, moong daal, pineapples) that cover the forest floor. Finally, we got underground plants – mostly vegetables like radishes, carrots.
Design and space where to plant them depend on the area you have to have your food forest.
First sapling planted in food forest – July 2020 
Setting up the irrigation system 
Land is ready for sapling planting – July 2020
Soil that works
As we arrived at an almost barren land, our most important goal was first and foremost to fertilize the soil. We are aware this process takes years to get done but we started with only natural boosters for soil fertility (cow-goat-rabbits dung), chopp&drop the weeds method. We also used fertility-boosting plants: nitrogen fixers such as groundnuts, moong/urad daal, agathi keerai plant. The roots of these plants associate with rhizobial bacteria — a partnership that benefits both the bacteria and the host plant, and that provides a nitrogen boost for other plants as well.
Irrigation
When we moved to a tropical climate farm we also knew that crucial aspects of setup and early years management will be watering and the entire irrigation system, especially during summertime (February-June). We used rain irrigation systems in the forest and that worked well for us. Next year we’ll be expanding food forest to new area planting coconut, cashew nut, papaya, and more moringa trees and we hope to manage with new similar setups as well.
Huge support to minimize the heat was the massive mulching we provided for the forest.
We also used compost piles to build soil beforehand. We dug holes in the ground, filled them with natural fertilizers, and closed them with the soil This allowed us to fertilize immediately once we started planting saplings, and added organic matter which helps with water management. To support the water supply, apart from an open well, we dug some water access structures – a rainwater harvesting pond.
Banana tree + turmeric combination 
Irrigation pipes
Sustainable food production
That’s actually our goal and we are still in the process of learning how to plan crops in accordance with climate, seasonality, and our needs. First-year taught us much about succession and companion planting. What worked well was combinations of groundnuts+urad daal, turmeric+banana trees. We definitely failed with moringa, papaya saplings – poor water management led to the loss of about 30 plants.
One year enormous growth – teakwood tree 
Baby pineapple 
Tulsi plant
There’s a lot of maintenance required to sustain all types of soil/sunlight requirements for diversified plants in one place. We keep on focusing on what’s working here for the climate: mulching, natural fertilizers, and a watering system. The rainy season is on the way, we’ll get ready for planting new plant varieties – coconuts, sapotas, guavas, and papayas. Keep your fingers crossed for us, come here again in a yer’s time and check how the plants grew.
I would love to hear your comments on this! How do you like the idea of a food forest? Do you have your own food forest? What works well for you and what needs amendments? Thank you very much for reading this article. I am curious if you have/had any experience of yours? Any comments? – please share your experience. And if you liked the article – share it, click “Like it” and “share it”. with those who may need this knowledge.
What drained rice water has to offer – ways Indians use it in everyday life
Out of many culture shocks I experienced living in South India was the eating habits of thousands of Asians. How it is possible for those people, they are able to eat rice daily 3 times – for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? And each time the rice is a) cooked exceptionally, b) can be served in hundreds of ways (lemon rice, tamarind rice, biryani… etc), c) its method of cooking determines eating pleasure. For me, a Polish potato girl, eating rice was an exotic – once in a month – adventure and that only during lunch timings. I never put much attention to which rice to eat, how to cook it, and what to do with its drained water. But those people do and with time, I also had a chance to see, learn, and understand how the rice world is organized here. Believe me, it can be as yummy (oh biryani!) as my childhood potato upbringing.
To start off, before I move to rinsed water rice properties, one has to know that rice is one of the chief grains of India. This country has the largest area under rice cultivation, as in fact, it is the dominant crop here (I live in South India where rice, along with peanuts are cultivated by the majority of farmers). India is not only a leading consumer of rice crop but also its second-largest producer in the world. So, it might come to your mind that there are hundreds of varieties of rice then… and yes, that’s true!
Cooking in a pressure cooker or boiling in a pot?
