Aashi worked in the US, Europe and Singapore before returning to India in 2016. She talks about work culture, life as a single mother after adopting in India, and what she still misses.
Aashi worked in the US, Europe and Singapore before returning to India in 2016. She talks about work culture, life as a single mother after adopting in India, and what she still misses.
This article covers moving back to India as a single woman after years of work abroad. Aashi grew up in India, where the options were engineering, medicine or an MBA. She chose the MBA and went to the US in 2001, when she was 21.
She started her career in 2004 with a global FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company. She spent about nine and a half years in the US, then moved to London, where her role covered the whole of Europe. She says working in each country gave her a much deeper understanding of its culture than any tourist visit could.
Her next role was a Pan Asia Pacific job based in Singapore, which she held for four years. She loved the city, but over time it became monotonous, because it is so disciplined and process driven. It suits people who want stability, she says, and that was not who she was.
When the company offered her a move, the choice was to return to the US or to take a role elsewhere in Asia, including India. Something told her it was time to go home, so she chose India. She had left straight after her undergraduate degree, had only visited briefly with family since, and came back in 2016. Later she moved to another company, and at the time of the conversation she was on a break, spending time with her daughter. For another long-absence return story, see a returnee's account of moving back after 25 years in the US.
Aashi says that working in a country shows its culture far better than visiting it. She describes the US and Europe as fairly similar, because both tend to be process driven, with a structure and with spoken and unspoken rules that everyone understands. She sees the US as more of a melting pot and Europe as more nationalist, so people there feel a close bond with the country where they work.
India, she says, is a beast in itself, with many countries inside one country. Her first move was to Gurugram, and her first year there was overwhelming. She was told the difficulty had to do with India in general, with the FMCG industry and with how North India operates. She has since lived in Bangalore for five years, and says it feels very different.
Her first observations of Indian work life were these:
For a wider view of pay and careers, read work culture, career and pay in India and the US.
Aashi says hierarchy runs at every level of Indian life. She links this to the country's history of being ruled, to a population that is very large compared with its resources, and to exams, rankings and admissions that feel like a survival contest. In her view, that thinking carries straight into the workplace.
At first, people were open in conversation, but information was often held back and the transparency was messy. She had to push against the way things were usually done, and she worked to earn trust. Once people trusted her, she says, they opened up, and they were warm and friendly.
She contrasts this with Japan, where people speak only when they are spoken to, and with Europe, where people speak their mind. When she arrived in India, everyone seemed to be speaking at once. She laughs that she is now one of them and shouts in most meetings too.
She is also clear that the people she worked with were well intended. In six years she has worked with leaders of very different styles, and she never had to question their intentions. She says every culture has its own way of approaching work.
Aashi says she never felt different as a woman while working abroad. Most of her colleagues around the world were women, and it never mattered to her whether she was a woman or a man. She admits she did not take the women's empowerment and diversity agenda very seriously until she moved to India, where she now sees why corporates talk about it.
She still sees India as a traditional society by and large. She says it is changing, but mainly in pockets: in the metros, in urban areas and at some levels of corporate life. She did not have to fight for things herself in her corporate role, but she saw women colleagues in plants and other parts of the business who needed a voice and needed to be heard.
When she arrived, she had about 17 direct reports, and all of them were men. It never bothered her to lead them, but she noticed a formality. They said ma'am constantly and spoke to her differently from how they spoke to each other. She made a conscious effort to make things more informal and casual, because otherwise, she says, it is no fun working.
Being new was another part of the experience. Abroad, she says, being an outsider gave her an advantage, because people were patient with someone who did not know how things worked. She found people patient in India too, and she enjoyed speaking Hindi again after years away. Adapting to local ways is much of why she survived in each place, but she still does not believe in hierarchical management or in bureaucratic ways of holding on to decisions.
Aashi describes two sides of daily life. The first is service. India spoils you, she says, because almost everything is one tap away on a phone, from cooks and cleaners to drivers. She does not think that level of convenience exists anywhere else in the world.
Getting work done with those services is the challenge. People do not show up, so you follow up, then follow up on the follow up. Everything is two minutes away, she says, yet nobody turns up. She calls it both an art and a challenge.
Her first year in Gurugram was tough, because she had never been to Delhi or Gurugram before. A yes could mean no, and a minute could mean two hours. She became irritated and ended up shouting, which she calls a small price for comfort. Socially, she describes herself as selective and comfortable with her own company.
