Returning to India!

“ Wherever you wander, wherever you roam 
Always remember you are missed back home ”

Its been a while I wanted to blog about my experience of coming back to my home, India. Living in US was awesome, the time I spent for my Masters, the work I did with an American firm was a lifetime experience. But India was at the back of my mind all the time. When I decided to leave US for good, I was kinda dreading my thought. It is one heck of a big decision in my life. Quite frankly, staying away from home, studying there alone, working there and managing all the day to day things certainly makes us really smarter than before. May be some of us have already had that experience here in India, but I was always in my house during my graduation. I never stayed in a hostel or anything of that kind.Every night after work I used to search for blogs about guys who have already made their move to India. These blogs, and few of my friends who returned to India before me, really helped me make my decision.

It is really a personal choice whether to stay there or come back. I do not think there is anything unpatriotic about not being in India. But there is certainly a clear difference between the lifestyles. In US you will certainly earn well, of course expense is more but still the savings are more than done here. The work culture in American firms is just awesome. I enjoyed working every day for my company in Chicago. But you miss your family at other end. Being such a rich cultural country you certainly miss the festivals every year. I especially missed Diwali, it being such a vibrant festival :). Of course no need to mention the different cuisines we have here. Food is something Indians love from the bottom of their hearts and I bet there is no single restaurant, atleast in Chicago, which can make the kind of pav bhaji the guy at the corner of the street here in my city makes. If you love spicy fast food, Mumbai is the place to be baby!

Things that are different here

Internet Connection – Man, I was so much attached to my wireless since I was on my Mac all the time. Blogging, “ Youtube”ing, checking out pubs to hangout etc was a routine for sure. I was using 6Mbps Comcast high speed internet which was awesome. But in India, it is hard to find such luxury since wireless is not that penetrated in people’s lives. I found it really difficult to not use internet as I was using before. But now I use MTNL’s package which is uncharacteristically pretty fast and not really expensive. I brought my Linksys router with me which I use here in my house. So I am cruising on the internet these days. My package allows me to use unlimited internet after midnight which kinda works for me.

Pollution – This factor is especially for those returning to Mumbai. Pollution due to traffic has soared like hell. I had sore throat for first few days. I also had a viral infection, may be due to the vada pav I had, which went on for a week. It was just irritating being on bed all the time. After living in US for a while, my resistance power had reduced like anything which actually makes us vulnerable to infections here. But how much ever we complain about infection, fever, pollution blah blah blah, Mumbai is always missed, comon be true to yourself!

Parents :) – Yup, parents. I am currently living with my parents and brother in Mumbai. Let me tell you, after living with friends and doing all kinds of “stuff” in US, it is not very easy to give away all that freedom suddenly. Imagine to stop all that frequent pubbing and playing beer pong and what not. But all this comes with a little reward too. We are pampered like little kids all day. I do not need to do laundry, no need to cook, just get what I want. Uber cool!!

Job Search – This is something everyone would be thinking first before moving to a place after a while.  To be honest, having a Masters on my resume, with some cool projects done on campus, and the work experience really boosts the chances of getting an awesome job here. May be this is obvious to everyone, but having such experience on the resume certainly makes it better than the majority, so you are in a much better position in finding a job you want here.

There are so many other things to talk about being back home. I really hope this experience of mine would help you make your decision to stay there or come back. Close yourself in your room and talk to yourself about this in front of a mirror. I am sure the only person who can solve this dilemma is the one looking at you. I am sure there will be a million people telling you what to do and what not to do. In my case people settled in US did persuade me in staying back. Finally I did what was in my mind all the time and I do not think my decision is the right decision. As I said, it is a personal choice after all!

Best of Luck!

Abhang Rane


3 comments :

Reader's Comments

  1. Hi Abhang,

    Its funny how I reach your blog. I searched for "Thoughtworks Mumbai" thinking that they have an office in Mumbai.

    I am from Mumbai, have worked in software for last 10 years & am in US on H1B visa as of now. I am planning to come down this Jul/Aug & considering working with some serious company (e.g. TW, Microsoft etc).

    BTW, Where are you based in Mumbai? If I may ask, who are you working with now?

    You can write back to me at my email address :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hah nice. Well I am working in Pune for a Seattle based software firm. TW is a cool firm although not famous for salary but for work culture. Microsoft of course everyone knows about it. There is no TW Mumbai, there is hardly any place for a freakin pav bhaji wala. Anyways best of luck to you in your future endeavours.

    Thanks
    Abhang

    ReplyDelete