Watch: IT Family Returns After 17 Years in the U.S. — How They Built a Life & Startup in India

4:05 Know go go bad and and they were already they were kind of certain issues that we want to be there close to them during that phase so that was one big decision second one was also with that timeline comes the aspect of how Nia can actually you know be close to as my daughter how she can be close to the their grand her grandparents right having that relationship that bond is something that my wife and I both had with our grandparents we felt like you know that would be great for Nia to have there given we didn't have a lot of relatives living close by we had all all across U.S but now nobody close by right so he felt like that kind of relationship will definitely help her gain some some you know family bonds over time and you know keep her grounded in certain aspects right that was one big reason family second reason I would say was I think an increasing sense of

5:06 Unease as we are growing up in in U.S given you know it's irrespective of how long you've been living there we even moved there like really early stages of our life it was just mostly after a certain maturity right so finishing our bachelor's here so that's a pretty big life that we have lived in India so moving to us after that doesn't make you feel like you know even for how long it's not like you feel like it's your country right at every point I mean you're responsible for a lot of things you feel very good about them like you know be living in U.S and and ensuring the cleanliness and being responsible you know the resident of that country but at the same time you know the sense of belonging will will will soon feel like you no matter what you do you you there's that thing that I felt and my wife felt like it's never going to be satisfactory for us to the fullest Excellence you know the festivals the country doesn't celebrate the festivals that we celebrate in India as a whole country right so we tend to celebrate

6:08 Most of the festivals which are like the Christmas Thanksgiving which are like great but again when it comes to you celebrating your own festivals it's not the country that is moving forward to celebrating that Festival so it feels very odd and celebrate them and then it's also a third factor is a very mechanical life has started to creep in right in our work you know then you know big set was very stringent routine like the weekend routine and then again looking forward for the week and again looking back for the weekend and then the weekend it's a pleasure like who is around who is not around to meet and go somewhere watch a movie so this has become such a big routine I felt like there was no nothing constructive in life that we were doing I felt like you know coming back to India maybe a change that you know we get more involved with a society in that aspect as well where you feel more connected to the you know connected even you've grown up here for a and lived here for a long time initial stages of their life so that was another reason the sense of belonging and that continuous mechanical life that we had

7:10 We wanted to get out of that and at the fourth one I would say is me just imagining myself what would be life would be when I'm 60 there right with nobody around like a fair friends or family it's very different kind of Lifestyle anyways you think the word the family is far away friends are too far away you know everybody you can not rely on somebody to be there forever in in U.S right and and then especially with with the kind of amount of population you have with your friends and stuff they might move on to something else right so it's I felt like there might be a time when you hit 60 that you're probably all alone you know staring into the into the you know into you know be living in this big house I can imagine that happening like going to Florida or somewhere and then I felt like that's not what I want to do there are other things that I could probably do in life like if I go to India maybe the having parents around having a lot of friends having problems that mean something to you because you grew up in them and trying to solve those problems

8:10 Would give you more satisfaction and you know I also am a big fan of cricket in general so that also was a thing like you know I would be connected to sport that actually is Meaningful to me and I could do something in that sport so those kinds of things were all playing in my mind so like for a multitude of these reasons I felt like it's a probably a good call to just go and see live for my goal was when I came back it was like I didn't want to have a return we didn't want to have a return plan so we did not continue on the Green Card process which was all almost like a year away maybe to close we said like forget it you know it's okay it's always going to be something or the other like one year the day that day it will go back again two more years so it's gonna happen like this so we decided not to but it came back right after we left it was there so every six months later we got a green card but we didn't because we were out of the system right so we said we don't want to have a return return process or written written way so we want to give it a true you know