Today her home is settled, with a nanny, a helper who comes to cook and clean, and a driver. There are teething issues every few days or weeks, she says, but otherwise things are settled. She lives in Bangalore, which she describes as a very cosmopolitan city with people from all walks of life. Over time she has come to feel more Indian than some people who have lived here all their lives. For more on living in India after years abroad, read our experiences living in India after years in the US.
"The country and its people grow on you."
Aashi shares this part of her story carefully, and it is hers alone to tell. Before the adoption she was sceptical, because people had warned her that India might not be open to a single woman adopting. She says her own experience did not match those warnings.
The paperwork was the hard part. She learned the hard way how some government officers treated a single mother trying to adopt, and she found that part a bit horrifying. She also had people who helped her through the process. In India, she says, you always need to know who to reach out to and who to ask for help, because that is how the network works, and networking is not her core strength.
At one point her paperwork got stuck, including the process around her daughter's passport. She says she had to use social media to draw attention and create what she describes as a viral action to get it solved, and that it was still tough. She also believes that in India, if there is a process, there is usually a loophole and someone who knows how to use it. Family support, she says, was the biggest blessing.
Today she tells her daughter's teachers about her background, so they can be sensitive when topics such as the family tree come up. She says she and her daughter are now well settled. Her advice to anyone who is sceptical is not to worry too much. The bureaucracy is still a harrowing experience, she says, but once the paperwork is done, you are going to be fine.
She also pushes back on the world's picture of India as conservative and patriarchal, where women cannot live single. She says that is not true, and that the country is very open and accepting. For the official rules, the national body that oversees adoption in India is CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority). Aashi did not name it in the conversation, so treat the link as a pointer to official information, not as part of her account: CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority).
Friends come first. She made close friends in the US, London and Singapore, and each move meant leaving some of them behind. She keeps in touch through social media as much as she can, but she still misses having people around her in person.
She also misses road trips. She misses the long drives and weekend trips she could take in the US and Europe, even though she does not really enjoy driving or being stuck in traffic.
Personally, she says, life in India has been more challenging than her professional life, and that has included losing friends. Even so, the experience has been equally rewarding. She could have her daughter and get help raising her, especially during Covid, and she says she does not know what she would have done in any other country.
Aashi's idea of India was frozen in 2001, when she left. Her visits since then were short and with family, so many of her reference points were from that earlier time. She says India has moved on a great deal, and that it tends to take leaps rather than steps. She puts it in terms of phones: the US went from Nokia to BlackBerry to Apple to Samsung, while India went from Nokia almost directly to Apple.
When she was growing up, the options were doctor, engineer or MBA, and even a bachelor's degree came with a hierarchy. When she told her parents she did not want to take science and commerce, there was a whole commotion at home. She says choosing arts would have been assumed to mean home science and sitting at home. Today, she has spoken with many students, including one who talks about becoming a full-time gamer and selling on Amazon. Creative arts, fashion, media and content are now mainstream choices.
During a break from work, she has spent the last couple of months advising startups in India. Many of the founders she has met chose to quit corporate jobs to build their own businesses. She says the regulatory environment has changed a lot, the end-to-end technology support that founders need is easily available, and access to funds has improved. Over the last four or five years, India has opened up to venture capital and angel investing, which she sees as a sign of patience and appetite for entrepreneurs. For a related read, see an entrepreneur's guide to creating social impact in India after returning.
She also mentions a funding winter that she sees coming, though she still describes the direction as positive. Unlike the US and Europe, where populations are ageing, India has a high growth of young people, so it has to build infrastructure to support them. She says she cannot yet picture the options her daughter will have, because her own view of what is possible is limited, and she is excited to see them.
Her main advice is to come with an open mind and to accept that things may be different, and at times difficult. Every country has pros and cons, she says, including the US and Europe. Do not listen too much to anecdotes or media stories about safety for girls, trust or cheating. Those problems exist in places, she says, but every city has pockets to avoid, and by and large India treats you well if you give it a chance.
She describes what India has to offer:
If you have children, she believes a few years in India can make them street smart and quicker to think on their feet, and can teach them human values through contact with very different people. Her closing advice is to take the punt. If your professional setup supports it, it is worth it, even if not forever, but at least for a couple of years. Experience in a market like India can add as much to your CV as working in a developed market.
In the rapid-fire round, her first surprise after returning was a bumper sticker on a car ahead of her in Gurugram. The best part of living in India, she says, is being closer to family. For more of the everyday surprises, read our look at unexpected things about living in India after years in the US.
