(Part-1) Prologue | Life In India After Returning From US
Posts In This Series -
Part-1 | Prologue
Part-2 | Family
Part-3 | Conveniences
Part-4 | Public Infrastructure
Toward the end of my stay in the US, I was battered. After 10 years in the country, I could no longer appreciate anything good about life in the United States. I was burnt out of everything - the unending cycle of work, the ever growing list of mundane chores, the suffocating restrictions around H-1B visa, and the growing internal and external pressure to put an end to being renters and buy a house that’d very likely be overpriced and then getting stuck in the spiral of mortgage payments.
Add to that the fact that we had just become parents, and the demands of infant care amplified our exhaustion.
Thankfully, my wife and I had a good, stable marriage. Still do! I dread to think what it would have been like to also deal with a strained marriage on top of everything else.
We badly needed a complete turnaround in our lives. A short vacation getaway wasn't gonna cut it, and it’s not really a vacation anyway with an infant. What I really needed was to drop off this vicious grind and slow down for a while.
While on an H-1B and no green card in sight anytime soon, this option wasn’t available to us in the US.
That left us with having to return back to India.
So yeah, we did not return just because our net worth hit a certain milestone, or because we wanted to be closer to family. They were enablers no doubt, but the biggest motivation was to escape the brutal grind of routine life.
To enjoy the unfettered freedom and peace of mind that comes with not being tied to a restrictive work visa. To put a pause on running the hamster wheel of employment and kick back for a while.
For new readers, if you're interested in reading more about our move back to India with all the details around logistics and financials, check out the links to my older posts below:
Return To India (Part 1)
Return To India (Part 2)
Return To India (Part 3)
One Year FIRE Update
For long, I wanted to make a series of posts covering a few aspects about life in India. I kept putting it off because writing about open-ended topics such as these is hard, and also boring! But one of the blog readers (Hi Shubho!) emailed me pondering similar thoughts which finally motivated me to begin typing away.
Please do consider whatever I say with giant grains of salt. I'm after all a left-leaning, atheistic, introverted, 37 year-old with a 3 year-old kid. We live in Bangalore and our lifestyle is upper-middle-class (that means not too fancy a car, no full-time driver, no stay-at-home maids and nannies, no closets stuffed with designer bags and shoes).
I look Indian and speak with an Indian accent, but I probably don't relate a whole lot to my Indian heritage anymore. Please be assured it's not stemming from a place of arrogance. It's more of a personality type where you're just deeply individualistic and your identity isn't tied to your nation, religion or culture. Pretty much the only Indian elements I hold close to my heart are friends and family, Indian food, my first language Kannada, and Cricket. I'm indifferent to everything else Indian - that includes things like festivals, culture and customs, entertainment, politics, and current affairs.
So there's a limit to how much someone younger or older than me, with a different personality and lifestyle, with no kids or older kids, with contradicting values and priorities can relate to me.
Your experiences living in a different place in India might also vastly differ from mine in Bangalore.
Feel free to blatantly disagree and dismiss my observations as irrelevant to you.
For the next few weeks, I’ll put out a weekly post every Saturday at 6 PM IST. Some topics coming down the pipeline are -
The upsides and downsides of getting closer to extended family.
Some notes on modern conveniences I’m getting to enjoy in India.
Thoughts on living in a high-rise apartment in a metro like Bangalore. I’ll also offer some suggestions, and some cautions to exercise before buying apartment units.
Experiences with systemic issues like infrastructure, traffic and pollution.
Am I happy having returned or do I regret it? In hindsight, what would I have done differently?
I better go load up on caffeine, got a lot of writing to do!
Talk next week,
- Dog