Namaste!

Namaste India!



So we are back! After spending a long time outside the country - 8 years for me, and about 25 years for Neha - we are back in "Desh". Given that the decision to come back was something that we (and tons of our friends) had spent countless hours debating, I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to keep a regular log of what we go through as we rediscover our own country once again. The goal is threefold (spoken like a true consultant):

• To preserve memories of what is going to be an interesting adventure, so that Neha and I can look back and enjoy
• Many of our close friends in the US are quite interested in knowing all the major happenings, as well as the minor but interesting tidbits, associated with our move back. I hope that this blog will act as a substitute, albeit a poor one, for a nice chat session by the fireplace wherein we would have shared all the gory & funny details
• Finally, I hope to share some factual (and some emotional) information about the move as well. When we discussed the move with others, we came across a lot of adjectives and very few facts ('too expensive', 'too' this or 'little' that). I plan to share some more nouns and numbers - hopefully it will useful for people mulling over the same decision of moving back vs. not

So that's that - we now know what this blog will be all about. The hardest piece is already done - I'm over the hump of inertia! :)

Before I start sharing actual stories and incidents, I figured that to get started, how about a quick pulse-check on what we are feeling, after spending about a month in India. Instead of summarizing everything in a neat framework or a pithy statement, here's what I've done. I made Neha and myself list down, within 2 minutes, the top words that come to mind about the move. (Words, Phrases, Hinglish, ...anything). There were only two rules: don't repeat something that you have already written, and don't force yourself to balance goods vs. bads, etc. Here's the result (in random order) - words/phrases that both of us independently wrote down are bolded:

• Crazy Decision of moving back


• Frustration


• "Ho jayega sir/madam"


• Kadai paneer pizza


• Unprofessionalism


• "Double 1 and Triple 2" (Instead of saying 11222)


• "Mattha-pachhi"


• Home Delivery of everything


• Family


• "Dhakka-mukki"


• SMS and "missed call maarna"


• Hand-washed car daily


• No punctuality


• Awesome food (I broke my own rule and wrote this down three times)


• Not have to lift a finger


• More grey hair


• Domestic help


• Fight maaro for everything


• Power cuts


• Inexpensive


• Tiring


• Hassles


• Have to follow-up with everyone


• "Jee" (as in "Neha Jee", "Saurabh Jee")


• "How does this country even work?"


• Pleasant surprise


• Need to know the right guy


• Why did we do this? (move back)


• Desi movies and songs


• Zero trust on everyone


• There are oases in the desert


• Updates to family


• Traffic


• Dust


• Waiting for people


• No shelf liner

So that's it - a quick shout out of whatever we've felt so far. More details in upcoming posts - keep reading!

- D