Watch the full conversation on the Desi Return YouTube channel.
Start with the return-to-India planner to build your own plan, or look at Inner Circle, the private community of NRIs and returnees.
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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 to another episode of Dai return today I'm really excited to have Ashi on the show Ashi spent quite a few years abroad working in different countries and currently in India and I'm really excited to talk to her and with that welcome Ashi to the show thank you thank you ainash for having me over although I've been in India now for what six six years it seems like the life yeah so thank you for taking that time to talk to us yeah so why don't we
1:07 Get start with a little bit of your background maybe you can you know talk a little bit on the places you have visited what brought you back to India I think that would be very helpful yes sure so I am born and brought up in India I grew up in Amad and my schooling mostly in NAD and like back in the day you know the op we had growing up was either you engineering MBA or a doctor and that's pretty much the options that were given to me as well so obviously engineering doctor was not something my cup of tea so I I pursued MBA and I went to the US back in 2001 when all was 21 and since then U I started my career and my professional journey in the US where I joined my stream company the Coca-Cola there in 2004 and with them I think I've been blessed to work and get exposure in many
2:09 Different markets doing very interesting things across the globe so I was in the US for about nine n and a half years and with Coke I then moved to Europe based out of London but I traveled I was my my my geographical coverage was pan Europe so I really traveled extensively across Europe both personally and professionally that was a really really interesting stin in terms of you know seeing different countries understanding the cultures working with working with different cultures within Europe itself and again with coch I think the next role came to me was in Singapore but again that was also a Pan Asia Pacific role which took me to a lot of different markets and introduced me to many many different cultures and unlike Europe where you know there is a homogeneous sort of a cultural thing
3:11 Between Western Europe Eastern Europe Asia Pacific was are completely different b game where every country like India is very very and I think there was a junction in my life where you know I was ready to you know there was a personal change and I was ready to you know I'm back upon my next destination and what would that be and lo and B Co gave me the option of you know there are you know we had two options come back to the US to want or we can you know there are options in Asia within India and something told me that you know I should take India it was it was about time I go back home although I've never worked in India before because I left India right after my undergrad so that's what brought me back to India in 2016 so so yeah I think one of the my my observation is and I've traveled extensively both personally and
4:11 Professionally but I think when you travel countries with work I think you really get you know seeded into the culture of that of that country compared to when you travel as a tourist or when you just see you know things at the surface so that way I think I'm very blessed to really understand the cultural nuances very closely of you know whether it's Japan versus Philippines versus Indonesia versus or you know whether it's like I said France versus I mean so all these countries have its own uniqueness and and that that uniqueness only comes out when you work with the local people and when you are part of the team and when you are driving you know businesses in those in those with those consumers as well so yeah that's my background I worked across different markets and and now I'm in India for last six years I moved with Coke and then I I took a switch to
5:13 Herbal Life and now I on a break right now so enjoying my time with my daughter and and really liking to be back home like I said it's been six years and now it feels like I'm I'm literally home yeah I had my you know ups and downs and challenges settle in great
5:35 Yeah thanks a lot Ashi for sharing that you know detailed background so sounds really exciting that you got an opportunity to work and spend time with the different cultures right I think as you said visiting is one thing but working with the different cultures gives the different insights different perspectives and appreciate the cultures more than what you would do when you visit so with that you know you worked in the US Europe you
6:04 Know a little bit Asia outside even India so if you can compare like a you know from your perspective the work culture between India versus other foreign countries like you know you can start with Asia or maybe with us or Europe allowed to get your perspectives on the Indian work culture oh wow I think when I first moved here and and I think there are two two things to this right one is the developed market and then there is developing markets and then there are Emerging Markets now the reason I'm saying this is when you compare to the worlds of us and Europe I think within the countries within those continents there are a bit of more similarities there are differences but there are a lot more similarities in the way things operate because generally they are lot more process driven there is a structure to things there are you
7:05 Know spoken unspoken rules which everybody understands and aderes to it there are more spoken than the unspoken I think that could be a very you know the the the way people operate might be a bit different depending us is more of a melting part of different cultures itself and Europe is a lot more you know nationalist in that sense so there is a very close Affinity to the country that you know you are working with compared to a larger continent mhm when to India I think India is is it's a beast in itself I mean there are many countries within one country right and and depending on which part of India you induct yourself it's it's very different and I'm saying this is because when I first moov to India I moved to North I I moved to Goram and that first year was like it was actually very overwhelming and I was been told it has lot to do with not just India and not