9:12 A Truth give it a good amount of time in India to make our decision so that was the goal so we are looking at you know let's spend next 10 years until Nia goes to you know whatever college and see how this goes and if it's still meaningful after that and then until then at least you're like you know we're going to be here yeah yeah thanks sham for sharing the multitude factors that you know influence the decision and especially you know people always think like okay I'm so close to getting green card so there is some Assurance so that you know let me take that step before making the decision so sounds like I think you're so determined that you wanted to give it up even though it's so close by and you want to give your 100 shot of written back to India and some of the things that you have mentioned especially the mechanical life and you know looking maybe 15 to 20 years ahead how the life in U.S could be and trying to make a decision now so

10:13 That you can change the trajectory of how your life is going to be right I think that's important so instead of leading the life the way it's going to happen versus you making a decision okay I'm going to change the path of my life in a certain way maybe because you might not have the same flexibility do that in 10 years when your daughter is old enough or whatever it could be but yeah thanks for sharing those so maybe you can talk a little bit about the timeline and maybe some of the planning that went in the into this you know moving back to India right I mean so when did you start thinking about it and how long you planned for it and maybe anything that you can cover on the logistics to our audience sure definitely it didn't it's not a it's not something that it happened overnight for sure right it has it is it has it took some meticulous Banning on our side I would say maybe three to five years as a whole like these conversations have happening between me and my wife right

11:14 Immediately I was not going back kind of a person when I went to U.S I really loved it I loved the freedom and I loved everything about it right initial years until the life really started to become mechanical until then I was like no enjoying the whole you know honeymoon stage of us so I was never thinking that I would ever go back because I've seen a lot here with respect to aspects of family or whatnot I always wanted to you know be myself and and be free wherever and that was us gave me that so I would be you know I would I would actually attribute a lot of current situation in my personality or or or Finance Financial positioning everything to us so that is something that I would never you know you know regret for so that so us was like the place that I never wanted to leave and then you know then we had a long a lot of conversations you know about how life

12:16 Has started to become more mechanical even the work has changed in U.S where you know initially there was like this American dream and there is nine to five work-life balance and all of that stuff right then suddenly you you started noticing that work-life balance started to take a hit right everybody has been working crazy hours even in U.S especially in ID so things have been really changing a lot then obviously all these other things start to creep in so around I feel like we moved back in 2019 so working backwards around I feel like I would say 2014 that we started to have initial conversations right you know initially around 2012 and then I would still be like no no don't know I'm not going back that was at least 10 years into being living in U.S I was still of the opinion that I don't want to go back right and then after that I was traveling a lot and all of that stuff was happening and then Shilpa was like no if he's my wife she was not like you know maybe you should start thinking about moving back because there is you

13:17 Know family and all of that stuff initially I was still saying no no no but later on you know I got a sense I've seen other people I've seen older Indians living there and all of that and I felt like maybe I I want to give it a shot in India to see how it goes and then from there I think we talked about a few things right planning wise we were started we came back to India a couple of times in between just to understand how things are we looked at different places to buy houses you know that because I felt like a few things that if you're moving back is it especially with the kid which happened and what he 17 right so we were we were all we knew that kid is going to be on the way at some point so especially the kid it's important factors will be like you know your schooling system you know how what kind of schools do you have so that research needed to be done second is how can you place yourself in a position financial position which is going to be you know which is not like you go there and you work so hard again that you really don't get the benefits of

14:17 Moving back to India so that kind of a financial you know positioning was important like what does that mean right how many how much Investments do you need to have what kind of you know Health you need to build up to make that happen right so that was one aspect again and in general you know outside that we were just talking about job opportunities right you know if you move to India your job opportunities are not going to be as many as you would typically get in I.T when we are staying in U.S right the kind of job occupation is also matter right you might get a lot of jobs may not be financially viable may not be culturally you know a good fit for you because you've worked all your life in U.S so a lot of those factors will also need to be considered so like these three things were in big factors like you know my daughters or my kids adjustment to schooling and the kind of schooling she can get and then the the Financial Health of your family and what you can be and and mostly the employment side of things

