Prashant spent almost eleven and a half years abroad, first in the US and then in the UK. He explains how his family planned the move, found work and settled their children into school in India.
Prashant spent almost eleven and a half years abroad, first in the US and then in the UK. He explains how his family planned the move, found work and settled their children into school in India.
Moving back to India from the UK with kids was not a sudden decision for Prashant. He is from Uttar Pradesh, and he returned with his wife and their two children, a son and a daughter, after almost eleven and a half years outside India.
His company first sent him to the US in 2012, and he stayed there for about six years. The same company then posted him to the UK, where he lived for almost five years. The US came first and the UK second, and together they made up the time he spent abroad.
Prashant describes the experience as a rich one, and he hopes his story helps families who are unsure about the move. He says many people wonder whether moving back will be good for their family and their children, and he hopes his account helps them think it through.
Families who want another UK return story can read one family's decision to leave the UK after 18 years.
Prashant says there was no single trigger. Returning to India was always part of the plan, and for him the open question was timing. He and his wife had the same thinking about it, and they planned the move meticulously before they left.
He listed the factors that led them to decide, and he says they were not just one or two reasons:
On immigration, he says every country has such rules and they are acceptable, but a family thinking about a long stay has to consider the life it can build there. On belonging, he says that living abroad for a long time means accepting a country's politics, economy, schooling, traffic and festivals. He says this becomes difficult once a person has already spent more than half their life in India.
Acceptance, he adds, does not run in one direction. He found it hard to accept everything around him, and he also felt that he was not fully accepted in return.
The pull toward family was another reason. From abroad, the family could only speak to parents by phone or video call, and could do little when a parent was unwell. Going back removed much of the guilt of being far away, and he says that guilt plays a large part in the decision.
Money also played a part. Prashant says living abroad helped the family's bank balance, and that savings from abroad could be enough to start a new career, buy a house or start a business in India.
For a wider checklist, read the complete guide to moving back to India from the UK.
Prashant says the US and the UK are culturally very similar. Both countries celebrate Christmas on a very large scale, and the festivals and everyday culture felt familiar. The family knew the UK was smaller than the US, but the infrastructure was different from what they had pictured.
He describes each US state as very big, with drives that can last for hours. The UK is much smaller, and its roads are full of roundabouts. In the US, roads are mostly straight, with turns left, right or straight on. In the UK, a driver may need to take the second or the fourth exit from a roundabout, and a driver who misses one exit has a problem.
Driving was the adjustment he remembers most. He had driven in the US for many years, and in the UK he had to adapt to driving on the opposite side of the road. For his first year he did not have a UK licence, so he used public transport or Uber. He found the driving test tough, largely because of the roundabouts.
Language was another surprise. In the US, English was simpler and close to what he hears in India. In the UK the accent was thicker, and it took some time to get used to, especially with local people.
He also enjoyed travelling in both countries. He visited Florida and Hawaii in the US, and England and Scotland in the UK. For a doctor's view of life in India after a long stay in the UK, read a doctor's thoughts on life in India after 11 years in the UK.
Prashant says employment is the first thing to settle, because it is a very important factor. Landing in India without a job can make it very hard to get by for several months, and when the job market is slow, it is not easy to get in quickly.
His own move was smooth. His employer was a multinational company with operations in the US, the UK, Australia and India, and it offered him an internal transfer easily. He says the trust and stability he had built up over his years there made the transfer simpler.
His wife's situation was harder. Her transfer ran into logistics problems and took a long time. The family had already told their employers and booked their tickets, so the plan changed: find her a job first.
The family had an Indian mobile number, and they activated roaming on it. Recruiters did not know where she was, so they called the number as if she were in India. She attended interviews from abroad, and her network helped her secure an offer just a few weeks before the move.
Convincing employers was a separate hurdle. Interviewers often asked why she was moving and wanted proof that the family was really going. Prashant suggests having the tickets ready to show prospective employers. If a visa is expiring, he says, it helps to say so, because it shows the family has no option but to move.
