Watch: Why Sumit Returned to India After 34 Years in US

4:27 Were you know halfway decent in academics that was kind of what what you did so that's that's what transpired for me I decided to go to the US not necessarily because I wanted to but my brother was already there. He was he was four years older than me. So he was already there and my parents felt like well I mean the elder son is there the younger son's about to go too. So I just kind of did that. I followed in his footsteps and and and that's how it starts. I mean I go in 1990 and u you know 34 years later now it's 35. I'm back here. So that that's kind of the you know the short of it. Got it. So how

5:10 Was the life in US? I know you went very at at a very young age and how was the life initially and how it evolved in the last 34 years in US. Yeah, that that's a great question. so obviously I I did my education in Georgia at the University of of Georgia. and then I went into let's just call it a relatively non-traditional career path. in our time kids that were going to the US were going to become a doctor or an engineer. Th those were the kind of things right and and later on everyone was going to you know some form of it software development coding those were those have been standard kind of the lines that people from India go to mine was relatively non-traditional I was not necessarily big into academics I was more of a liberal arts kind of a guy and so after after college I was I was really into

6:12 Hospitality do. And so I joined a hospitality company out of Atlanta and for the next 15 years I ran a pretty substantial portfolio of restaurants in the Atlanta Charlotte areas in North Carolina. And so I did that for 15 years. I then went on to doing some consulting specifically in the hospitality sector and I did that for seven years in Chicago and and then two years I spent in a country called Bise. It's it's a small central American country where I spent a couple of years and and that was primarily in the call center industry. I actually opened a pretty pretty large call center from ground up from you know generating the least the construction the whole nine yards the hiring of the folks training development mentoring and kind of getting it off the ground it's a two-year project there that I spent in Bise and and then the

7:13 Last 10 years I was in Dallas and in Dallas I was in the facilities industry in the facilities management industry and so we had some large Fortune 500 companies one of which was my client for those 10 years. So, you know, four jobs in in 30 years, if you want to call it, relatively stable, I would say non-traditional. the experience was was great. I think I really enjoyed my time in the US. the education of course was was very good. It was very solid. the work I think the the big advantage in the US is things are very organized. They're very structured. They're very disciplined. So, so you learn that, right? You learn how to conduct yourself and comport yourself professionally. You learn interpersonal skills, you know, the soft skills. so, so you know, I learned a lot, met a lot of really really talented people. I really enjoyed it. So, I I enjoyed

8:16 There. I think what started to kind of get to me towards the end, it's it's kind of probably one of the reasons that I ended up moving back was I think what happens is you know as you as you climb in your career and you get a little bit higher up the corporate side tends to become really political and so you know there's a lot of administrative work there's a lot of HR related work And you're spending less time on what you like to do and more time on these kind of u administrative things and and you have to make some hard decisions, you know, you know, terminating people that you necessarily don't want to terminate because of, you know, because of bottom line requirements. So as you go up, those things kind of start weighing on you a little bit. And you you want to kind of get away from that, right? So I I think I had a great time. I I learned a lot. Very very

9:16 Positive experience in the US. but yeah, I think overall it was a positive experience. Obviously certain challenges like you would have anywhere. No, thanks a lot for sharing that overview of your journey. So sounds like I think

9:31 You know very successful career, life is good as you said. so why the thought of India? For how long has that thought been going on and why the move in 2024? Honestly, I think I've I pretty much always wanted to move back. It was always kind of in the back of my mind and and looking back retrospectively, I don't even think I really wanted to go to the US. I I just went because kind of it was a family thing. My brother was there, all the kids were going, so I said, "Okay, I might as well go as well." So, I just went and and things worked out. But I always in the back of my mind kind of wanted to come back and there was something about the US and and once again I stress it was a very very positive experience but I was never really call it intellectually, spiritually, morally really stimulating, right? I found it quite boring. and

10:32 And I equate the the the America, the American experience, the US experience to vanilla ice cream, right? Like, who doesn't like vanilla ice cream? Everyone loves vanilla ice cream, right? And you know, if you have a hankering for vanilla ice cream, you'll probably love vanilla ice cream. Okay? But it's vanilla ice cream, okay? There's nothing special about it. it's predictable. So, so it that was one thing that I found a vacuum. I I was just never really stimulated. So, in the back of my mind, I always kind of wanted to come back and then, you know, it started out back here and then every every subsequent year started coming a little bit further and a little bit further ahead and what really kind of tipped it over the edge was was was co when COVID hit and and I have older parents.

