Returning to India – t minus one week

our reverse migration to bangalore, india in a week or so. over the last few weeks i keep getting asked about how i made the decision, to how i could pull it off in a short period of time, to the lifestyle changes etc.

so it appears like some sort of return to motherland is on top of everyone’s mind, and everyone has many questions, doubts, and a ton of if’s and buts, but i think it’s mostly inertia. folks are more or less settled where they are, and at peace with the life US has to offer and what it doesn’t. so why bother? perfect argument. if it weren’t a fortuitous company-mandated assignment to bangalore, i wouldn’t have had an extended exposure to what it feels like to live and work in india, and i personally felt that the place is fundamentally no different from working in silicon valley after all. if not for that my inertia would’ve kept me firmly affixed to my life here in the valley.

we rented out our house – it was so hard to find a good tenant, so give yourself plenty of time if you are planning out your return to india. sulekha gets you many leads for ten bucks, but i rented mine through craigslist (free). we sold our car (autotrader and cars.com are so useless – craigslist is still the king). we shipped off our stuff with Air7Seas but apparently the stuff is still sitting in their warehouse waiting for the shipping container to get full. once it is full it will sail off to india. biggest gotcha is the tax/finances. it’s so complicated to transition out the finances. if you are anything like me, you’d have diligently kept all records. and if so, you’d be fine. all i can say is i hope you’ll keep your home records well.

and now that most stuff is taken care of, we are enjoying some downtime (finally!), and catching some hindi movies on a borrowed television.