15:19 Right these three factors were a big set of things so we started coming back and checked out a few areas when it comes to wealth side of the things like you know having a house prefer life would be good afraid of house like so we go and we don't have to worry about you know now we have to now buy a house and all of that stuff so we started basic like we need one we need one house we can go in and say that is there you know Finance which is no only you know loan on it and all of that that was very important you go in it's there right you don't have to worry about your job for heavy living in a house right that was one aspect then we talked about how what kind of school right we researched a couple of schools we felt like a really good especially in Hyderabad compared to a lot of other schools because of its history over a lot of years and and other friends who have sent their kids there so a lot of that research has happened and we were zeroed in news on one school actually but came here found couple of more schools which were decent enough right and then we talked about how we should have enough savings so that the the what no

16:19 Matter what because of the job market and all of that stuff we were always confident that we'll have jobs because so much of experience we've had there was no way that we were not going to have jobs you are valuable in a lot of places it's a matter of you know making sure that you are covering your base for situations which you're not you know forcing so making sure that that saving plan is set for the for the entire education of your kids for your family you know for a certain you know timeline so that kind of stuff had to be done so we made sure we invested in a house like three years so four years before three years before we moved in we moved back to India knowing that we have we will move at some point was enough maybe may not be happening at that point anywhere in U.S but we still wanted to invest so that if it was a plan that we would not go through at least we'll have some kind of investment mail which we can always pull back right that was the idea so the schools were ready that we went research and we started looking out for not jobs now you know my wife used

17:20 To work for a you know multinational international company so it was easy for her to transition transfer of job for me it was more like you know I need to find something which will keep me happy at the same time you know because I was not in a multinational company so there I started working with some people that at my work who had connections in India that's how I actually got placed into one of the god of opportunity to you know stop something in India myself right or actually part of that company which then changed a lot but the idea was to find something in U.S and work with that in India because you don't have a big cultural change or come in and start looking for jobs all the time so that those were the decisions we made and I think to be honest we were like a couple of things were really clear clarified like well then the school situation and all of that you know generally the mindset was also changed we made sure that our mindset was done set that we are going

18:21 Don't think about all these things you know you will have a lot of these news come in suddenly some you know so many so so much crazy news that when you're in U.S that you notice that oh in India this has happened in India somebody got lynched in India somebody you know somebody was thrown acid on them you know things like that these are definitely happening but we when you are in U.S you get scared of this and you question like do you really want to move back to Country like this otherwise obviously not like that everywhere right it's not a wild wild west situation yeah so it's more like fine so we we made ourselves mentally strong to make that decision first and then the last was the job employment right that was around 2019 when we really started to things have happened in the family wise also that certain health things had to be considered for of my you know parents and in-laws and everybody that we had to move back for that reason but also that was a year where he also got some employment confirmations that okay this is what it is you can go back now

19:23 And then that's when we fill the plug and then we were like in six months we made the decision of final league but by then we were already prepared in Project way so the final mission was done in six months yeah no thanks for such a detailed explanation of all the things that went through in your planning right I think in the kids education the financial aspect the career transition and preparing mentally you know to be ready with the move so maybe if you can maybe let's expand a little bit on this career transition I think you mentioned your wife Shilpa is taking a transfer position within the tenancy from a U.S to India if so like you know how does that work and then the other one is maybe you can talk about your setting which you kind of touched a little bit about you know working with you know some of your colleagues and then trying to evaluate maintaining the same work culture like doing something in U.S but from India so

20:24 Maybe you can talk through some of those specific details sure sure the MNC transfer in most companies if you're in a Consulting MNC it's usually straightforward right because there's always need for especially I would say us experienced folks to come back and work in countries like India or anywhere else which is not us right because there is that demand and they bring in a lot of experience and exposure that they got in U.S into a local division so there is I think usually it's a no-brainer when you ask for this because they still want to keep the talent but obviously they're getting a benefit out of them going back to India because they're going to bring all that you know experience with them but also there's a challenge once you move in like it's a different culture altogether the politics of the company how it is running the the attitude of people it's a completely different world right it's a different conversation after you knew