8:06 Just fmcg India but it was also to do with how North exactly operates okay and and that so that was and and now I can tell the difference because now I live in Bangalore for last five years and it's a lot different right but I think by and large my couple of things what I observed initially was India in general runs high on emotions we as Indians love our our emotions and we love to emote in every aspect of our life whether it's professional personal so which sits very well with me because in general I'm a very emotional person so it kind of connects but at workplace you not used to with that right U you're not used to with people you know being loud about it or and initially I was I was like why are they all shouting and then I realized it's not really shouting it's that's how they express right so so that that was initially a
9:08 Bit of a challenge also if you love chaos and if you love you know where every day is not the same which was I think when I was in Singapore for four years I loved the city but it after a point it got it got very monotonous because it's a very very disciplined you know process driven country City and it's great I mean if you're looking for that you know safety net and it's looking for that stability it's perfect but that's not who I was I do need some chaos I do need to have some challenges you know to do some sort of problem solving or some sort of firefighting you know fire drills yeah I got and and you know like they say what's what you asked for I got more than when I when I moved to India so for me that was very exciting because no two days in India were the same yeah you know just when you think you have dealt with this and we can move on that something else falls apart so that
10:10 Was one of the things where in the work generally people love to hustle here they are and I'm saying it in a very positive way that they are Hustlers where they need to get things things done the the the I wouldn't say the negative but the other aspect of it is also because and this is something when I when you live in countries like Europe and us and India being you know historically being ruled by then ruled you know we generally very subservient Society right we are generally very also we we have been used to hierarchy at every level in our in our lives and the third bit is it's all because of the sheer size of the country and the population and the ratio of the population to the available resources is so skewed it's always you know we've been told it's survival of Fest and as even when back in the day
11:12 When we were growing the way the exams were conducted the way the ranking systems were conducted the way the admissions were conducted it's really the survival of Fest which kind of brings you know in the workplace because it's so much ingrained in the way we are it kind of brings that in the workplace as well which is what I observed where you know initially people would open up easily you know there was the transparency was a bit of a mess and so so I felt I felt that that I had to really break in into an excess of you know things the way they were done to really grain that trust and to really build that rest but once you really get to understand that I think people do open up and they are very warm and they very friendly and all of that but that piece in I I found was very very interesting in India where you know initially there was lot of holding of information there was lot of you know you you you won't know where where
12:15 Things are like falling because people don't want to share and there was you know there's always this this tension within the peer groups in in a certain sense but I think also by and large one thing I can my experience now for six years is by and large I think I'm blessed to work with well intended people and well intended leaders I think the approach and the style were very different but they were I mean I never had issues where you know I I had to question the inherent intentions yeah so it's and it's true of any culture honestly I think every culture has its own uniqueness in the which in the way they approach so for example in Japan it's so they are hierarchal as well to another level right and and you know we Indians feel that we have to speak loudly and we have to be very oppent in
13:16 Every meeting so same thing the same thing in Japan it's the other way around where you are you know you are expected to speak only when you spoken to and you know you have to adher a certain you know R and for them it's the way of working so when you go there as an outsider you find it very different and and you know think why am I not able to why can I not speak my mind because that's what I've been taught in Europe people speak their mind similarly when I came to India it was like why I everybody shouting everybody speaking and then eventually you know it's funny now that I say that I'm one of those now in most of meetings after doing the same stin I'm shouting and I'm like you know
13:57 Become one of them and unfortunately or fortunately but so these are the things but one one thing I would want to call out which was very very personal to me and very unique to me all these years before I moved to India I really didn't take this whole women empowerment and you know women agenda I mean as diversity agenda and I shouldn't say women agenda but diversity agenda very seriously because I never been I was never made to feel any different you know I never I mean most of my colleagues women all across the world and it really never mattered whether I'm a woman or a man somebody's getting but I think there is to be you know all that all that attention in India that now the corporates are talking about diversity and you know women empowerment I now see why right I think India in that sense is a we are still a very traal Society by
15:00 And large U I think it's changing a lot but it's changing in pockets and changing in metros and the urbans and it's changing at a very different levels also within the corporate so while you know when I moved to India I was I was you know luckily in a corporate side of things where I still didn't have to fight for things but I could see my peers and my colleagues and my other women colleagues in in working in plants and working in different parts of the businesses where they did needed a voice and they did needed to be heard and there was a bit of you know that going on which obviously I think we as a organization had come a long way and country is coming a long way so I could tell and when I came in you know I was I had like 17 Dr and they were all men and and you know I could and like I said in the past it never bothered anybody that I'm a woman and I'm the manager or it never matter to me who
