Watch: Why I'm Living in India for 7 Years After Spending 18 in South Africa

4:06 People especially in a place like barasi which is relatively smaller so that's when I started applying I I got in touch with the International Center at Banaras IND University I got in touch with the person who handles International applications and I got to know the application dates and everything and the criteria at that time like I said I I did my bachelor in arts so the criteria was just to meet a minimum I think minimum percentage that I had to meet okay and was also like a first come first Ser basis I did apply in the foreign quara which is I think maras University they only have 10% or 15% quota for international students and I think around 5% for nris I'm not sure but that is what it was when I was there I was there from 2012 to 2017 so from bachelor's to my Master's so yeah and then I applied and then the weight began they so they're very

5:07 Kind of I wouldn't say slow but yeah they do take their own sweet time in kind of processing things I always had to catch up I always had to kind of call and follow up sometimes they answer sometimes they don't and yeah I finally got my application sorry my acceptance letter and then I made my way to Banaras University another struggle was to find accommodation also I came at the peak of summer so you were telling you were asking me about my experience having grown up in a different environment yeah maybe we can jump on to that question sorry like maybe I think we can go step by step if you that's okay so sounds like I think you have selected a the place very strategically like you know where the parents family and all that stuff so maybe before we jump on to that how was the life in South Africa like you know specifically like which country were you living before how was the schooling there how was the life you know maybe you can shed some light there and then we can dive a little bit into this college process to get a little bit more color to that if

6:07 That's okay yeah okay so South Africa is

6:10 A country in southern Africa I was staying specifically in a Suburban place close to Petoria which is one of the capitals South Africa has three capitals and life was quite ordinary it was quite so one of the culture shocks that somebody would get coming from a place like South Africa which is heavily underpopulated is coming directly to an overpopulated country and also the weather is surprisingly a lot of people especially here I've seen that when they hear Africa they think it's very hot but it's actually not so South Africa does not experience such extreme Summer Okay so so when I came it was it was quite quite something that I had to absorb my childhood was very normal just nuclear family parents working my brother myself school friends the ordinary life that everybody experiences so that's what my childhood was like so I think feeling a little bit about this University

7:10 Admission process if that's okay right I think you mentioned about the criteria was a certain percentage in the grade 11 and grade 12 are there any like exams like I don't know you know typically like when somebody's going abroad there is like an SAT exam or you know certain schools has their own kind of U competitive exams for the admission process is there anything like that for Banaras University or for any other universities that you have considered or it just purely based on the grades and also like do you have to get that certified in certain way because they would get it what I'm trying to get it is you know balance it out like you know because the marks from a different country is different so how do they normalize it normaliz is the word I'm like trying to so if you can share a little bit about that like you know an exam and like you know the grades that you got from another country how did they normalize or is there a process behind that so it was actually quite the opposite when I brought my report

8:06 Cards from South Africa there was no kind of conversion required I just submitted my 10th and my 12th grade reports but when I obtained my degree from here I had to go to South Africa and get it like there's a there's a board we call it the sea which is South African qualifications Authority so my my bhu degrees had to be evaluated by SAA to to kind of understand the the level of my study from from India versus how it is in South Africa but when I applied in Banaras un University there was no such process especially at my time I just submitted my grade 10 and my grade 12 certificate which is in English so it's kind of understandable what else what was the other question you asked was there any like a like a an exam you know like yeah process so exams with exams and interviews it kind of VAR is also from what country you're from and also the kind of course you're applying for so I think for students from Nepal we had a lot of students from

9:07 Nepal also their process was a bit different if I remember correctly I'm not quite sure what theirs was like but for me being from South Africa and also applying for a course as simple as a bachelor's in arts there was not such a complicated process we just had to meet a certain percentage that I mentioned beforehand but I do know that some students who came in to study they were in IIT bhu came in for engineering or who came in for medicine they did have to kind of give an exam and they also kind of I think there was one there was one other criteria that they had to meet so it's it depends on the course and also the country you're coming from but if you're going for like regular courses like maybe bcom or like ba BSC then the criteria is a l is a lot less challenging to meet got it okay and then I think you mentioned you know maybe approximately about 15% for the foreign quota right so just curious like is it