21:24 Whether you will be able to adjust to It or Not Right But that but at least somebody who's looking to transfer and if they're part of an NC I feel like that's a very straightforward decision to make if they really are looking at that some things that they need to make sure is is the negotiation part of it they make sure that they get a good position they get package and all of that has to happen and and ensure that they are able to dictate certain aspects of their work life balance terms so that is one aspect I would say when I mean mnc's transfer is happening for me I was able to just get become a from where I was in a company where I was a VP of engineering it was very straightforward for me in a sense as I spoke to them there was a need for my talent in that company so we just came out and I started my own company here and by and Contracting to that agency because that that company actually through my agency and they started this you know scaling up my company taking on more such similar domain products across across

22:26 Various clients so that that helped me to still maintain a culture that I am used to because I'm still working with the same people but also build a team here whom I'm grooming along the way how to think globally how to think you know different than how we are typically used to when it comes to you know work your work ethic you know your presentation your communication a lot of these things I'm able to you know make those calls and help people with my company so that helped me a lot but I've seen people who have moved back and joined different organizations here not able to fit in because of a lot of cultural difference right how you work and the focus of your work there's a lot of different kinds of mentality are even at work that you know I come across sometimes you know there's a thing to really stitch together or something and just throw it out and then say it's done right you know it's not really stable there's a lot of thought into the quality of the product that you're building there's always this last minute

23:27 Procrastination there's a lot of procrastination that everything gets done in the last minute so a lot of those things happen I've seen that and I feel like it's that's a cultural problem we have across the board and especially when you come back to India so yeah that's why it's very important and you if you want to keep your mental peace and from going back to India you having the right job and right employer is very important I would say a little overcoming back to India figure out a way if you can have a job that is still in U.S but able to work in India because that will give you because you're already moving into a place with a lot of different things happening around you especially if you're like me who has not earned ever be here in India for electing leading the country you're very new to the way things operate never had a house never ran a house never managed Maids you know never you know never never dealt with the teachers or the schools or all the crowd here in general if you have such kind of a problem then

24:29 You would want to minimize the amount of unknown factors right you want to make sure that you're still able to work you know at least your work which is taking majority of the day is still able to run in the same way that you've been running before while you figure out these other aspects around you right if you have your work also a challenge then you will start not enjoying the move back because you'll start feeling like you know made a bad decision because you have so many different things happening and and and your job also sucks right so you have to figure out that aspect that way yeah thanks sham so just a curious while you are planning this transition have you applied for any positions or you always had this idea that you know you have this flexibility with your current company where you could transition you know which worked out well right I think you know you're able to you know work with the same team from India and able to do that but have you applied or any insights that

25:29 You can provide on that absolutely I have never I applied for a lot of jobs I did I've never I've never thought that I would get a position that I am in right now when I when I was leaving right so I did apply for a few positions I did follow up with a few known connections that I had in U.S who were who had offices in India so I was trying to see if there is a way that I can be contributing to their you know their business in India so I have con reached out a few folks right General applications what I found like through this monster or dice where you get these job opportunities or indeed or LinkedIn especially when Indian companies do put in post I've never felt that I never got any responses from them I don't know why although I felt like my positioning of myself was pretty good in terms of leadership but I always felt like the leadership positions in India

26:30 If you're applying for some are gone through connections like usually it's for the wrong namesake that you have a position on there on the on the on the advertisement but I feel like it always Felts filled by internal recommendations or connections right it's not easy to get to application to especially if you're looking for a leadership role right because but if it's anything else like you know you're more about you know mid management level or more engineering level I feel like you have a lot of opportunities to get to so maybe that's why I never got any callbacks from the places where I applied for and then but there were other conversations where in the past history I've you know crossed paths with these people who have businesses here give more willing to you know offer me positions and all of that so they were there was one of them which was lined up and they were busy happy with I was very happy with that as well it's just that as I was leaving and then the