16:02 What gender am I you know my team is but certainly you could see that there's a lot of formal in the way they were talking to me the way they would talk to each other would be very different but when they talk to me there is certainly all very ma'am ma'am ma'am happen and and so I to really make that effort to break that and make it more informal and Casual because otherwise it's no fun working but it was still there so those are the things you know from a cultural St stand point which was very unique to India the only the the only other thing was you know most countries where I lived I always got the advantage being non local to that country so so people were you know of course you don't know how it works so they were a lot more patient in India when I moved you know it was like and I'm like I really don't know honestly never worked you know you know how it works you know you are just because I speak the language but but
17:04 Yeah I think it for me it all worked out well what I really enjoyed was speaking Hindi when I came back I think that I missed when I was you know not in India for all these years so so I love the fact that I could speak Hindi and and now of course when I moved to the sales role I spoke Hindi words that you know it was a it was quential sales Hindi language if you know what I mean yeah so so yeah a lot of it I adapted over the period of time which was in a in a good spirit lot of it I think the the people around me adapted and there are certain things that were very cot to me I didn't let it change so so I I still don't believe in the hierarchal system of managing or working with people or for the bureaucratic way of holding on to decisions or so things that were that are very C to me regardless of which country I work U stayed but a lot of it I adapted to and
18:06 And and and by and large I think it's the reason I survived there and it's funny when I moved I think my friends had a bet in Singapore on how many months before I come back they all lost they all lost but yeah here I mean I think you know yeah definitely you have shown that yeah that you can work and you can do the country grows on you like let me tell you that I think the country and it's people grows on you and how I think I'm more Indian than sometimes the Indians who have lived in India for as long as they have but so yeah all that's but these were the key things I think I observed which were very unique to India because of the history and the culture that we come from no thanks for sharing
18:56 I mean again I think the key point there is the culture is so different from each country and as still We are Becoming like a big Global Nation I mean you know not only the India like it's evolving but thanks for highlighting some of the key you know core beliefs right you know with the diversity you know the reasons behind like you know how we all Express from an emotions and you are able to you know break some of these things and you know able to create that fun environment and you know within the work so maybe we can switch g a bit we kind of touched on the work life here in India you've been living here for 6 years so would love to hear how has it been because you have spent almost like 20 years or like maybe more than 15 years in different countries you know just from a lifestyle from you know from a social life from things getting things done and so on just curious like you know how is it how has it been going on from on the non-working side
19:59 Living in India yeah that has been been both interesting and challenging I I I'll start with the good part of it I think and I was just funny I was just talking to this friend of mine yesterday and we were speaking of how India spoils you for services right which is yeah now not I mean it's literally not existing anywhere in the world right so that for sure is a blessing just things on your phone I mean everything available one away on phone is amazing you know starting from your healths and your cooks and your cleaners and your drivers all of that so that that is very very convenient but of course I think it's it's a it's an art and a challenge to get work done from them itself right that that is that is really the the the challenging part of it is you know people not showing up and then you're
21:00 Following up and then you have to follow up again and then you follow up again on the follow up and then there finally it's like everything two minutes away it's everything is everybody and everything is two minutes away but nobody shows up there is no like an easy what what is the saying called like a easy lunch or something so there is something that you have to work even you might have lot of Serv you still have to do something yeah yeah I mean I mean my first one year living in Goram was actually tough because I was still in that you know I still moved for the first time it was a very new I mean before that I've never been to Delhi or gor so this whole you know yes yes means you know no or minute and that minute happens two hours and they still not there and I become like irritated and I'm screaming at the fler all of that is happening which is very so that was the that itself is a bit of a challenge but I think it's a small
22:03 Price you pay for having the Comfort I mean that is for sure in general I think when it comes to social life see I was in a very different I mean I I'm I'm generally very not very social in that sense I mean I'm very I won't call introverted but I'm very selective in terms of people I want to hang out with and people I like to spend my time with otherwise I'm very comfortable because myself so that was not an issue also I think one of the things I miss the most moving so many countries is you could never have a stable group of friends that could be there for all your you know long lives for a for longer period of your time a lot of my friends in the US that I you know literally went to college with and you leave them and then you make new friends in London and you leave them and then you make new friends in Singapore and you leave them so you kind of get used to with knowing that event you are all in touch virtually but physically you kind of miss having people around and also I think once you reach my age you know you don't want to