The elder child was eight and the younger child was five when the family moved. Prashant says the family believed this was the right time for the children, because they were still growing and still learning about different cultures.
His reasoning was that moving children when they enter their teens is like uprooting them. By then they start to fit into the culture and accept the country as their own, so a later move to India would be unfair to them and hard for them to adjust to.
He compared this with the adults' own adjustment, which he says is not easy. He presents the family's choice as its own belief, based on its own experience, rather than as a rule for every family.
Schools came first. The family spoke to old friends and families, and joined social media and WhatsApp groups to collect information. They also found an online group for families returning to India, and Prashant says the people in it had positive experiences and helped them judge whether the move was right.
The family shortlisted some schools, and relatives recommended others. They filed admission forms while still in the UK, then went to the schools and spoke to them about admission. Filing early made the job easier, and the children were admitted. For the practical steps, see the school admission timeline for returning NRI families, and for how to weigh the options, read three essential factors for returning NRIs choosing a school.
The board was the harder question. Prashant says there were several to consider, including CBSE and the International Baccalaureate (IB), and the family was not sure which would suit the children. They decided to give CBSE a chance first and enrolled the children in a CBSE school.
The CBSE period did not last long. The first two months were slow and easy, but once the children passed that stage the daily work became heavy. Prashant says the approach was more text-based, and the children found it hard to keep the pace. They could not spend much time playing outside or pursuing hobbies, and the family saw that this was affecting them.
After about three months, the family took the children out and moved them to an IB school. Prashant says the IB approach is not textbook-based and is more inquiry-based, and that the children can relate to the way they studied before. He says they now enjoy school.
Avinash summed up the lesson: families should look at each child, weigh the options and see which curriculum could suit them. Prashant's own advice is to think wisely about which school would be best for each child. He says children eventually get there, and that right now his children are okay and can go at an easier pace.
The children missed their school in the UK. It was a Catholic school, and they loved it. Every month they went to church and sang songs. Prashant says they still miss that school a lot, although they have a good school in India now.
For Prashant himself, the main thing he misses is the traffic sense of Western countries. Beyond that, he says there is not much else he misses, and he finds life in India very easy going.
He also misses the festive season abroad. During the Christmas and Thanksgiving period, the children enjoyed the season, with Christmas things everywhere. Prashant says India has the better Diwali, while the West has the better Christmas, so every move involves a trade-off.
Prashant's first point is about work. He advises people who are unsure about finding a job to start the search before they leave the country, and to use an Indian number while doing so. He also suggests having tickets ready early, so employers can see that the move is real.
His second point is about schooling. He advises families to think wisely about which school would be best for each child. He says children eventually adjust, and Avinash summed up that families should look at each child's options.
His third point is to use the opportunities that living abroad offers. His wife took a career break to raise the children and later went back to study for an MBA. Prashant says studying while living in a Western country is easier, because you can earn there, spend that much money and still get support, whereas doing it from India becomes really difficult.
He calls living in such countries a blessing, and he says people should take advantage of them to the fullest, because it helps when they return to India. Families who want help with the logistics of a move can look at Cross-Border Transition Packages.
Avinash thanked Prashant for his genuine account of the differences between the US and UK, the planning, the career logistics and the children's education. He said that the children's education and how well families settle are important for many people.
Watch the full conversation on the Desi Return YouTube channel.
Use the return-to-India planner to start a personalised plan for your family's move.
