About

December 2012, I responded to a message from an unknown sender on a vegetarian forum and my heart started to beat faster. Six months later I’m in India, marrying him. Leaving my family, friends and pharmacy career in England, I followed my heart on a one-way ticket and started new life and joint family in a small traditional city in India (Nagpur).

garlands | marathi marriage | brahmin marathi |intercultural marriage |white indian wife | love

Who Am I?

I love learning about culture, exploring the transformative power of mythology, understanding cycles and observing the little things.

The purpose of my blog is to share my experiences and anecdotes of marriage and motherhood between India and England. This is where I document everything I have learnt whilst trying to find happiness and balance between two very different worlds. I hope you enjoy joining me for the ride and will find it entertaining and informative!

62 comments

  1. I’m very pleased to see you have gone back to blogging. I found your site when I was looking for advice for traveling in India with my Indian partner. Your blog is fab, with humorous, interesting and moving accounts of your life in India.

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  2. Hello Lauren,

    Very interesting to read your blog. I find your story of moving to a completely new environment for the person you love very fascinating. Must have been an enriching yet challenging experience immersing your self in a completely new culture!

    I was born and brought up in Nagpur but have lived and travelled all over the world, and back in Nagpur now. I too love living here (the feeling of community, the traditional spirit during festivals…) inspite of the many challenges. There is actually a cosmopolitan and liberal side of Nagpur too, should one be interested in that. I am sure after 4 years here, you must have learnt the ropes, but I saw some comments about missing international food and also some comments from others who may be moving to Nagpur soon, so I thought I should send you some information…it may of use to you or others who read your blog who would like to meet people and/or engage in some social/cultural activities.

    There is quite a vibrant cultural scene but thats mostly in Marathi involving theatre/performing arts. Other than that there are limited cultural/social activities in an English speaking environment, but they do exist. From what I know there are atleast a few Drama Clubs, Film Societies, Nature Clubs, Wine Lovers Club, NGO’s for volunteering, Social Clubs like Rotary – where a foreigner/english speaker would be welcomed most warmly and feel at home. The Chitnavis Centre has atleast 2-3 talks/lectures movies in English every month at very reasonable prices, they even have free yoga classes every morning which would be in English/Hindi mix.

    I know information about Nagpur in general is very sketchy online, my suggestion would be to check the Nagpur Times supplement of Times of India for a round up of activities/events, as also the Facebook pages (rather than the websites) of these groups/clubs. There are some interesting groups on Facebook such as Connecting Wives, but again its a little difficult to separate the commercial ones from this that could actually be of some use.

    Regarding food: Poonam Super Bazaar in Byramjee Town has a limited range of international foodstuff, and for more speciality items do try Nagpur Stores in Sadar
    For Cheese/Baking Supplies: House of Bakers in Civil Lines
    For Salad Greens/ “exotic vegetables” try the counter outside Poonam or a very strange location, Pushpa Agencies in Sitabuldi. For excellent organic herbs, salad greens, vegetables try Usalad Organic (check her FB page for contact details)

    Do let me know if you need any other information!

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  3. HI Lauren,
    looking forward to read any new post from you.
    I am a Slovenian living in London, who just married an Indian (Nepali). I would really like to connect with you and could you please reply if you don’t mind.
    Kind Regards and all the best,
    Petra

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  4. Ohh, just to add… We met online and yes we did marry in India… and yes, I’ve been through, don’t ask me what…

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  5. Dear Lauren,
    I’m from Germany, planning to move to Nagpur for love as well. I have so many questions on expat life there and would be very happy if you could contact me via mail. 🙂
    All the best
    Nicola

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