23:04 Have bigger clicks of friends and you don't want to spend too much you know energy and bandd in trying to have a bigger group of circles it's always this few people that you need around and that's and I was blessed to find those so that was that was actually my social setup I think a lot of I think India I think when it comes to cover government and dealing with all the government related Services where the where the patients really get into the testing phase and I think that a bit is still the same yeah then what when I left U so you know in this process I also and I learned this a very hard way when I was you know in the process of adopting my daughter and I had to go through a lot of paperwork and and the way government officers would treat you being a single mother try to adopt and so that that bit was that bit was you know a bit horrifying but again you have
24:06 People like them but then I also had set of people who help you through those process but you just the challenge is you always need to know who to reach out and who to ask help for because that's how the Indian network works and if if you're like me where networking is not the core strength then it becomes challenging because then you have to know people who knows people and then they will help you and they connect you and then you have to join the dogs I think so that whole experience of going through the you know adoption process the paperwork and getting my daughter's passport and and I had to literally use social media in the in and try to create a you know a what do you call a viral action like action to to get the attention to get solve my problem you know it was literally stuck there so that bit was was it's still tough right but like like the thing with India is if if there is a
25:07 Loophole there is somebody who knows how to you know if there is a process there is a loophole and if somebody knows how to pass the loop you just need to know this somebody and I think that's the key so that way I think I mean again now right now I think one of the biggest Factor where the way the way I'm living right now is I have an infr structure that is pretty much settled right I have a nanny I have helper comes and cooks and cleans and and there is a driver and and and only here you can expect that to happen in this seamless fashion of course now we have these teething issues every few days and every few weeks but otherwise it's it's pretty settled I also must say that you know before I was before I went through this adoption process I was very skeptical about you know and I was not only on my own but people had scared me that you know India people are not very open to this and you know you would have to do deal
26:09 With a lot of outside of the government on a day-to-day life schools and all of that but honestly I didn't I didn't touch who didn't experience any of this also having my family support in the whole process was the biggest blessing but like today also when I in and maybe because I'm also living in a very Cosmopolitan City like bandor where there are people from all walks of life but you know today when I I do sensitize the teachers in my daughter's school that this is her background so when you talk about you know family tree and when you talk about be sensitive and all of that but by and large I I feel now we are pretty much embedded me and my daughter have been well settled and embedded into the ways of living so if anybody I mean you know to your VI viewers if anybody is really skeptical about going through this process or journey I would say don't worry I think India's come a long way yes unfortunately the the bureaucratic
27:09 Process with the government will still have to go through it it is still going to be harrowing experience from that perspective but once you have passed all the paperwork phase I think it's you're going to be fine I mean it's you know the world has a very different picture of India where it's conservative you know women are supposed to be doing this and it's so patriarchal and you can't you know live single and you can't be this and you can't be that it's actually not true it's it's very very open and accepting as a we have become lot more open and accepting as a culture and I'm a and I can say this from my experience so so so yeah I think overall personally yes there has been it personally has been more challenging than professionally moving back to India this year like I said losing friends but it's been extreme it equally rewarding given the fact that I could have my daughter and and the help that I got in raising my daughter especially during Co
28:11 This was any other country I I don't know what I would have done but here I think eventually people come around to I think that is for sure you will have all sorts of people across but if you ask you do have to ask and you do have to really filter some of the drama that people make about helping but if you ask they help okay no thank you very much for
28:38 Sharing your you know some of your personal experiences and your specific circumstances so thanks a lot I mean I think the key points that you have touched about were you need to know the people like the networking plays a big role in getting things done and I think the bureaucratic is still an issue like in getting the but I think you know using the social media to get the attention to get the action done and I think the few points that you mentioned especially you know how you are still able to succeed in adopting your daughter and your circumstance in terms of as a single mom you know dealing with the society right in terms of like you know being everybody open in the school and all that stuff so thanks for sharing all those personal you know experiences really appre appreciate it is there something I