So, you want to eat your rice, great. I assume you want your rice to be cooked in a decent way – but how to do it when there are many different ways of cooking it? As I live in India, I got to know that Indian’s most popular, yet old fashioned, cooked rice method is: the boil (lots of water) and drain method. Rice is boiled in lots of water, it has to be manually checked to see when it has got cooked. After that – excess water is drained out. This water contains lots of starch and people here use it for different reasons I’ll cover in the next parts.
Btw. another method popular here in India I met in the cities would be the electric rice cooker method (or pressure cooker). It cooks rice in the absorption method and all the water used in cooking (usually ratio is 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water) is absorbed in the process of cooking.
Why cook rice by boil & drain method?
I was told by my Indian family that cooking rice in a pressure cooker not only creates harmful chemicals released to your body that is dangerous to health but also, such rice can cause obesity. When cooking in a pressure cooker, all the water from rice is absorbed by the body and this leads to weight gain.
There are two golden Indian rules for cooking rice: 1. measure rice by volume - it makes it easier to assess how much water to add. 2. during boiling, don't stir rice , it will break up and turn sticky.
I tried both ways of cooking rice and honestly saying boiling rice in a pot with excess water appeals to me more now. Not only I am able to see and control the starch level (Starch in rice is expected to reduce around 15%, using boil and drain method – Source – Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations) but also I can reuse the remaining drained water. Why do so? Such water is a vitamin bomb, in a farm life we give it to animals to drink, we water plants with it (starch rice water diluted with normal water) or...
Ok, so what do to with excess water rinced after boiling rice?
- Starch the clothes – starching your clothes creates a higher resistance to wrinkling and soiling. Why not use drained rice water that will ease ironing.
- Some of the Indian women’s secrets of their skin and hair care remedies lie in rice water. You can use it for hair wash or face pack… (freeze it as ice cubes and rub it over your face… Gives a nice soothing feeling)
- Did you consider using such water for cooking purposes? Indian women suggest:
- adding salt and jeera (=*cumin seeds) and prepare soup out of it
- cooling it and keeping it in a bottle in the fridge. One can use it in daal or to make curry thicker, instead of cornflour.
- Soaking cast iron pans – in general, it’s not recommended to use the dishwasher, soap, or steel wool, as these may strip the pan’s seasoning
Disclaimer
The information presented in this blog post is my personal view that came from observation, discussion, and experience living in India. I am not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. Examples of using drained water after boiling rice are shared on Facebook group Super Mums of India. All appearing in the article do not reflect my views and I do not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. With this post, I am not providing any medical, legal, professional advice. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist for more information and before trying any of those – check your medical condition – if needed, consult with the doctor. One is taking all the provided information at his own risk.
I would love to hear your comments on this! Have you heard about any other usage of drained rice water? Thank you very much for reading this article. I am curious if you have/had any experience of yours? Any comments? – please share your experience. And if you liked the article – share it, click “Like it” and subscribe to my newsletter.
5 not so obvious truth bombs I learned living in the Indian village
It might seem a bit cliche but time flies. It’s been already a year on the farm before I knew it and – I cannot agree more – that it is the most intense time so far I spent in India. Living here as a resident, as many of you might think, may bring a real rollercoaster to your life BUT living in the Indian village is a double dose of the same and that you know only living at least a day away from the crowded Indian megacities. Through ups and downs (mostly downs to be honest) I’ve seen a different, old-fashioned world that still exists in the XXI century. How lack of education creates “a bubble” people believe in and how difficult is to make them break narrow-mindedness, how difficult is to convince people that doing things the other way round is also good. That other habits, beliefs, and religions do not mean disrespect for their own routine. Through year-long misunderstandings, fights, tears I went through, I share some conclusions with you today – all of the below is based only on my personal experience.