27:33 Current company when I was working or extended the offer I felt like you know that is probably an easier transition initially and then to a goal where I want to achieve which is I want to start my own Product Company in India right so that worked out well at the same time I was also part of a startup in us right so that also helped because that at that time it was very at the initial status we were not sure where this was going but as we came as I came back I was still part of that startup and then I continue to be now I'm more part and more complete incomplete with that startup where I'm the CTO and I'm like who he focuses on it so I have my team here in India so I work with them so that is my current Focus but when I moved back I made sure I did these steps especially to make sure that I'm landing in the place where I landed was pure luck but I had to do some effort before reaching out to these places and and to get a get a position you know

28:34 Confirmed and then later things fell in release problems yeah I mean as you said thanks for sharing again such a specific details like I think you did try and apply as you mentioned it could be especially for the senior roles it's more through referrals or whom you know and it's always through connections right and sometimes it just Things fall in place once you make a decision and you know everything varies but the key thing is for the career transition I think especially for the senior roles it's the connections that you made and that makes an impact in terms of the transition so let's switch the gates a little bit so it's been maybe getting close to four years since you moved to India so how has the life been in India and you know coming from a person who was thinking that you know living the American dream for almost like for the first 10 to 12 years you know that's what you want to do and then you kind of Switched we are not to have the mechanical life but Curious I think you know how the family has been

29:35 Adjusted how you know your flexibility the social life and maybe some aspects of anything that you wanted to highlight yeah I think moving back obviously initially initially this was a lot of excitement right you know I wasn't missing any of America to be honest like it not it was it was not even a single day the first few months that I thought about okay wow I missed this particular thing heavily or a lot right it felt like I came back to where I was always you know and then it felt like I just left yesterday from India in my life here today right so I was not missing much but obviously there was a lot of excitement that covered for a lot of other inefficiencies that are happening around you initially then later on you start feeling some aspect feeling the heat around and you start interacting with people especially in our country where you know discipline is lacking

30:36 Punctuality is lacking you know you you expect certain things to be done in certain way you know when it comes to your kids for example you know there's a as an example I could say you have you rely on a lot of nannies or or in U.S right you know you have and usually these nannies are may not be like their masters or phds but at least are in line with how you want to grow kids right in terms of you know the discipline aspect the language the speak and you know the the nuances around you know making sure you say please making sure you say thank you right all of that stuff now you come here right you suddenly have no nannies at all right you have all they call as needs right you suddenly send your kids a lot of see a lot of kids taken by Maze you know that whole thing changes right your kids start to behave very differently suddenly there are no more Pleasures sometimes there are no more thank yous you know you can start feeling it okay I miss now you feel like oh I miss that country because these things I was taking for granted it's not there here anymore right suddenly you will

31:38 Come have somebody come and fix some of the things in your house right and suddenly two days later it's broken again you know things like that you know because they do a lot of jugard stuff you know makeshift Solutions right but not something that well thought through certainly so you will start missing that kind of a finishing work so over time you will start missing those aspects but I did not miss especially like oh you know the lifestyle or or you know the friends and and in general or or you know Miss that aspect that much right because I think the lifestyle here is probably more fluid and more organic it also actually one of the big key factors for us to actually settle down faster I think is also the kind of friends he made immediately after we came back right so it's again pure luck I would recommend people who are moving back to find this make sure that you find that group really fast don't just go and make friends with whoever you want because

32:38 You need to find people who sit with you who can match your mindset a little bit especially living in us that kind of mindset is very hard to get but there were people who came back from us in our community luckily we had connections with them a long time ago and then other people that we met luckily through them and that was a good group that we started off immediately three months after we moved in right and then that's still the same group that we continue with right that that feel that was really good that you got into a good bubble right away because as that took away some aspects of fun activities that you do dependencies with your friends you know lifestyle stuff all of that stuff you know that became very organic you won't meet and you know have a have a tea in a random time you know there is no weekend planning to just do everything on the weekend you know randomly we meet on weekends and weekdays and go for lunches together so things that like that have have have not made me Miss America in those aspects