11:27 My dad is almost 90. He's going to turn 90 in August. My mom is is almost 80. Well, she is 80 now. so when COVID hit and obviously that was devastating pretty much all over the world but even more so here especially among older people and not somehow or the other my parents survived like they they didn't get you know a single COVID issue my brother actually came and he ended up getting CO but my parents never did. So when my parents survived and everyone around them, you know, in our neighborhood and and some family and friends when they started passing away, it really made me consciously think of spending time with them. You know how many other years they they have, I wanted to come back and spend time with them. And this kind of gave me the impetus to make the move. we we also have a house, you know, we have tenants.

12:29 There's work. it's difficult for my dad who's now 90 to to take care of all of those things as certain responsibilities. so I I really kind of put that into motion and it's very difficult to leave the US in the sense that there is always a reason to not leave the US, right? It's whether it's whether it's it's a a personal thing, whether it's a professional thing, there's always a reason. But but once that once COVID happened I said okay I am going to now put this on turbo and figure out a way to go back and so you know I I drew a date I said okay this is going to be the date obviously there are financial considerations you want to get to a certain amount certain nest egg and I said you know what once I hit that on that date I'm done and so it was a hard call but honestly I I I just couldn't be happier. It's it's the best thing that's that's ever happened to me.

13:28 Certainly the best thing that's happened in a long time. Got it. Understood. So it's I think the realization and then making a conscious decision to move and then just acting on it. So I think you kind of gave an indication right. So you had a specific date in mind and then kind of working out which is a nice segue into the preparedness. Maybe you

13:46 Can talk about some of the planning that you have done. And I think you kind of mentioned about certain corpus amount, certain things that has to be taken care, you know, especially for someone who was living in US per 30 plus years, right? So can you shed some of the light in terms of your preparation for moving to India? Yeah. So for me it was actually relatively simple. So a I'm not well I'm divorced. I don't have I I don't have a wife and and I don't have kids. I I actually I did have a child. He was born with a lot of complications and we lost him at a very early age. So I I don't have a wife and I don't have kids. so for me it was just a question of making the decision of liquidating what I had there in terms of physical assets, right? So houses and cars and things like that. And so so that's one side of the business. and and on on the other side is the actual financial planning. So the actual

14:49 Liquidation of the assets was relatively simple. Sold the house, you know, gave away a bunch of things because I was not coming back. I'm not one I was not going to be one of those guys coming back either a with a job or b with a bunch of stuff, right? I didn't want to do that. So that was relatively simple, just a liquidation of things. And then on the financial side, I think this is this is pretty interesting in the sense that you know you can go down a rabbit hole here that you can never get out of it because you can start trying to itemize things and what is it going to cost and and I've seen so much stuff on YouTube, you know, there there's so much information out there that that you could just get wrapped up in the details, right? And you can't see the forest from the trees. But for me it was actually relatively simple. I mean I looked at it and I said okay. So there's there are really three things here that matter. A is what city are

15:49 You going to be moving to? Right. So obviously moving to Mumbai versus moving to Kolkata is different cost of living. So that that's that's one. two is what what is the age and what is the portfolio? What is the corpus that you need? So, obviously, if you're retiring at 30, you're going to need a significantly larger corpus than if you're retiring at 50. So, I'm retiring at 53. So, I'm retiring at 53. I'm moving to Kaza. And then, you know, what are your expenses, right? Do you have kids? If you have kids, how old are they? How long are you going to have to pay for the education, school to college? And then probably the biggest thing is you know what is your lifestyle going to be? Yeah. Right. So what are your expenses going to be? I think I think that's important. So for me it was actually you know 53 I'm moving to Katha where I have a family