Health is wealth
Never in my life had I so demanding physical adjustments. First months in the village spent on getting used to the completely different food habits, water, and air quality, food storage, and its conservation. Omnipresent flies contaminating food? Checked. Viral infections? Checked. Intestinal parasites? Checked. Insects bites? Checked. Athlete’s foot? Checked. So many things to watch out for, to remember, so little time to apply theory and turn it into daily habits.
Never in my life had I so many stomach issues. One by one, we all got stomach upset, fever, and muscle pains. And no, that’s not because of COVID. There’s something in the village air that tests your body and pushes its tolerance limits to a place you never imagined you might have. Sometimes I think it might be a kind of body detox from all the chemical food items we used to buy from stores. Or maybe reactions to pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides farmers use that contaminate water? Who will say? No one knows the answer till day.
Never in my life, I learned the importance of hydrating the body in the South Indian climate as well. After getting a 5-week long disease due to the less water intake, I would never recommend anyone to drink less than 2 liters per day. Being out of order cannot be an option in village life when you have so many things to do, and so many things depend on you. Usually, there’s no one there to take over your responsibilities as everyone here has their own roles. Being sick means you give double work = double trouble to someone who is already overloaded with his farm work. Take care of your health, nothing counts more in these corona times.
Education is important but farm life is importanter
That point might seem unbelievable but yes, in the villages – it’s very easy – and practical to skip kids’ school and education. Who else will do extra work if not your own kids? As per strict, traditional south Indian upbringing, they have to be obedient anyway and extra free hands to work is gold in the village work.
Remember, we are still in XXI century. This scenarios still exist in many, MANY Indian villages.
Thank God, we decided to homeschool our kids. After all, in corona times, when from March 2020 till Jan 2021 all the schools in Tamil Nadu are closed, this seems to be a good decision.
Indian village – Tamil Nadu 
Indian village – Tamil Nadu 
Indian village – Tamil Nadu
Stay independent, stay sane
In Poland, my native country, we used to say that family relations look good only in the picture. How true was this throughout the year! Would you believe, by sharing a village house, we created kind of a semi joint family with my husband’s brother’s family – and from that point, my Indian village life story turned into a real rollercoaster.
I guess I don’t need to add that living by a family who never went outside Tamil Nadu caused lots of misunderstandings. Cultural, linguistic, behavioral, social. I believe in each human sphere there was something that led to tension. Demanding to live the way we are not ready to fulfill, I wished for a day we don’t need to ask anymore anyone for anything to share. Sometimes life can be such a grind. How I wish many tensions would just melt away if sides were ready to talk, understand the differences, and compromise a bit.
Hard lesson learned.
Village law – dura lex, sed lex
Does anyone think village people lead 100% peaceful lives all the time? I guess not… If you have a village fight, there’s an unwritten law here that says many things may be solved by fists, forceful demands, dirty language, tricks and there’s nothing unusual those matters will never meet police doors. If so, no one will treat this seriously, oh, just a daily village fight. In such cases, I do miss any European country way of fair-solving problems.
Don’t fight with an idiot
The previous point leads actually to the last conclusion. You’ll never turn anyone into your side by words. If you disagree, showcase solutions and actions. That’s the best weapon. Village people quite often are not much educated so their way of fighting reminds a kindergarten fight about a doll that two kids want to play with at the same time.
One can think of living in the village, far away from crowded stressful city life, as a blessing and an ideal slow life concept. But before such a state of mind comes, filled with mindfulness, peace, and a relaxed attitude, lots of learning is yet to be done. This one year in the Indian village definitely pushed my personal limits. Starting from climate understanding, wildlife versus humans coexistence, village social norms to learning how to stay sane being away from crowds, from friendly like-minded people who support you whenever you have a bit of a dull moment. Life’s trials tested us badly here but I believe that also shaped us to be stronger and fight for our dreams. After all, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, does it?
I hope this challenging beginning will create smooth path to the dreamed slow, less tresful life.
Yet home is where you are appreciated for being you, isn’t it?