33:40 Where I miss that country a lot is in general the the the infrastructure side of the things or in general mostly people's attitude towards work right that is where I I miss that country but other than that I feel like you know other services and stuff I think we are we're pretty good I mean but again it all depends on that bubble that you form I've seen a lot of people come back and did not like it at all and move back immediately you know in a year or two that is because they came back and met people that they could not gel because I see a lot of such people that I mean you have to make a choice conscious choice to say I want to keep away from those people right because they probably are not the people that you want to gel because they don't probably match for various regions whether it could be their beliefs whether it could be the way they treat other people or anything right you can make a choice and not make your life more pressured with that kind of acquaintances in your life so you probably want to make sure that you find the right set of people to live here

34:41 With yeah maybe one thing that I want to add on to what you said I think especially regarding the social bubble people need to understand that there are a lot of folks who have written from abroad so you know there is a lot of pool of people that they can you know be friends with in terms of like you know the like-minded people so it's not like it's a very limited fool and which makes it hard to find the like-minded people so I just wanted to stress to the point that sham has mentioned you know having that kind of a social group would definitely help in terms of getting settled easily having your social life especially if you have been living outside for you know more than a decade you don't have that Network right you might have the network of your you know School buddies college buddies but you know the mindset the thought process or whatever you want I mean I think you know having that like-minded people would definitely help to have that Social Circle in life

35:43 So absolutely yeah go ahead cool so is there anything that we haven't covered and that you wanted to tell the audience who are thinking about moving back to India yeah I think there are a few things that I think a lot of people probably also worry about health care in India right when they come back from us one of the things that is very seamless that we take a lot for granted in universities Healthcare right you know it's amazing how Healthcare is in U.S like you know you you your insurance pays for majority of the staff you talk about an appointment you walk into a hospital everything is you know done through a standard procedure and everything so that is one big change you'll also see here which is it's not easy in that aspect right not from the payment or money standpoint because that's always it's very subjective and objective in

36:46 That sense but when it comes to finding the right doctors and all of that stuff that's also something because I feel like the care here is not very standardized like in U.S care here is still dependent on the doctor that you're seeing like in the same Hospital you could get completely different types of feelings yasuda or whatever company there will hear stories of amazing treatment you will hear stories of very bad treatments but that is because of the standardization of care but rather because the doctor you're seeing matters right so because they are the standard so one thing that you want to understand is when you come back you need to also form a network it's very important to form a network of these these things like the healthcare Network when you have your shopping network then you have your education College you know whatever kids network so everything is all about creating a quick bubble for yourself so that you know where to go and you know that you want to go there because

37:46 There is somebody else who has been there and has a good experience that's why you want to go there because it's not like you can walk into a hospital and you know you get the best treatment that is not possible you have to know somebody unfortunately that is the State of Affairs right now but it's not like the end of the world it's just that that is there is an effort involved is it worth it for coming back you know know that is again subjective what what are your actual goals for coming back but these are definitely manageable to be honest it's yes it's extra piece of processing in your mind that you have to always do where you could probably blindly follow in you guys but here you need to be doing some homework in each aspect because that is the cost of moving back now where you probably get other benefits which you would not get in U.S which is your organic life you know which is your time to an organic meeting of people whenever you want you know time to do things that you probably were passionate when you were in India a long time ago you know you

38:46 Know we are involved with some you know activities sometimes as a group we go to you know orphanages we do some stuff you know we donate and it feels good when you are in the in your same country you have these benefits that you can accomplish but that comes at a cost the cost is you know you probably have to spend more time in doing this right and researching and making that Network building you know bubble that takes effort and that takes effort to not only create but also to maintain so that is some that is a cost of it right the benefits are against the cost is that but benefits are subject to what you're counting for for us I think it works out well but again the people who are in the immigration situation right it's been there for a long time and not getting anywhere in terms of green card and there you've piled up good experience and and there is always a lot of Market opportunity here to grow and start your own product there is a lot of scope for that if you're willing to do it right or rather struggling in that country trying to get that one immigration document which is like she