16:49 Home and I want to live comfortably but I don't want to live ostentatiously. I'm not going to just spend money for the sake of spending money, but I want to live comfortably. I want to be able to make trips, you know, a couple trips domestically a year. I want to make an international trip, if not every year, certainly every other year. And so I came up with a with with a multiplier, which was essentially 45 times my annual expenses. That's the math that I came up with. at 53 if I have 45 times my annual expenses that's enough to cover me comfortably you know all the way through. the other thing is that I have I have my investments in the US and you know in very very simple kind of index mutual funds and in the US the S&P as we call it the S&P has historically since its inception it's

17:49 Returned about 10 and a half% a year and inflation adjusted is about 6 and a half%. It's about 6 and a half% real. Now you know people will say well but you know that that's not good enough because the inflation in India living in India the inflation is higher. So inflation is high. true but historically also the the US dollar has significantly appreciated over over the Indian rupee right it has its ups and downs. So it it kind of offsets it. So I I think all said and done you're still getting about six and a half 7% pretty pretty consistently. And at 45 times, you know, I I thought that was plenty to kind of get me through. So, so those were the things. First was kind of liquidation of actual assets. Obviously, there is the banking thing, banking side. You have to set all that stuff up.

18:36 But yeah, once I came up with the number, I got there, I said it's time to move. Yeah, makes sense. So, thanks a lot for sharing you know, details about the corpus. I think the 45X as you mentioned, it's a super conservative, right? I think you know just to make sure that you have enough buffer and perfectly makes sense. So how was the

18:57 Experience of the life in India? I mean for someone who spent majority of your life abroad, how is it like living in India now? I love it. I I I love everything about India. I think specifically Kolkata. I love I love Kolkata. I kind of grew up here. My grandparents was here. So I have an emotional connection with the city. but yeah, I think I I just love everything about about India. I love the vibrancy. I love the dynamism. I love the culture. I love, you know, the morning walks around the neighborhood, the evening walk. By the way, no one walks in the US, right? You can go through the entire city of Dallas and if you see someone, you're questioning the sanity of the person like why is the person walking? But here, everyone walk.

19:48 So, I just love the outdoorsy kind of thing. you know, the informality, you know, everyone is talking to everyone. You know, people are just dropping by in the evenings. No one drops by in the evenings. Like, in the US, someone picks up the phone and says, "Okay, you know, are you free next Friday?" Like, that kind of stuff just doesn't happen here. It's just so much more informal and casual. And so, I just love that. I also have very, very close friends. In fact, my core group of friends that I went to school with, have done different things and gone different places, but they're all still here. They've come back. So, my core group of, boys that I grew up with in school are still, so my closest friends are here, and, you know, we meet once a week, sometimes twice a week. So, it's been great. I think obviously there are expectations that maybe we can talk about things that have been a little bit difficult, things that have been pretty easy and seamless, but but I

20:49 Love it. I I just love how casual life is. how relaxed everyone is, especially coming from the rat race in the US, which is a rat race. I mean, it's a treadmill of life in the US. It very very difficult to get off the treadmill. but yeah I I just love everything about I just love everything about India. That's fantastic. So again

21:13 I think going back to this like someone spending three decades abroad right? Three 30 plus years. What are some of the things that surprised you like in a positive way and negative way after the move? Yeah. So so interesting. A couple of positive things that have absolutely blown me away are more so in the technology space. I am just amazed at the fintech se sector specifically UPI. You know, the ability to pay for a 10 rupee cup of tea to the local vendor outside my house all the way up to buying a car via your cell phone without ever taking out cash, without ever taking out a credit card is absolutely unbelievable to me. This cashless, this credit cardless system is unparalleled.

