Watch: After 10 Years in US, We Moved Back to India and Never Went Back to Tech | NRI

2:46 So, that was my motivation. Yeah, I think after my undergrad, I worked for about 1 year and even I wanted to go out of India to study because I wanted to like give a boost to my career and gain more knowledge but not in India because I also wanted to explore other countries and their education system and also get to work in other country other than India. So, I prepared for GRE and TOEFL and I also wanted to come to San Jose because again it is Silicon Valley and I could get more exposure to the tech field in general. So, I got admission in San Jose State. >> Got it. And which year did you move to US?

3:33 >> I moved in 2013 and Deepika moved in 2014. We met there only and that's how we got to know each other and then we got married and then life continued. >> And the destiny defined that both of you want to choose San Jose and that you meet there. So, that's great. So, how was the life? I know the main motivation is to boost in the career, you know, work in a different countries, get the experience. How was the life in Silicon Valley and in US? >> Yeah, good. >> Yeah, the life was actually I mean, first couple years were I mean, a struggle because staying away from home was a new thing and especially in a new country and basically looking after yourself for everything.

4:23 That was a challenge, but other than that I also got to develop like other parts of my personality that I couldn't develop in India. and just I made good friends there because you know, you live with roommates, you make a lot of friends. So, that part was also good. the only difficult part was staying away from home for such a long time that you know, you couldn't just go home every like few months. >> You have to wait for 1 year at least to go home. That was the difficult part, but other than that everything was good. >> Yeah, I think similar thing for me when we when I moved there, being I I'm an extrovert, so exploring new places was something that I really love really love. And along with that, work and everything was there. Being in US definitely was attractive and when she moved there, I did not face challenges as Deepa mentioned where you know, living with new people or finding new people. I I did not have any problem with that and made really good friends. we you know, overall circle that we built there was really good. And

5:24 As as she said, missing family was the only you know, kind of an issue. but then yeah, now we are back, so we feel good about it. >> Okay, cool. What about on the career side? I mean, that was one of the major motivation. Like how did that accelerate? Any anything that you can share on that? And also like maybe on the immigration side, where were you in that journey also? I'll start for this. So, work wise we are doing good. I after graduation since I was in Silicon Valley itself, internship opportunities were good. I did my internship at Juniper Networks and then full-time job also was fairly easy in the area because there are multiple companies there. It was not difficult to get jobs.

6:09 Especially if you are prepared like the way we should be prepared. >> [clears throat] >> pretty easy in the area. >> And when we left US, I was working at Intuit and in a product based company where they're working on QuickBooks. It was fairly good experience working on different aspects of products. Getting to see things that you worked on go live and get customer feedbacks and things like that. It was amazing overall. I mean, I loved working there. I already had worked in India for 2 years. >> I'd say working experience in US was much better than how it was in India. >> I I think technology wise definitely in the US. So I got more opportunities and more exposure because we had career fairs in in our university. We could also go to career fairs at other places.

7:02 There were like conferences and stuff like that which we could go to as students which I don't think I could have got those opportunities in India that easily. So being there really helped me like make connections and just it was accessible for me to reach like recruiters or people working in the companies that I wanted to work in easily and talk to them. I think that is that was a definitely a bigger advantage of being there in Silicon Valley. >> And I mean, I was also in Intuit so we had that same experience of like GED twice a year and doing something of your own that doesn't have to be anything related to the work that you do. Just any idea that you have that you want to bring to life you could do that and that was pretty good, so. >> Got it. So, pretty much I think you both traveled the same path.

7:51 >> [laughter] >> so sounds like I think you pretty much spent most entire time in US in Silicon Valley only in the Bay Area. Yeah. >> no, not me actually. After my graduation, I moved to like I got a job in Cerner, so the company was in Kansas City. So, I was there for 3 years. So, after my graduation I moved there for 3 years and then I moved back to Bay Area because I got another job and then I moved. I wanted to move back. So, that happened. So, not entirely like all the time but like 3 years or so I was in a different state.

8:23 >> Great. So, sounds like I think you know, good opportunities, good work, good life balance. So, why the thought of moving back to India? So, when did it start occurring to you and when it solidified and what are the reasons? >> I think moving back to India was always on our minds. It was not like a It was not an overnight decision. We always knew we wanted to move back but when is the real question because you are never really prepared to move back. It's a big decision and you can't just like get up one day and decide you want to go back. So, we would discuss about it on and off but not really knowing what we will do in India, where we'll stay, when do we really want to move, should we stay for a few more years? Like these are all the questions that we faced. and I think the major we had our baby and after that, it like really struck me that, you know, I experienced like lack of support

9:25 India, I knew I would have a lot more help, lot more support system. Both of our parents were there but they went after a few months. Yeah. And then like obviously my child was still young and we both we managed it but we just thought that you know there's not so much of a support system and now that we have our baby we don't want her to like grow up here and then usually we hear about things that children grow up and then they don't want to go to India. We didn't want to face that. So we thought maybe it's the right time now. And something about after having a baby something changed in our minds that we thought okay let's it's okay now let's move it's already been almost a decade I think yeah a decade in the US. So that's enough time how many more years you know what else can we do here and so we started taking that thought seriously.

10:14 >> Yeah yeah that was basically the turning point. >> Yeah and as she said we used to discuss it a lot in between you know even with friends also everyone used to talk about this like you know I want to go back I want to be with my friend family things like that. I think COVID also played a big role here during COVID and seeing them and you know just talking to them on video call or even not able to talk to them was very difficult to you know reality >> and luckily nothing bad happened but being there so far away in a critical time was a very difficult place to be in.

11:04 >> So sounds like I think the you know with the baby that's when I think you know it's kind of triggered and you know made the decision moving forward. What were your thoughts in terms of like you know the career is one of the reason to move to US but as we were talking earlier the opportunities the technology and all the other stuff are good in US. So how did you evaluated that one I think or anything on the finances was there any milestones also that you were tracking yes the support system and all the stuff decade is a long time. Is there something that you felt like yes, this is a right time because of other things that you are tracking, you know, yes, the kid support and all that stuff is there. Is there anything that else you are also like, you know, tracking or you know, helped in decision-making? >> I think for this the finances make a big, you know, decision-maker. Financial decision is very critical in this.

11:52 We because we both were working and we were working in a good company, we were financially I feel good. We made some calculations. We definitely saw a lot of videos from DC return where you know, people talking about their finances, people talking about fire and things like that. So, we made our calculations on that. We made sure that we have enough to sustain a good life in India and we knew that we are still young. After going to India, we can definitely do something that we like. We already thought of some of the ideas, you know, which we can implement after coming to India, business point of view. And we were sure that, you know, if we put the right mind and we have resources to start something new, we can definitely do great. >> More of rather than being limited to only tech as we were in in the US, we are now free to do what we want to do.

12:40 >> As as the thing that we are working on right now is something that we never could have thought that we would have we would work in this industry. But India gave us that freedom to, you know, do whatever we want to. So, after we kind of figured out our finances, it was just a decision of coming here and analyzing how things are, what businesses are there, where we can, you know, invest our money and invest our time. That's what we figured out after coming here and it's been going well. >> Great. Cool. So, maybe let's talk a little bit about on the planning side, right? I think

13:16 I know like when the baby was born like maybe after a year, year and a half is when I think you actually made the move. Like how did you think through like, you know, career side, logistics side, financial planning? Like you know, I know you touched a little bit. Maybe if we can talk through these three different verticals, I think that would be very helpful, you know, how do you thought through the process? I think from career perspective like even though we got all the opportunities and had this experience in the US, but there was also like a plateau in the career and kind of being like at least I know I wasn't Chetan also was thinking about this a little bit that now that we are moving back to India, we are not restricted to only tech field because we are not in visa and stuff like that. So both of us like didn't want to go back to tech.

14:08 As it talked about getting the freedom that you want whatever want to you want to do you can do it in India. So that definitely made us think about there's no need to go back to tech and there's already like we have spent this many years, we can explore something different. So coming back back from the US, we already knew that we would not go back to tech. so that helped us decide where we want to live because if you wanted to go back to into software jobs, we would have a few options only. Back Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad mainly. So we were not limited to only those options. We could move to any city we wanted to that we liked. So career wise that was definitely a decision that we have we had already made.

14:55 >> coming back to India. And about the finance, I think he can tell more because he was really involved in doing the financial planning and all of that more than me. >> I would really like to thank you Avinash and the Desi Ritam community for this. When we made the decision, you know, that we are now moving back, I first thing I pulled out was the checklist that you had on your website, like planning your move, how many months ago, what should be ready and things like that. Really really helpful. We actually planned according to that only and all the existing videos that are there helped us a lot in making the planning for this move. As I said, our finances were kind of sorted, you know, all the backups and everything that we need to do expenditure here, do investment here.

15:44 And our investment in the US also were giving good returns. So we were in a good place financially. And all the planning that was needed was actually thanks to you and Desi Ringtones community that we were able to implement all those things on time and the move was smooth. And as Deepika pointed out, we were not bound to a tech city like Bangalore or Pune or Hyderabad for that matter. And we took a decision for this based on what kind of weather we like. Like we were in San Jose, California, right? So the weather was very good there. And we wanted to be in Maharashtra as we are Maharashtrians. We wanted to be in Maharashtra, then Nashik was definitely one of the cities where you know the weather is really good. So we did not have any limitation on where we should be. So we decided the city that we want to be in and Nashik definitely is proving out to be one of those beautiful places. The place where we purchased our home is near the Godavari river river. So we can see the river from our window. It's pretty good.

16:45 And we we are really happy about the how it worked out, you know, the place where we are living, what we are doing right now. So the overall planning went really well. Yeah. Thanks again to you guys. >> No, I appreciate it.