39:47 Always seems that it's close by but never close by so you know you have opportunity here to know because you're not tired by any immigration this is your own country you can set up whatever you want to set up you can do whatever you want to do so there is that aspect as well so there are also some of these benefits which are unparalleled for your compared to your stay in U.S but it all comes at a certain cost which you should be okay to take and it's very subjective I know some people struggle a lot because because they can't take the the attitude of people here even for a little bit like how bad they are in terms of their finishing work or how bad they are in terms of their communication that happens every day I feel like India is like a pressure cooker situation when you go on a car traffic I feel like everybody is under pressure right now they're gonna blow up one day right because it's you have to deal with so much things you're driving and nobody drives around you normally so you're on a phone call doing something you suddenly have to deal with this stuff so all of this happens right there's always pressure on people so they can't

40:50 Yeah that's the but the beauty in it there is Beauty in it as well so that's that's what I would like to say on the top of it yeah cool thanks Sam so let's move on to our final segment of the show which is the rapid four those the first question is the surprise thing after returning to India surprise thing after is I did not miss us at all I was like like how come is this possible because for me for the longest and I felt like when I would go to India I might miss this us a lot because I used to I'm a foodie I used to enjoy a lot of my you know meat in your words you know my restaurants and then the lifestyle you know all of that I felt like that would be one thing that I really really miss but when I came back I it's like gone out of my mind I didn't even think about any of that stuff that was very surprising because I felt like 16 years of my life for 17 years of my life in U.S should amount to at least

41:50 One day of missing it it did not it's just what is very surprising maybe you're just so adaptable yeah so what's your favorite travel destination in go on yeah definitely go on because it's one of those places I would say it's easy to get to from any similar cities connectivity is great and you get a mix of everything you want and if the kids and without kids and and yeah it's just I I I'm here to explore other places but Goa is definitely the place you would want to go to and then there is I think South Side you can go to coorg or wayana or places like that are beautiful but Goa is my best place yeah cool and what's your favorite Indian dish or a restaurant right now I think the restaurant is I would say Sanctuary dishes are you know they keep I would change it week to week actually to be honest so that's one thing that you know in India is is

42:51 Your food is you have so much of it so you have so much option and choice after it but I do miss certain amount of certain kind of food from U.S that is not there here but but I mean it's okay I'm never a foodie that to that extent that and especially Indian food so because I get a lot of Indian food here I'm not really that okay I'm okay about it but yeah I like Sanctuary it's my favorite restaurant in the city now but again it changes month to month yeah and the last one is the favorite part of living in India organic life I feel like you know I just go out even now I mean this is happening on a weekday right I mean this doesn't happen and you guys to set up something like this right I have a lot of time in terms of I mean it's the same amount of 24 hours but I just feel like somehow you feel like there is time to do a lot of stuff here right you go down and you suddenly bump into your friends that you walk with you talk to in the morning I

43:52 Make a decision to play cricket or not you know things are not very religious they are very fluid here things you can make them happen and they happen to you so I like that organic nature of it so which is very much what I did not like in U.S towards the end where it was getting very mechanical so yeah that's what I would I really enjoying here yeah okay great so thank you very much sham for your time and sharing your story especially like you know the details of your planning the career transition and how you your life has been in India after living here for almost close to four years and really appreciate your time and thanks again for being on the show thank you thank you for taking time and I know there's been a H this is amazing because I wish I had something like this when I was making a decision to read I know or listen to people but yeah this is really helpful I'm glad this can help somebody else too yeah for sure yeah

44:53 Thanks Sam thank you thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of Desi 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 media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting tips below this thank you once again and until next time may your desert and journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibilities