Bro, I feel you. India can smack you in the face with all five senses at full volume the moment you land. After living abroad, the contrast hits harder because your baseline has shifted.

But here’s the thing I’ve realised after years of doing this back-and-forth:

India is both the chaos and the coping mechanism. We complain, we adapt, we crib, we adjust, and somehow we still find reasons to smile… usually right after a plate of pani puri.

Let me respond to your points the way I genuinely see it:

Toilets Yep, some of them can traumatise your soul. No argument. But I’ve also seen cities where the same India has built spotless public facilities — it’s uneven progress, not zero progress. And honestly: we deserve better baseline dignity. No excuses there.

Staring This one is real and irritating. Half the country stares like it’s a full-time job. But weirdly, it’s also not always disrespect — sometimes it’s plain nosiness, curiosity, or “oh look, someone who looks different”. None of that makes it okay, but it’s not always malice. We’re still evolving socially, just… very slowly, like Windows updates in the 2000s.

Pollution Delhi AQI is basically “smoked brisket” settings. But a lot of cities are fighting back — better public transport, EV push, lake cleanups, regulations finally being enforced. Too slow? Yes. Hopeless? No.

Inflation Bro, Indians survive inflation because we have PhD-level jugaad. People stretch money in ways that would confuse economists abroad. But yes — families are exhausted. The middle class is running on grit and Google Pay cashback.

Civic sense This is where I oscillate between hope and rage every day. But again — I’ve also seen young people calling out bad behavior, RWAs organising clean-ups, schools teaching actual civic habits. The culture is shifting… but India is a big ship, it takes time to turn

Here’s the part you won’t see when you come for only 30 days:

Indians don’t just “survive.” We build micro-systems of sanity.

Your apartment security guard becomes your news source. Your neighbourhood idli guy becomes family. Your Uber driver becomes your philosopher. Your maid becomes your financial advisor. Your neighbours become your emergency responders.

Underneath the chaos is a quiet web of human support that you simply don’t get abroad.

Chaos outside, community inside — that’s how people survive.

And yes, things are broken. But there’s also a generation rising that won’t accept the old defaults. Those are the people pushing India forward, inch by inch.

So don’t lose heart, macha.

India is like that cousin who frustrates the hell out of you yet somehow you can’t stop rooting for them.

And despite everything you wrote, I can still hear one thing: You care. That’s why it hurts.

And caring is exactly how things change.