22:13 In the US, we have some something like it, Apple Pay, but Apple Pay is certainly not utilized everywhere. Not everyone accepts it. So, you're always pulling out a credit card or you're pulling out cash or you're swiping or something like that. So, so the whole UPI sector is just absolutely amazing how this has occurred in India. how essentially money has come a little bit overground and every little vendor, the guy selling fish, the guy selling tea, everyone takes up. I think that is just absolutely spectacular. the second thing that has absolutely kind of you know put me over the top is this this instant delivery of products. you know the the blanket this culture of being able to get things so quickly is is just amazing to me.

23:09 Be my parents obviously before I came they they didn't use any of this stuff right they didn't use UPI they didn't know anything about blanket and I kind of got them on to it but it just it has transformed the shopping experience it's made life so much more convenient specifically in India where pretty much everything is a little inconvenient like it's not easy to get things done but here you know you order whatever it is you need in 10 minutes, sometimes less than that. It's here. It's here in like five minutes. those two things is just amazing that my mom, you know, the girl that's working in the house says, "Oh, we need something. We need onions or we need potatoes and she bring kids in in five minutes here or here." I'm I'm amazed. I mean, I have Amazon Prime in the US and that takes like a day or 36 hours to come, right? So, I think those two things have just blown me away. UPI is just great and and this

24:09 Instant delivery of products. on the negative side, I don't think I've really encountered anything negative. I will say this, okay, so so this might get me into a little bit of trouble, but I'm going to go ahead and say, okay, a couple of things here that that are interesting and and kind of a bothered me the first place. So, one is the WhatsApp you. I get a hundred of these videos from some whether it's a political video now it's India Pakistan before that it's cricket something like all day and you might be on multiple groups and so your mom sends it to you and then she forwards it to the same WhatsApp group now you get it twice and then three this whole culture of sharing it's like we're all watching the same cricket match

25:10 We're all watching the same India Pakistan thing I don't need like 500 of these things showing up on my WhatsApp. Okay, so that's one. Put the hell aside. That drives me crazy. So I I've actually like told people, guys, I I hate to say it. I I just don't watch this stuff, so please don't send it. Okay, that's good. So that's one. And and the second thing is the news here, right? The television news. Everyone on the news is screaming and yelling. Okay, the anchor is screaming. He'll have a panel of seven or eight people. They're all screaming. I don't know what to hear. I don't know what to listen to. So, the minute those guys come, and by the way, my dad listens to all of this stuff. So, this is running like nonstop, okay? And all of these channels have these highly provocative guys, over-the-top

26:11 Personalities, you know, very loud and abrasive. So, he's listening to this all the time. The minute that stuff comes on, I just put on my earbuds. I'm done. I'm out. So, so the WhatsApp culture of forwarding videos, the notifications, I had to silence the minute I came to India. I have to silence all the notification. That was driving me bananas. That and the news, everyone is screaming at everyone. I don't know why they're screaming, but they're all screaming. And I guess they're all screaming because for the most part, that's what the customer wants to see. I guess they like that. They like that kind of stuff. And, you know, the service said do that. If you're just going to sit and and deliver the news, you're not going to be popular. So, I'm good with that. I just put my earpods on and I'm good. So, you know, a couple of really good things on the technology side and a couple of things that not big in the grand scheme of things and I found ways around it. So, I'm good. So, I think those are a couple of things.

27:09 Wow. Definitely some interesting perspectives there for sure. so just

27:16 Want to check in on I know I think one of the reason that you moved is to be with the parents, right? I think you know spending some time and all that stuff. So how is that going? How is how how are they enjoying it? And how are you you know enjoying it and some of the you know especially in the last one year? anything that you can share from your journey thus far? Yeah. So you know they're doing great. touchwood. my dad who by the way is turning 90 says my coming back has given him 10 years more of life. Okay. Got to be 100. So So that's great. They're doing very well in great great health. My mom is overall in great health. She has some arm issues, but cognitively they're very very I mean they're very solid and and and quite active. the move back I think has been has been a help for them more so for probably my mom in the sense that

28:17 She she takes care of the house. She's, you know, she's taken care of the house all these years. And anytime my dad would go out, if we'd go to the bazaar or something like that, you know, she'd be pacing. She knows that him to the bazaar and back is like 45 minutes. So on the 46th minute, she's going to be standing outside looking out the thing, looking out and seeing where is he coming. Now she might give him a couple minutes. In the 47th minute, if he's not here, she's going to call him. And if he doesn't pick up the phone, now she's panic. Okay. So, so now this has been delayed because I go to the bazaar with my dad. I don't let him go anywhere. He's still driving, by the way. He's 89 years old. He's turning 90 and he's still driving around. I've had to reduce the perimeter of his driving. So, now it's just kind of Salt Lake to airport and back this side. and nothing at night. But now I'm going with him everywhere. And so yeah, I think it's

29:17 Been very helpful and with the degradation of my mom's arm, it's been difficult for her to lift up things. So I'm helping around the house and I think you know my being here obviously has given them some some strength. Yeah. Not just in the house but also also companionship and being here and and it it was important to me. I I I really wanted to spend time with them. I think I've been able to do that. I've been able to balance it a little bit. You know, I have my own time. I kind of go out with my friends a little bit. and and I use kind of a variation of the 8020 rule. The 8020 rule basically say, you know, 20% of people do 80% of the work. Well, I I use a variant of this. I spend 80% of my time at home and 20% of my time with my friends. So that's the 8020 rule for me. so yeah, I I think it's been great for me. Very very satisfying, very cleansing, kind of cathartic for me. and my parents seem to be enjoying it too. That's fantastic. Great to hear and thanks for sharing that.

30:20 So to wrap it up like any advice for the people who are considering to move moving to India like what would be your advice and how should they approach it? One is you you have to understand that one of the most underrated parts of the move back to India if you are moving back in a full-time basis right is the importance of a social network I I think this is highly underrated you know if you are a person that is moving back to India after 20 years and you just decide because of whatever reasons financial so on and so forth that I'm moving to Bangalore both of them and you don't have a built-in social network, whether it's friends, whether it's family, it's going to be very difficult for you. a you're going to get bored and very quickly and b you are going to struggle to make friends. Specifically at at my age at

31:22 53, it's very difficult to make new friends, right? and and and the friends that you make are going to be more acquaintances. The relationships are going to be a lot more cosmetic. so I think you really need to take that into account. You know, how is the social network for you? Do you have friends? are they busy with their own lives? You know, what's their situation? How are you going to be able to to adjust to that? That I think that's very very underrated. I think two is have realistic expectations. you're moving to India. The reason for disappointment in life is because we have expectations, right? We plan and we're all excited and we're jazzed up about going to Paris. And so for the for six months, we were thinking about Paris and Eiffel Tower and Parisian food and all this kind of stuff. And you go to Paris and you're like, "Okay, it's not all that is cracked up to be." Well, it's not all that is cracked up to be because you

32:22 Build this up in your head that that this is what your expectations are, right? You're moving to India. Have realistic expectations. I have in fact for all experiences I have almost no expectation or very low expectations. I'm very rarely disappointed. So understand right I mean for a person on the outside looking in like a lot of will say this they'll say oh but you know life in India so easy you know you can have help and you can get stuff delivered and you don't have to cook and you don't have to clean and so so they have this this kind of romantic idea and and and those are all true but it's not that easy okay life in India is not as easy as people make it out to be specifically speifically for someone who's coming back. So have expectations that are real like you know don't don't have unrealistic expectation. If you think that you can come and you know a phone call to the

