Most expats will tell you India is like no other place in the world, but they won’t tell you why. Paul Ancheta, a visual merchandising specialist from the Philippines who moved to Mumbai in 2005 and then to Kolkata in 2007, knows exactly what’s so different about the country that has endeared itself to him. “I expected, quite wrongly, that Kolkata would be as well-planned as the other cities I’ve lived in overseas. Kolkata cannot, and should not, ever be compared to any other place on earth. To do so would be to remain unhappy,” says Paul, who writes the blog Window Views (paulancheta.blogspot.com).

It is these sights and sounds of India that Ellen, an American who moved to Delhi only a month ago, wants to capture in her blog, A Reason to Write (areason2write. wordpress.com). Her first few blogposts on India veer from the utilitarian to the wonderstuck: McDonalds delivers; The New York Times costs $160 per month; kitchen appliances look like they’ve been shrunk; the road signs are cool, “almost like graffiti”; don’t forget to carry a day’s supply of diaper wipes and tissues when you visit the Taj Mahal. “I don’t want to forget anything about my time here,” says Ellen, whose blog gets 200-250 hits a day.

The visual delights of everyday life make excellent fodder for blogs. Joseph Mc Gann and Kristina, authors of American Expats In India (americanexpatsinindia.blogspot.com), who moved to Gurgaon in May last year, are steadfast chroniclers of pop art on Indian trucks and taxis and decoders of road signs. But even the mundane—how raspberries here look like tomatoes but taste like raspberries—comes alive in their blog. “Initially it was intended as a way for our families to keep up with our goings-on. Then it morphed into a kind of live diary for us to remember our year here more clearly, then into a guide as we had a number of people contact us about living in India. If you Google the words ‘American expats in India’, our blog is the first search result,” Joseph says.

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