29:31 Think know that you miss now I think you've been living here for six years there are things that you enjoy here maybe things that yeah I would love to maybe you know live in another country or maybe you know something that you miss or maybe we can tune it in a way that is it something that you would advise people who are thinking about like you know moving back to India anything that we haven't covered that you might wanted to tell them so there are two things to this right so the first part do I miss anything I miss my friends I think the friends I made living back in those countries I think they were very special to me they are very special to me and and try thanks to social media and all of the other a I try to keep in touch as much as possible but I do miss miss that every I do miss driving I I I you know the long road trips and the weekend trips that you could take
30:33 In the US and and and Europe's I think I I really miss that because I really don't enjoy driving and and getting stuck in the traffic but I think the advice for those who are you know thinking about making that switch I would say I think come with a very open mind right come with with the understanding that yes things might be different and difficult at times but you know there are enough and more reasons to to like you know living in India and it comes across I mean there are pros and cons in living in every country it is true of whether you're in the US Europe in in any part of the world and and same as India so my only thing is don't don't listen listen to the too much of an anec dos that you know India people talk about India you know basis what the media
31:35 Tells you and whether it's oh it's not safe for girls and it's not it's not you know people are not trustworthy or there are you know people you can't trust them and they cheat you all of that I mean and I'm not saying it's not there but it's true of any country there are pockets in every city that you live across the world that you shouldn't be avoiding like you should be avoiding you shouldn't be going into it so similarly India also is the same way but by and large it's a country where you know if you give it a chance and if you're open to it it it treats you really well it has you know its own Beauty in in its Madness it has it has you know if you're looking for challenge it has enough if you're looking for emotions it has enough if you're looking for even stability depending on which city you live it has enough it has that you know you can really given the fact that you have so much of help around you actually if you manage well you can spend good
32:37 Bit of time on yourself you know on your health your Fitness or in your sports or doing things that you like because you are not spending your weekends vacuuming and doing groceries and you know running a and and you know trying to figure out what to cook for next one week so so there is there is a there is something to told about that and and I think I personally believe especially if you have kids you know raise them in countries like India give them an exposure even for a few years in a country like India because it really makes them you know lack of a better word Street Smart U it kind of helps them think of their feet faster it helps them you know learn about human values and emotions by exposing to very different kind of people because it's it's one of the most heterogeneous have ever lived you know in the sense of this the kind of people in like I said every state is so unique and every within the state every city is so unique
33:38 Right so I would I mean I would definitely given if you know if you're if your professional setup is supporting you do give give you know do give a chance you know to use this opportunity to move to India because it's worth it especially now because India is going through so much of change I mean I think when I from the time I lived and I think that was the other challenge I had because my idea of India was frozen in 2001 and in between I had only visited couple of times you know and that visits were like very short and with the family so when I moved here a lot of my reference of things and still date lot of the reference of things I I had is back from that time but India has grown India only knows how to take leaps it doesn't you know with us you know people take steps right you know you you know us has had gone through that Nokia to Blackberry to Apple to Samsung sort of a
34:40 Journey India only knew Nokia and then they switch jump directly to Apple there was you know so they only take these India takes leads which means it's so much more exciting because you know the things that the technology the the the the pace with which people are moving the entrepreneurship Spirit which which is such an amazing thing for the consumers because everybody wants to create something everybody wants to innovate something whether it's in a restaurant space whether it's in the movie space whether it's in the content space in the technology space so it's just so much more exciting to be in India this this time of you know this phase of what India is going through
35:20 Yeah and that's great I think you kind of touched about it is there anything that you want to expand a bit I think especially you living in Bangalore especially on the entrepreneur side right I think especially in the past I mean definitely you see lot of the people graduating from iits IM IMS you know joining like these big companies or going abroad I believe things have changed but from your experience especially working in the corporate world and you know spending time in Bangalore would love to hear your thoughts in terms of why is it like you know to your statement there's a lot happening in India right now and why is it a good time to you know be part of that exciting Journey so yeah you'd love to hear from that on that I think so you rightly said I think as I said in the beginning of this call when I was growing up you know the options we had was the mainstream options we had was you're either a doctor you're an engineer or an MBA right if you want to
36:22 Do anything beyond your graduation even your graduation was bcom ba and BC and even there there was hierarchy right I mean I remember when I told my parents I don't want to take science and commerce there was a whole commotion in the house you're taking Commerce what's wrong with you and if God forbid if I have told Arts so it would have been assumed that I'm going to do Home Science and sit at home so I mean there were lot of these you know pre concept Notions which has completely shifted I mean I'm telling you I see these high school kids and if you are talk to them today the clarity of their mind on what they want to do and and I have now spoken to a lot of them and none of them have talked about it right neither do they talk about going to abroad or or you know doing something very fancy they all talk about this kid I recently met and he's talking about wanting to become a gamer a full-time gamer that is going to make him money and and you know I'm going to start making this and I'm going to start