33:24 Bank takes care of all your banking concerns that doesn't occur. Okay. So have realistic expectation. And you know the third thing I I would say is is understand your financial the financial side of things right don't complicate it and don't let that stand in the way of of of your move back but but be comfortable and and live comfortably. You don't have to be living over the top but kind of spend some time there and understand it. And I think if you know if you have a good social network, you know, you have you're pretty solid on the financial side and your expectations are real and realistic, I think the move back is going to be fine. I don't think you're going to really struggle. No, very solid advice. a lot of important points to take away. really appreciate you kind of dling it into those three things. thanks a lot. So I think to

34:16 Wrap up the session I think you know we have like this rapid session where we would ask the questions and you can keep the answers short. so the first one is what's one thing you wish you knew before moving to India? I think I think overall I was pretty well prepared but I will say one thing that kind of surprised me not that I didn't know it but I didn't think it was going to be such an issue is that nothing in India gets accomplished on the phone like nothing okay you call someone they don't pick up if I'm talking about businesses I'm not talking about people I'm talking about businesses right you call the business they don't pick up if they pick up they say you got to come to the store. So nothing occurs on the phone in the US whether it's you know the DMV or you know the bank or your financial institution you pick up the phone you talk to someone they'll say okay go to

35:17 This website here they walk you through a few steps everything is done here you have to physically go to a brick and mortar location whether it's the post office the bank the driver's light it doesn't matter what it is right. So nothing gets accomplished on the phone. So for anyone who's looking to move back to India, remember that you have to go someplace to get something done. Almost nothing happens with the phone. Yeah. Got it. And so what's one habit N should develop before moving to India from your perspective? patience. I think you just have to be patient. you know things just move slower here things just move at the pace that they move India is not going to change for you you're going to have to change for India initially I think you know you'll get a little bit of culture shock you go to the local and I went to my dad has his pension in

36:18 Some LIC office and you walk into the LIC office and you see you know floor to ceiling files like paper files and you're thinking to yourself Okay, you know there's got to be a better way to do this. You know, you digitize it. Where are the computers? There's only like four or five computers, you know, crows and crows of money sitting here like four or five. But that's just the way it is. That's the way it works in India. you just have to be patient. So, if you're one of those people that's, you know, super regimented and disciplined and, you know, I'm going to do this at 8:00 and this must I'm going to be at this place by 9:02 and you're going to have to slow down like have patience here. Things just does not happen on that kind of a routine. Oh yeah, definitely. I think you need to have the patience to have things make it happen in India for sure.

37:12 It moves at its own pace. so the last one if you could sum up your experience in one word like you know the move back to India what would it be? exhilarating absolutely exhilarating it's you know cleansing for me. I am also a a passionate photographer and and so that's important to me. I've actually I've seen almost none of India. I even though I'm I was born here I've seen almost all of the US and a lot of the rest of the world but almost none of India. it's always been just kind of Kolkata Daram this this kind of thing and so I've I've wanted to to visit the rest of the country you know photograph festivals and the great landscapes. So really in this past year outside of going to Dariling you know I've been to Banaris and I've got that

38:12 Whole experience the religious experience of Banaris I just came back actually about a month ago from Imacho which is just another spectacular part I mean it's almost incomparable to anything that I've seen just the expanse of beauty is just unbelievable so yeah it's it's just been incredible I mean I got to spend you know Durau Puja last year which is a big thing I never culture and me and my friends last year over three and a half days we we saw 40 pujas like four or zero so it was like from 8:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night 40 pujas it was just amazing and it was so yeah it's just been so good it's been so colorful just refreshing and pure experiences it's been exhilarating No.

39:05 So yeah, thank you very much Mr. Sumit for a wonderful conversation. I really enjoyed lot of nuggets I think for people who are considering to move to India that they can take from our discussion today and I really appreciate and thank you very much for taking the time and sharing your journey with us. thank you very much Anash. It was it was great. and and I hope your channel continues to grow. I've gone through some of your content. very good and and hopefully a few things that that I want to over help some of the folks in the future and wishing everyone the best you know even if you even if you're not looking to move back this this content might be interesting to you so wishing everyone the best thank you for having me on no fantastic