10:07 Completely utilized like do you do you have all the seats are utilized by the foreign Nationals like for studying in benaras University in your batch just

10:16 Curious on that so so classes are conducted com like they combined classes so it's National students have separate classes but yes I feel that it is properly utilized also remember that even students from neighboring countries are are international students so students from Nepal from Bangladesh so when I was there we had a lot of students from Nepal we had a lot of students from Bangladesh from Sri Lanka sure any from maius only after I think 2016 a huge influx of African students so also remember so a lot of these students also come on a a burer so what what do you call it again a student a student student bser like the like so they do like maybe some education in the like other country and then like maybe couple of years here no

11:17 What do you what do you call it when the government is sponsoring sponsoring okay got it okay yeah so I think they call it SARS so all the SARS countries basically there's a a body where all the SARS countries kind of fall under this body a scholarship sorry scholarship call in South Africa I was trying to find the right word yeah so a scholarship a lot of these students come in through scholarships and they apply to India and then through this body they are then allocated these universities right so maybe they give their preferences maybe they want first preference would be University of Delhi second preference will be bhu and depending on the availability of the seats in these universities there would be be placed in whatever University welcomes them sure so after 2016 I before 2016 I think I was the only South African student because I was self financed my parents were financing me but after 2016 I saw a lot of African students who were on scholarship who came in from South Africa we had like four or five new students from South

12:18 Africa from Zimbabwe quite a few from Kenya for different courses different levels of studies quite a few from who were doing their PHD a few were doing their masters so yeah yeah I think I lost track over there what was the question yeah so sounds like I think there is no specific examination it's I think it varies from the course that they're planning to join and also sounds like I think you know there are quite a lot of foreign students who join these courses I think there is a quite a good demand from neighboring countries and from even some of the Nationals doing as a scholarship so I think one thing I remember that all International students had to do was to to submit a HIV test report which was something that was a standard requirement for all students so after you get enrolled and after you when you are processing everything you do also need to submit a AIDs negative report got it cool and so how was the education just curious so

13:19 Somebody who you know studied until grade 12 in South Africa I don't know what kind of board it is and how was the studies like the teaching methodology or the experience in the university in very

13:32 Very different very very different so in South Africa it was mostly checking your knowledge irrespective of how you communicate your knowledge so if I'm writing a a a an exam say for example if that so if I'm explaining if I'm explaining myself in a way that was not explained in class I'd get like less marks in bhu so and also it depends on the length of your answer so I can Ramble On for a page just because because it's like five marks or I could just put it in bullet points then I would not get the marks so if I'm like crisp and I answer everything in a short paragraph then that's not going to work it took me a while to get to understand that also because I didn't have a very helpful friends in the beginning so it was a challenge also one more thing remind me to come to which was a huge challenge for me but anyway yeah so if it's like a five mark question I have to like write like maybe two long Pages just to answer those five which I can easily do in in like a paragraph so that was a different thing that kind of

14:32 Took me by surprise took me quite a bit to get used to I used to not get very good marks in the beginning because I did not understand the kind of answers they were looking for I would just straight dive into the the answering and just get give the answer then somebody introduced me to guide books somebody introduced me to various resources and I started understanding how how they they assess you as a student and then it was more like answering for the teacher instead of answering for the teacher to check my knowledge yeah so that's what also one more thing very important thing that I think I'm I need to share so when I came for my my counseling session so I did my major in English literature right so Banaras IND university has this rule I don't know if it still exists but at that time so since English was my major subject they have this rule that you have to pick one language subject irrespective of whatever subjects you have but whatever so if you are if if you are majoring in a language then you cannot

15:34 Pick that language so if I'm majoring in English literature I cannot go for English language and coming from South Africa I did not know Hindi I do speak very fluent Hindi but I don't know how to read and write Hindi right so when I came for my counseling they suggested that I go for Bengali because they start teaching Bengali from the alphabets as opposed to Hindi then they just dive into literature so so I having no clue whatsoever about Bengali I went ahead and picked Bengali and it was the toughest three years of my life because if you fail your subject your language subject then you fail your year or your semester so that was a very challenging thing that but thankfully my professor at the time was very understanding I remember having a breakdown in class because I think I flung to one one semester and I was just so frustrated because I never found the time to study for my main subject because all the time I'm busy trying to understand Bengali and I'm trying to understand just just so I can I can you

16:36 Know pass my semester but thankfully she was very supportive and thankfully she she understood my situation and she kind of pushed me through no thanks for sharing that I know that's like a very common question even for kids who are age 10 right you know how can my kid you know cope up with a new language and so on so be much more harder when you are 18 years or 17 years so what I used to do is that so even our notes would be in Bengali language and I could not read anything and once I started understanding and reading I still couldn't understand what I'm reading right because I know how to read but I don't know the language so i' I'd ask somebody to read those notes for me and then I'd write them in English and then when I'd study for them I'd record myself saying those sentences and then I'd try to memorize so if I if there's a word that obviously I I don't know what I'm reading right so I try to rhyme those those words with another word from another language so that I can at least memorize those sentences and just go and write

17:37 Them in my exam in fact I used to study for Bengali only enough to pass so I'd like with a question paper I'm like okay 25 mark question now I'm okay I'll 50% I'll get and then I'll just pass and then the rest of the paper I'll just leave because I don't understand anything yeah so how was the life as a student in India I think you know the five years with the bachelor's and Master's all yeah so the first few

18:00 Months was definitely tough because I land Banaras gets very hot and humid right and I had a very tough time adjusting to the crowd the you know the pollution and all of that initially in fact at at one point I even called my parents and I was like you know what I can't I need to come back now I'm I think I'm done but what helped me was that the Academic Year in South Africa starts in January and in India it starts in June July so I had six months right and my parents had already paid for everything I already had everything so even if I wanted to go back my dad suggested that you know what even if you come back you'll still be doing nothing until January so why don't you just sit it out until January if you still feel like you want to come back then obviously just come back yeah and obviously you know you start making new friends you start enjoying the freedom is amazing because I come from strict parents and I was like yeah this is great I can do what I want what whatever I want and then I made good friends obviously so yeah is also my so I was

19:00 Staying in an International hostel so all the students were International students we shared the same pain we shared the same happiness we shared everything so it's kind of like you kind of un so when you feel like others around you are like similar to you then it gets easier I made some of my best friends in in that phase of my life so definitely one of the best phases of my life definitely yeah I can imagine so I know there was one thing that I forgot to ask U maybe can you share shed some light in terms of the fees right you know someone who is a a foreign citizen versus a Indian citizen how is the fee structure anything that you can shed some light on that that would be

19:41 Fantastic so the fees of international students is almost like twice maybe Thrice as much as Indian students I remember having Indian friends and we would go to pay our our fees every six months or every three months if I remember and where my hosle fees would be I remember this one semester specifically because I received a receipt I don't know it's somehow imprinted in my head I had paid I think maybe 7,000 8,000 and they had paid like maybe 500 or something like that got so it's it's it's it's a it's a large difference but also understand that the facilities that we had in our hustle was quite different we didn't have facilities as such but we were not we were not told not to use certain things so like for International hostels they were not allowed to use coolers they were not allowed to have even a kettle or maybe like an induction whereas in our hostel we could use all of those things so yeah and so yeah that's that's kind of like the the difference in the it's like twice maybe

20:44 Thrice as much also but it's still a government University so it is relatively cheaper than private ones I'm sure private universities as an international student will be skyrocketing in terms of feast but government universities are relatively cheaper I know for B is definitely great thanks so I think after your master so what happened next so did you go back to South Africa or did you work somewhere so just you know yeah what happened and then what brought you back to India so if you can shed some light that would be fantastic so after my M

21:19 I completed my masters in June of 2017 and we were supposed to have our graduation day what we call it convocation over here but bhu somehow kept postponing it I thought okay let me just wait for another month and then let me complete this whole thing and then I don't have to come back I'll just go back to South Africa and see what to do from there but they kept postponing it so I started working at at an NGO a school in Banaras who which kind of has these children from different phases of life so I worked there for a bit also again it was very hot so I could not you know complete that so yeah after a few months they kind of announced that it's going to happen I think in December or something and it was June at that time so I decided to go back to South Africa and yeah in that in that period then our parents started talking to each other and then we kind of started finalizing things and I

22:19 Came back to India in November of 2017 for my convocation and then I traveled in that period because obviously I I was not working at that at that time I was just at home because at the back of my mind I was like you know what I have to move back to India anyway if I'm getting married so let me just start my career once I'm there so I came back to India for my convocation and in that period I traveled around I went to Kerala I went to Himel I went to different places and then I went back to South Africa and that's when we decided that okay now we are getting married and then in June of 2018 I got engaged we came back so my entire family came to India we had an engagement ceremony and then I went back to South Africa and then in February of 2019 the year covid hit we got married and yeah so since 2019 I've been permanently in India great so are you still in near Banaras or like you're living in

23:21 Some other place in India now yeah I am living in New Delhi right now I'm no longer in Banaras Okay so cool so how has the life been in India like you know just maybe if you compare and contrast like in South Africa like you know sounds like you know pretty much more than half of your life in South Africa and maybe give or take like you know 12 years here in India right I think what are the pros and cons how is the life what would you suggest for someone who was born and gr grown up in some other foreign country but who are considering to move to India anything that you can share from that perspective you know I

23:58 Get this question quite a lot when people ask me why did you come to India why did you come to India some you know somehow I feel like if you put aside when we focus more on the negatives then our whole mind is on the negatives but personally see I about South Africa I do definitely ridiculously reasonable you know for like if I compare like so South in South Africa like okay so in South Africa you don't have all these apps that will deliver everything to your firstep within like 10 SEC 10 minutes you don't have all these facilities so in terms of like technology and advancement technological advancement i' say India is great also it's very easy to kind of just get an auto rtion and go wherever South Africa does not have a

24:59 Railway system so everywhere you need to drive or just take a bus or a cab and since it's such an underpopulated country it takes sometimes an hour to fill a fill a cab or like fill a bus so in in that sense I do enjoy living in India a lot more because because also I feel a lot safer in in in India one thing I'd like to touch on is that South Africa has a relatively higher crime rate especially so if I coming from an Indian so South Africa is also a rainbow Nation so we have different races there's Indians there's white people there's black people there's colored people we call them colored people but like Mi mixed trade mix rised people right so and the wealth disparity is also a lot so like the white population is a lot wealthier than the the the black population or like the Indian population is actually quite far well off than the other you know so coming so I stayed in primarily black

26:00 Neighborhood which is great because I grew up there everybody knew me everybody knows my family but if I had to get from my house to maybe like maybe Johannesburg like which is further away I had to think twice because I you know my family would be like no there's no way you taking cap we have to drive you everywhere so there was a little bit of an inconvenience if I'm in India or like if I'm in Delhi I don't have to think twice if I want to go to gur or if I want to go to NOA I just call an Ola or call an Uber or just drive myself that I don't have to think about safety in that much yeah than I would have to in South Africa because also I blend in obviously because I am Indian so I don't really stand out but in South Africa like I said I grew up in a black community I do stand out and it kind of kind of does highlight you sometimes so yeah got it cool is there anything that we have't touch base or anything that you want to bring up to someone who is considering to move back to India or you know having those thoughts yeah I

27:02 Would say way pick your battles I would say that see you you'll if you're looking for negative things you'll always find them if you're looking for positive things you'll find them one

27:12 Thing like so I also run a YouTube channel so in I covered a video wherein I mentioned reasons to move to India one of them was if you are anywhere in the middle class category life is very smooth if you're living abroad you don't have have you know the luxury of house help you don't have the luxury of certain things that you can easily find here like in South Africa my mom is really struggling she has health conditions and still she has to like sweep the whole house and even if she does find house helps like once a week which is tough so in India you can get yourself a cook you can get yourself house you're also generating employment so you're kind of helping other people in need while you are also enjoying the luxuries of life so yeah pick your battles you decide what matters more to you decide what yeah just pick your battles I would say got it cool so yeah thank you very much for your time and sharing you know a lot of insights especially we have had a lot of questions related to

28:13 You know someone doing undergrad or Ms here in India who have studied abroad I think you know some of the information that you have shared would be very very valuable so really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your journey with us thank you for having me and this was long overdue we've been trying to schedule this but I'm really glad I did this it was a lovely lovely talking to you too yeah great same here thanks a lot thank you have a good evening 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 media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting with fellow the wrers thank you once again and until next time may your the journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibilities