'Man-made issues': NRI's post on life in India vs Ireland sparks online debate on basic necessities

An NRI’s brutally candid account of returning to India has struck a chord online, after he detailed the everyday struggles he says he never faced while living abroad. Shared by Akash Tiwari on X, the post compares his life in Ireland with his new reality in Kanpur, a contrast he says has brought “so many issues” he had never worried about before.

Tiwari opened his post with what he called the most disruptive change: electricity. He wrote that in Kanpur, “on an average there’s a power cut for 4–5 hours every day,” adding that even as he typed the post, his home had no power.

By comparison, during his three years in Dublin, he said the electricity went out “for 15 minutes, just once, to change my meter,” and that he was notified a month in advance.

He then pointed to air pollution as another jarring adjustment. While he didn’t go into detail, he noted the stark difference between Ireland’s clean air and India’s poor AQI, saying the return to smog-filled skies had affected his well-being and daily comfort.

Next came traffic, which he described as “Mad traffic and honking.” Tiwari argued that the chaos was not simply due to population density but stemmed from deeper behavioural and infrastructural issues. He said the constant noise, lane indiscipline, and unpredictability had become a source of daily stress — something he “rarely encountered in Ireland.”

What resonated with many users was his assertion that these challenges were “artificially created” and “shouldn’t be there at the first place.” He suggested that with better planning, governance, and civic responsibility, such basic problems could be eliminated. He concluded that these daily hurdles prevent people from focusing on more meaningful pursuits and self-improvement.

The post triggered thousands of reactions. One user commented, "It's really sad that we have to beg the government to fix even basic things despite paying hefty taxes." Another countered, "The problem is not with the country or the people, it's with your expectations."

Several NRIs echoed Tiwari’s experiences, while some locals accused returning expatriates of expecting “I am currently in the EU since the last few years and I can tell you I don't plan to move back to #India for at least 10 years because I know these things you have mentioned are still prevalent there. Of course you don't know what happens in life in the future, but given an option, I will take a few more years to move back."s