Auto-generated captions, lightly cleaned
0:07 Welcome to Dy return Diaries embracing home again the podcast that shares personal Journeys and expert insights on returning to India I'm your host ainash pedi here to guide and inspire you on your da return Journey hello everyone welcome welcome to another episode of DAC return today I'm really excited to have Prashant on our show Prashant lived for 5 years in UK before spending another six years in us before returning back to India I think really looking forward to get some insights especially from different countries the work style the social life and how things are after moving back with that welcome Prashant to the show thank you very much aash thanks a lot great so so Prashant if you can tell
1:01 A little bit about your background and what made you to move from UK to us and from us to India I think that would be very helpful of course Avinash to talk about my background so my full name is Prashant Shasta I'm mainly from utar Pradesh India and I'm a family of four I have two kids one son and daughter and a lovely wife I had an opportunity to go to the us back in 2012 you know my company and I stayed there in the US for like six years and then I was deputed for another assignment in the UK and there I stayed for almost five years or something so almost 11 and a half years that I've been out of India I had been and it was a very great and Rich experience that you know I would really like to share today and definitely I
2:03 Hope that my story of you know moving to India would help people because there are people who are always in confusion in dama you know whether we are making the right decision or not whether it will be good for our family whether it will be good for our children to move back to India there so many clo and CS to you know to way before we move so I hope my story would help at least a bit to the people who are viewing this session so let's let's go let's go ahead that's great so yeah thanks for
2:38 Correcting that so I think you moved to us first and spend six years and then on the same work assignment moved to UK so what triggered for the move back from UK to India in your case to be to be honest there was no trigger it was always a thoughtful decision of moving back to India and you know the best part was that both I and my wife both had the same you know thought process so there was there a Flash that okay one wants to you know stay back and wants to Mo back you know so that was the you know the biggest postic thing for us secondly as I said it was a well thought process well thought full decision and we planned it meticulously before moving to the reasons were not just one or two I would say the factors that contributed for us to make this decision was firstly
3:40 Our children the upbringing of our children secondly you know our parents back in India of course and then you know the sense of belongingness the acceptance in the foreign man that was another thing and you know the independence the independence to work you know wherever you want whatever you want that was one more thing and the last thing was of course the immigration complications that you have when you're living in a foreign country there are so many restrictions on your V right you can do only this work not that work you can live only for these many years in the country you you're not allowed to work at a sports person you're not allowed to you know work as a you know practice medicine or so many things right you you are bound by several ways and which is obviously acceptable every country follows that but if when you are you
4:42 Know thinking of living in a country and giving a life in the country so you have to really think a lot about that great are the factors so before we dive
4:55 Into this back to India maybe I'm curious so where did you l in us what about in UK if you can compare and contracts the lifestyles in US and UK I think that would be interesting to the audience too oh that's a great question that chance that you brought it up you know culture wise UNS in the UK are very similar very very similar but we did have a bit of you know a shock when we came down to the UK because what we imaged about UK was oh it will be as big we knew that geographically it is not as big as us but when we came down things were quite different in infrastructure wise so let's first talk about the infrastructure us is last you know you have 50 states in us and and every state is huge very big you can you
5:57 Know drive and travel for hours and hours you know that would not end but in the UK it is contrast it is very small and one thing you know I personally you know experienced was about the drivings driving thing it was a kind of a you know a shocker because U of course we know that in in in us you have a right hand driving but or left hand driving but in U in the UK India you have right hand you know contrast opposite so that was one thing because you have to get used to you I had driven in the US for so many years I was very used of that kind of topic when I came down to the UK it was entirely op and for the first year for first year I did not even have a license so I had to use you public transport or Uber and to travel and I
6:58 Think passing the draft having test was kind of a task in the in the UK it was quite tough because here you have a lot and lot of roundabouts I'm talking about infrastructure here that you have lot and lot of roundabouts and in the US you have like straight roads mainly turn left turn right go straight that's it in the UK turn left on the roundabout take the second exit on the roundabout take the fourth exit you miss one exit you are gone right so infrastructure wise yes U us is very huge UK is very small and that is why they everything goes in circle and circle UK talking about the culture it is similar the you know the festivals and everything you have the similar wives in both the countries for example Christmas you know in both the countries Christmas has you know celebrated very at a very huge level and that Christmas Wes you will see everywhere in the in UK one thing that I
8:00 Had very much difficulty to adjust with was U the UK right because in news it was very you know very simple very much similar to what you see back in India you can understand very well but in the UK it is a bit thicker and it was it took a bit of some time for me to you know get used used to of it with especially with the local people right yeah so otherwise both the countries are amazing I traveled in us a lot of places like you know Florida Hawaii and and many more and same in the UK England Scotland and both the countries have amazing Duty you know that miss me this great so just moving back to like this you know reing back to India right so if you can talk a little bit about I know you
9:01 Talked about like a lot of meticulous planning that happened for the move and you always have this plan to be back right I think you know it was always there and and it's great that you and your wife are on the same page which is the most important aspect to it so if you can talk a little bit about your planning right in terms of your career but did you move back with the same company if you're okay to share and then also like maybe on a you know on a Prof let's let's focus on the professional planning maybe if you can talk a little bit on that that would be very helpful sure so we knew that we have to move to India and the first very first thing is your employment that becomes a very important factor when you're mooving to India so one thing we wanted was to to be smooth so it can be smooth if we have a job and we move to India if you land in India without a job it's going to be very difficult for you to survive for several months because you cannot just immediately grab a job over there right that's not that easy because and that when the market is St slow you're not getting even into for right so so for
10:05 Me it was very smooth my company my employers was very kind enough to give me the internal transfer ours were the multinational company in it across the world it be in the US UK Australia India so it was not that difficult for me to get the in of transfer so I got it very easily and I had been in the I have been in the country for almost 9 years so that trust that stability is already there so it was not that difficult for me but for my wife it was a bit difficult there was some issues some Logistics that were not you know it was a very long process for her so she couldn't you know get the internet transfer and that is what what said back to us that we had planned everything we had told our employees that we are moving we had booked over tickets and now we you know one of us did not have a job so there started the plan B okay let's first find the job
11:07 So we had an Indian number with us so we activated the roaming on that and you know she floated in resuming in India with that India number and she started getting calls you know on the indan from the recruiters recruiters wouldn't know that where you were right now right so they would call you so you would get calls like like if you in India so she started getting the CL she started intervie you know attending the interviews and you know with her connections with her network she was able to secure off before going to India it was just hardly few weeks before to she secured an offer and that was such a relief to both of us so that was one thing that I would advise people that if you are making a move and you want to you know and you are kind of very skeptic skeptic whether you will get a job or not start Hing a job before you move out of your country to India so you know using an Indian
12:09 Number definitely helps so that is about the envirment and then come to schooling of the children right that becomes the next task when you land in India you have to get your children admitted to the schools the best school that you would B so we spoke to lot and lot of people our old friends families we you know went to the social media started you know interacting with the people you know Common groups WhatsApp groups everywhere try to get as much information as possible but one thing that really surprised us that there was a group or together on social media for the repatriates that okay you want to move to India you have everything here and you can talk about you can not literally the logistic that you can do but you can emotionally get in touch with the people and understand whether that's the right move or not and the people's experience was very positive they were really happy that you know
13:10 That we have moved back to India especially for the sh coming back to the school you know we narrowed down some of the schools we listed and we started making forms to them we filed the forms in in the UK itself before we move India so that made our job L we had certain schools on the and we had certain relatives who recommended on the school so we immediately you know went to the schools and spoken I spoke to them about the admission and children got the admission second thing was we were not very sure about the board for the children right but there should be CBC board IB board ICC board so many boards it's kind of such here right so we thought let's give it a chance let's go to CDC Ro first we all studed the CBC board let's give it a chance and let's see how it works so we got him admitted to a CBC or a now CBC school and and it went on for a couple of
14:11 Months so that's one thing I'll talk about it more later that what more happened in the school and then U maybe
14:20 If I may interrupt there sorry so just to summarize I think you know thanks for explaining on the career side you know that your wife was able to secure a job while living outside India I think the key thing is to have an Indian number to be able to have the calls like you know because people doesn't know you know they think that you are living in India and then also the connections and so on so that she was able to secure so that think you know just a key thing to highlight there is having a Indian number there while you're trying to apply for jobs while living outside the India and the second thing is if you can I know like how old are the kids when they moved just so that I think that helps the audience right you know so that from an adjustment wise you know which grade I think that could also help like so if you can share that that would be very helpful too all yes my children the Elder one was eight when you moved last year and my younger one was five got and we believe that that was the right time for children because you know if you move them when they enter their
15:22 Teams it's like uprooting them you know they start jelling with the culture they start taking accepting the country as their own you know and then if he moves to even their own country to India it becomes it's it's quite quite unfair to them right and and expecting from them to adjust just like us it's not really easy so I thought we thought that okay this is the right time that we should move because they are still growing they're still trying to understand the cultures different cultures got it coming to the interview thing you know one hurle we had was convincing the employers that we are whether we are really going to move or not that was such a task so you know she had interviews and and she was in the F child around every time she was G tell me why you are moving no one comes back right why are you moving tell me more about your children tell us you
16:24 Know you prove that you're moving right so you have to face such questions you have to convince it is very difficult to convince the employers and especially when they are so many contenders for the same job you know then you are not really always choosing for that job so one thing that I would suggest is that make your tickets ready so that you can show your perspectives prospective employers see I have the ticket we are moving you can tell if your Visa is expiring tell them my Visa is expiring I have no option but to move all that sort of things that you have to convin so yes that was one of the biggest problems as well great so I know I think you might have mentioned it but just curious I think you know you have always planned to move back to India but like what is there any trigger in terms of this is the right time to do right like you know 11 years
17:26 11 and a half years after living abroad this is the right time right I mean you could have waited for another one year two years or you could done earlier just curious if there's anything that made the decision to move back yeah yes so it was always on the Cs that was for sure it was just a matter of what time when right so first thing was children's age so as I spoke that it was the right time for them to move so that they can just easily second thing was that when you live you know outside India you know you really help your bank balance right so you know that okay moving back to India with this bank balance would be sufficient enough to you know start you know a new career or buy a house or if you want to start your own startup your own business you know that okay this is the right time we can do other factors were definitely there which were kind of so this were these were
18:27 The positive these were the kind of pulls for India okay that okay let's go to India there was some pushes as well that was kind of pushing us to India and such factors some of the factors you know if I talk about was the sense of belongingness the sense of acceptance as I said if you are going to live a foreign country forever you have to love each and everything that country every small to big everything you have to love their politics you have to love the social economies you have to love every U everything the schooling the pattern and the traffic everything right and for that and and not to mention but the festivals right their festivals you have to accept their festivals you have to
19:28 Live like one of 10 right so when it comes to that it becomes bit of a challenge because then you have spent more than half of your life in India and now you have to do the same thing in a foreign country it becomes really difficult it's not just one way it's just not that you are not able to accept it also other way as well that you are not really accepted 100 100% as well yeah you know you understand it sometimes you have S things every so that's definitely that was one of the factors got and and U what else was the trigger or basically the reasons were the the PLL factors for India right that you have your parents your family there when you are outside the India you have to you can do nothing but to speak
20:28 Over phone over the video calls talk to them are you okay oh you are sick but you cannot do much about it right so when you go back to India at least you get rid of that guilt right that guilt also plays a lot of role that that you are not your That's So that's cool so I don't know like so did you move back to utar Pradesh like or to other location I'm yeah I'm I'm inorder right now great okay cool let's maybe touch a little
21:06 Bit on the social life right I think you know how has things been I think you know spending time with family friends parents kids adjusting to the social life so if you if you can talk you know few things on that that would be very helpful too social life has really taken a great time and actually for the good it has definitely improved not only for us but for the children especially for the children because in in the UK when we're in the UK you know most of the time they play HS and U and it is always raining over there and also it also depends that where you are living we were in a neighborhood where it was a mixed population and and they were not many small children so our children were mainly you know their lives were mainly restricted to the school and and the home right so they did not have more friends outside the school that was the
