finally made the big move from Boston to Hyderabad on may 15, 2008. wrapping up things in the US and setting up things in Hyderabad is the story of my life for the past eight months. overall, things turned out better than expected.
first of all - apologies to all friends who are wondering why their emails went unanswered till now. i will start communicating regularly from now on. there is no real reason for that behavior except for the shell that we have been living in since the move.
in the next few weeks, i will describe my R2I experiences, the India i left in 1995 and the India i returned to in 2008, life in general. life is going on - kids are in schools, i am working, vijaya (my wife) is interviewing, got a permanent address in India, finishing up setup tasks with the hope of leading a normal, routine life. i will start with some of my theories :)
:: R2I is a mindset ::
the best way to summarize R2I is that it is a mindset. if one wants to R2I and stay that way, all that is needed is the right mindset. everything else is secondary. it mostly won't be an easy transition, regardless of how well prepared you think you are. if one has the right mindset and not think like "if i were in the US ..." or "only in India ...", there will be a lot less perceived issues. it is tough not to think that way in the initial stages, though :) it looks like, both vijaya and i had some very realistic expectations (thanks to R2I blogs and bloggers) which helped us immensely and also to come up with a workable plan which may ultimately keep us in India for good. our plan was to give it a full two years. based on the success stories, that seems to be the magic time frame - about six months to settle in, another six months to get used to the new way of life, another year to actually live the new way life - at which point "new" can be dropped. if we are still thinking like "if i were in the US ..." or "only in India ..." by then, we will call sky2c and lufthansa.
it has been close to three months since we R'ed2I. there are complaints and pleasures. there are moments of frustration and rejoice. there is a sense of loss and accomplishment. there is also - a sense of belonging and pride - and that's what drives me.
enough bhav for the day. i will end with a funny name plate i noticed for a restaurant in hyderabad -
Patio restaurant (Air-conditioned) - "only in India ..." (just kidding! :)
M. Anil Kumar (silly thing but it feels nice not having to say "m as in mary, a as in apple, n as in nancy, g as in george, a as in apple, l as in lisa, a as in apple, m as in mary, p as in peter, a as in apple, l as in lisa, l as in lisa, yes two yells, and i as in idaho")