I would love to hear your comments on this! Have you had any experience in village life? What do you think about it? Thank you very much for reading this article. I am curious if you have/had any experience of yours? Any comments? – please share your experience. And if you liked the article – share it, click “Like it” and subscribe to my newsletter.
AC from nature – how to protect yourself from heat during summertime in India.
Every year from March till July, South Indian states turn into a frying pan. Spending time in an extremely hot and humid climate, where you are exposed to the direct sunlight may lead to increased body heat. And of course, the consequences may vary from person to person, but – either it’s a boil, heat pimples in different parts fo your body, stomach ache – body heat need your reaction-treatment, or much better – prevention. To add to this, such a condition known as heat stress may be due not only to the weather – extreme heat that you’re experiencing in this particular season of the year in India but also to certain foods. And knowing what to eat during summertime, will be a spine of today’s post – knowledge that Indians pass from generation to generation, all this is in their bones so if you’re expecting easy-nature based solutions, that’s the post for you! Have a look at what will and what will not help you during summertime in India.
Slowing down level pro. Why did I decide to move to the Indian countryside?
Since the day I decided to move out of Europe and settle down in India, start a family and grow old with a man from a completely distant culture to the one I was raised in, it seemed that nothing more crazy could happen in my life. Or anything more that pushes me out of my comfort zone would blow my mind again. I remember a promise I made to myself that from now on it’s definitely the end of traveling, packing, moving house, changing address, looking for a new place. First gray hair confirmed that stability and routine should be something meant for me, that being in this steady long-distance run is hectic. However, despite all of it, I’m clueless. As I really do not quite know what to do with a constant and predictable, routine life – it may sound like a paradox, as I cannot find words to explain it rationally. So here I say: we are moving to the countryside! Not just any of many – THE Indian one, virgin, the one that you dream of to escape and take rest when the modern world annoys you too much.
5 reasons that made up my mind to homeschool my kids in India
When we decided to leave quite a comfortable UK life and move back to India, many people couldn’t believe we gave up western life to come back to the village where, to be honest, we had nothing to start with but our dreams and hopes. We left behind easily available health service, a quite modern infrastructure, a nice climate, and free education. The last one is the most controversial point for some people it seems, as for our 5 member family – the costs of sending kids to school in India will be enormous. We had mock 2-year schooling in the UK’s nursery and reception and all we can say – we are more likely to try alternative schooling. Starting with homeschooling based on farm life, close to forest school values, back to nature and slow life concepts.
How to get an Indian passport for a minor abroad? example of UK VFS
When you are lucky enough to be born in a country with birthright citizenship while your parents are of a different nationality than the country they reside in, i.e in the USA or Canada you might claim dual citizenship (so-called “Jus Soli”). This kind of citizenship is a policy whereby a child is granted citizenship by the country they are born in. In the UK, where I stayed for 1.5 years, the birthright law does not apply, so when you don’t have British citizenship and when you decide to have a baby delivered in the UK, she/he will need to get registered in your home country high commission. So – to give a more precise example – in the case where both parents have Indian citizenship and they are staying in the UK, they would need to apply for an Indian passport for a minor. How the process of getting an Indian passport for a minor abroad looks like – 3 simple steps with an example of the UK application process below.
OCI card replacement. Application in UK VFS
For almost anyone of foreign national who wants to enter India, it is required to have a valid passport along with a valid Indian visa. Though, in some scenarios, people are exempted from having a visa i.e. Overseas Citizens of India cardholders (or diplomatic/official passport holders). The process for receiving an OCI card (based i.e. on the marriage with Indian citizen) is not that complicated unless you meet the requirements mentioned on the OCI card services. And when you finally have it, trust me, it’s a huge relief. But, wait a second. Do you believe it is the real end of the struggle for bureaucracy in the Indian visa process? Hold your horses 🙂 Let’s check – does received OCI card has life long validity? Or might be canceled? Is there any process for OCI card replacement? The post below provides answers to those questions – let’s start.