22:07 Biggest problem that we were seeing with children because most of the evenings were very tough you know they always wanted to go out play in the Parks enjoy and always would be dependent on parents okay let's go out and way let's go out to a park let's go to a play area you know they all depend on and that's I think it's not really healthy for a normal grou of the child because they are completely dependent on they children need children right to play and for normal growth they are at such a stage that they want to share their own you know opinions their own secrets with their own peers their own friends right and and and just conf finding that to school or are very difficult so that was main thing for children that they wereing and it really impacts and really has a longterm impact on the that on the children especially for the children who are you know the
23:09 Fs so one thing that helped them was coming back to IND was that the evenings are really you know very enjoyful to they are not dependent on us anymore yeah they can just go up play come on and come back home they have many more friends now they have the chance to go back to home to meet their cousins they can share all their ages with their cousins they can make memories with their cousins with their friends now so their social life has really improved a lot and we can see that how confident they have become today you know they are they are growing more confidence than they were in okay for us definitely it has again impr a lot if we talk about our Social Circle in the US I had a big Social Circle in the US we had you know big group of friends we would go out
24:10 For long drive for you know beaches the cers and everything our life was very TIY over there lot of friends in the UK it was not the same it was kind of opposite almost no Social Circle we did have acquaintances but were not real they were no really friends we get a lot of expences of different age groups so but here when we move back to India not only we had chance to meet a family we you know every now and then we can travel to our families and you know we can reach there in couple of hours and we do not have to plan for several months that we have to take off for like four weeks to go to India and book tickets and you know spend at least $5,000 $10,000 or you know on all pwns and for for a single visit to a year right that that definitely is very economic at this perod and depending on and also about the friends we have all our friends our school friends our
25:12 College friends here we do need we enjoy we have a Social Circle and more than that you know we are living in a society which is very Lively very Lively even if you do not have F you go downstairs you can talk you can enjoy and you can have fun right you have you have lots of f acties for yourself for children you can enjoy in the US and the UK for each and everything I'm not bashing us or UK but what I'm saying that this is the difference that in the US and the you for everything you have to go out to a certain specific place you want to play tennis go to a sports Club over there you can go play tennis you can if you want to play cricket you go to a certain ground and you know meet with other groups and gel with them a lot of work over there it's effortless over here in India it's very effortless got it so
26:11 Sounds like I think kids are having a blast in the evenings with lot of friends and cousins to share there so are there things that you miss living in India like you know compared to what you would have like in the Western countries anything that you and your family missing yeah you know my children teach that they loved in school back in UK the school was a Catholic in school and they would go to the church every every month also every month they would sing know songs enjoy or their they missing their school a lot they love it but they have a good school here and well so what I really miss is the traffic sense Western countries really a lot there's no doubt about it other than that the fistic season in the
27:11 Western countries especially the holiday period right now right the Christmas the Thanksgiving and everything that our children we were you know enjoying that time was Christmas wives you have Christmasy things everywhere right so that FES season is Missing here not that any Christmas or that F wies even it's like you have more you know better Diwali wies here in India than the Christmas wife you have better Christmas wies right so it's always a tradeoff that is definitely there apart from that what else that I miss about us I think I think there's nothing much okay this is very you know easy easy going here yeah so are there any topics or
28:09 Anything that we haven't covered that you would like to bring up along the same lines any advice that you want to give for any future aspirants who are thinking about moving back to India so you know two two points there so if you can share anything that would be very helpful yes one thing that we did not cover I wanted to talk about was the schooling right especially when children moves from the Western Country the pattern of schooling is in kind and especially when you are in a primary right so here when we got our school our children enrolled into the cious school they really found it really hard to keep the pace with you know with the kind of studies that they had in C so they the first two months were easy it was very slow but when they started you know passing this page