37:23 Selling on Amazon I mean these things you don't even think while we were growing up I mean I would have told my mom that I want to sit I mean I told her I wanted to write and that was not even an option which is which tells me that you know the future is very very hopeful for India right now because the sheer option in the education system itself while I think at a grassroot level it is still an issue but you know for the for the corporates of the world or of for the privileged of the world the the the options of the streams of Education as expanded dramatically in India you know there is what we used to call Earth while mainstream is the mainstream definition has changed people take creative arts they took they took you know they take fashion they took media they take content has become such a big deal right now which which means this whole fixation about you know oh IIT it's kind of diluting in a that
38:24 Sense and me last couple of months I've been working with lot of these startups in India you know having been on a break I was just really advising them some of these things and it's amazing the way this whole you know entrepreneurship journey is also coming about and a lot of them have made a conscious choice of quitting you know not wanting to do corporate and really going on this journey because while you know the you know while there are these bething issues at a grass loot or or a base level India has is also event the economy has is really facilitating these entrepreneurs to run startups a lot more smoothly which was not the case in the past you know the running businesses in India was very difficult the the regulatory environment was very difficult I think now a lot of that has changed also the entire endtoend TX stack support that has come in for an entrepreneur to like I I speak to so many entrepreneurs who you know like
39:25 Every other day you you seeing at least 5 to 10 d2c companies coming up why because all they have to do is make sure that they're creating a good product the back end the the the text Tech that is required to run their sites to do their Logistics it's all easily available right so so if you have the right Vision you have the right brand and you have the right execution strategy I think India is really you know the right place to do your startups because right now and also the access to funds I think India while it's little behind than us in terms of the startup Investments but and while and now of course we are seeing this funding winter coming in but I think the last four four five years India has opened up to this whole Venture Capital the Angel Investing it's it's getting there where it's becoming more and more formalized which is great because it only tells that there is a lot more patience and appetite for entrepreneurs in India which gives as a
40:26 You know if if that is the thing then the kids have lot more option than what they are thinking Beyond you know the traditional I am routes so which is why I said it's a very interesting times to live I mean I don't even bother thinking about what I want what I want or what I hope for my daughter to do because I have no Clear Vision of what is out there possible because I am so limited to my exposure to world right so I can't and I'm very excited about that I'm very excited when my daughter grows up to see what options she gets if if this is what it is today so so yeah I think which is what I'm saying India is in a very interesting space because unlike the other difference is unlike us and Europe where there is a concentration of Aging population right India is on the other end of the spectrum where there is a high growth in the young population which means it has to build infrastr structure to support
41:27 That population which is what it's doing right now yeah yeah definitely
41:32 Completely agree and there's a lot of good things happening and thanks for sharing your perspectives and your experience talking to people and and sharing that is there any topic that we haven't covered that you would like to bring up or anything that you want to convey to the audience no I think we have touched based upon most of the things and and also have told I I would advise people who are considering India that take the punt it's worth it if not forever at least for a couple of years I think it's it's worth the experience it's a very very interesting market and even if you think from an external CV perspective doing any exposure in a market like India will will have a lot more leverage on your on your CV as much as you know working in a developed Market yeah
42:26 That's right yeah thanks a lot so we'll just move on to quickly like a rapid four just you know quick answers on the questions what's the surprise thing for you after returning to India oh yeah I I'll give you it's not a rapid It's Quickly one thing I think my first week into India I was in guga and there was a car head of me which had a bumper sticker so that that was like oh okay that was quite like interesting that people could even write that yeah what's your favorite travel destination in India oh travel Bombay cool and the best part of living in India best part being closer to family and your favorite dish in India oh P all
43:33 Street yeah that's great so that's all we have once again thank you very much for taking the time and sharing your insites and your experience you know living in multiple countries and living in India for 6 years I think this is very helpful to our audience thank you very much thank you Avinash it was really fun thank you for taking me back to the memory Lan like I said almost forgot I was out cool 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 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 Med media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting with fellow Thea wrers thank you once again and until next time
44:33 May your D journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibilities
A 30-minute call on the one decision you're stuck on.