29:11 Sorry Cas it really hard for them because every day you have L and lot perform work right and it's more of a text case education here in the western countri it is no problem text based they it is you know it is it is differently designed for different levels they were not very used to ofet so they were financially difficult so what affected them was they were you know not able to spend time playing outside or even you know pursuing their Hobbies like my elder daughter loves playing p and she was hardly but it was really affecting them so we had to take that very hard de and P them out of the right after three months and we had a a lot of money that time and we got them into an
30:13 Bo and here this follow the similar pattern which is not ttbook based and it is more ofir bed so they are able to not J here very they now they have relate that how they studied earlier similar they now enjoy that and it's not really needed right for them that is one thing that I would recommend that think wisely when you are putting school which one would be the best for them whether they have or not eventually they will get there you know eventually but right now they are okay they can go easy so thank you for sharing that just
31:05 So that I'm so you put them in the cbsc first and it was you know after a couple of months it was becoming very you know intense you know with a book based and an inquiry based kind of a program so you moved them to IB Program like after 3 to 4 months and U they're enjoying I think so again I think you know I think you kind of summarized it well in terms of like you know look at like your kid depending on the options evaluate and and see which curriculum could be better for them yeah cool anything else that you wanted to advise the future aspirants yes one thing I missed to cover again was that take the advantage of the Wern countries means advantage that if you are there if you want to asker if you want to you know study there do that my wife studied her MBA she took a break of
32:06 Like serious for you know for raising the children and then she came back to it's John and for that she did her NF from Mob business SCH so so it was a good opportunity because you are earning there you can spend that much of money and you can still live there and and you know you can get all the support but doing it from India becomes really difficult so say that if you are there take the advantage to the fullest of that country because it's it's actually a blessing to be there there in the country in such countries which are really great education wise so you should take that Advantage because that really you know addtive fact when you come back here for the indiaan you know to India it it really gives you reses it really helps okay great yeah thanks for sharing that I think you know utilize the opportunities that you have right respect to where you live so
33:06 Appreciate so thank you very much Prashant for taking the time and sharing your thoughts especially the key points that you touched in terms of the difference between us and UK like you know the meticulous planning in terms of the career kids you know some of the the logistics that are involved in the moo and and and sharing you very genuine you know experience with the kids education I think that's very valuable especially for a lot of people kids education and know how they well settled here is an important aspect so once again thank you very much for your time and sharing your Journey with us and good luck with everything thank you very much thank you very much for having me that's great thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of Dy return if you enjoyed this episode and want to explore more stories and expert advice make sure to subscribe and hit the notification Bell don't forget to leave
34:07 A comment below with your thoughts and experiences by the way check out the links in the description below for our Facebook group and social media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting with fellow the wrers thank you once again and until next time may your D journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibil is
A 30-minute call on the one decision you're stuck on.
How did social life change for the children and the adults after moving to India?
Prashant says social life has improved a great deal, especially for the children. In the UK, their life was mostly limited to school and home. The neighbourhood had a mixed population and few small children, and it often rained, so the children depended on their parents for any outing.
Evenings were the hardest part. The children always wanted to go to parks and play areas, and each outing depended on a parent. Prashant says this was not healthy for normal growth, because children need to play with other children and to share their opinions and secrets with their own friends.
In India, the evenings are different. The children can go out, play and come back home on their own, and they have more friends, along with cousins to make memories with. Prashant says their confidence has grown. Avinash remarked that the children seem to be having a lot of fun in the evenings with friends and cousins.
For the adults, Prashant had a large social circle in the US, with friends for long drives and trips to the beach. In the UK it was almost the opposite. He says they had acquaintances but not real friends.
Back in India, the family can see relatives every now and then. They can reach family in a couple of hours, and they no longer have to plan months ahead, take about four weeks off and book tickets for each visit. The family also has school and college friends nearby, and Prashant describes the neighbourhood as lively.
He contrasts this with the US and UK, where most activities need a specific place. To play tennis, you go to a sports club, and to play cricket, you go to a particular ground. In India, he says, all of that is effortless.