17:00 So I mean it's very interesting. I mean we never hear a lot of people choosing Nashik, right? I think you know, because they you know, go like the typical like hubs of the IT jobs or something. You mentioned about the family. Is the family very close to Nashik or like is there some something that you are attached to Nashik beforehand or is it just like you kind of like open the entire area of Maharashtra and Nashik fits some of the check marks or like how did you choose Nashik? >> Yeah, so we actually got married in Nashik. >> Oh, okay. >> Deepika's family >> Our extended family actually lives in Nashik. >> my a lot of my relatives are in And Chetan had been to Nashik during our wedding and also like other relatives wedding and stuff like that. So, he already liked Nashik's weather and everything. and also compared to like Mumbai or other cities we did not want any like the traffic, the pollution, like those things we didn't want to encounter every day.

17:55 >> So, we thought of not going to like a tier one or like a metropolitan city before those things. And we we were okay going to a tier two city because we get a mix of both. We get like the positives of being in a city but also the but we don't get the negatives of being in like in a metropolitan city. so all those things like coming together Nashik fit that puzzle well. So, what was your immigration status at the time of the move? if you're open to tell about it. >> Both were on H-1B. My there were priority date and all were assigned for both of us. But you never know how long it would have taken. yeah, so it was in a stage where soon it could happen. But then you never know what could affect it.

18:44 You know, different circumstances, political or geopolitical circumstances that are happening right now. we we feel that you know, it was a good great time that when we left. >> Got it. So, let's talk about this freedom to

19:01 Do whatever you want and you know, what are the different opportunities that you looked at and how did it go? Because I know some people wants to do that but it's just because of different reasons that got restricted like anything that you can share on that side. initially I was planning to do farming. Organic farming was the thing that I initially wanted to do. After coming here, I noticed that, you know, if you don't have existing land, at least 10 acre or something, 5 acre or 10 acre, it's difficult to start a new farming venture. Cuz purchasing a land right now is tricky. Even though, you know, finances are there, but investing that much money into farm a new farm specially was kind of a difficult decision that we realized after coming here. >> then we started looking into what else we can do. That was one of the primary things that we wanted to do, right? So, switching from that, then I did some sessions with ChatGPT, you know, asking about what all is there in India, what business opportunities are there.

19:59 What kind of businesses you can go into without any prior background, you know, of working in that business. So, given our technical background, ChatGPT suggested that consulting can be something for companies that you can do. Or laundry business, which we are actually we got into laundry and dry cleaning business, which we got into later, was one of the suggestions there, you know, that this is something where if you take a franchisee, you don't have to have, you know, background knowledge about it. You can gain it in a very short time. And it's it works well as well. So, that's where that's where we got introduced to this company called UClean, and it's a premium laundry dry cleaning franchise business. Deepika actually did more research on that, you know, which company to go with, what are their ups and downs.

20:47 There are different providers definitely in the market. >> But then she did the research about which company is good, and in Nashik which company we can start with. And then we we went in with the we opened our first store in Nashik itself. Which we took we took a franchise from UClean for that store. >> And when we are operating that store, we felt this is a good business as a side business. Really good. Wherein, you know, the business can run by itself after four or something months. You know, when you build the customer base. it is highly recommended that you be there as a store owner to be in the store for first four, five months because you know, the efforts that you can put in for your own business, no one else can. So, that way it worked really well and looking at the results from there, I felt that you know, I should we should open more stores. Because this is a side business, you can do your regular thing as well along with it and the earnings can keep coming. So, we were going to open new stores as well and then I got

21:49 To know about you know, this thing that the franchises normally give master franchises for states. So, the UClean team reached reached out to me saying, "Sir, you're trying to get get more stores. Do you want to are you interested in master franchise rights for the state itself?" me, you know, after software engineering I felt this kind of a role where you know, it's you are in you know, educating people about the investment in the business, might get and you know, how the store setups and all done. So, overall this appealed a lot to me. So, that's how we grew in this UClean franchise all over Maharashtra >> Okay. Congratulations and I know it's a different world than what you used to in a day-to-day side, but I think it's a different experience. That's what you wanted to enjoy. So, yeah.

22:41 I'm assuming both of you are working on the same like the business or is it yeah? >> So, no. I think Chetan is more involved in it. I discussed about it in the beginning. Then he obviously he got interested also and then he is now actively involved in all the UClean work and I am like I have taken a backseat. We'll discuss about things. We do all of that, but it is definitely more involved. Talking about getting that freedom in India after coming to India for about a year and a half I we were doing the UClean work, but I was not like actively working anywhere doing a job or doing anything. And that felt very freeing because I cannot imagine being in the US and definitely on visa, that's one thing, but even without visa to manage expenses in the US, your house EMIs and all of those things adding up, you cannot be like, "Okay, I'm going to take a break for 1 year and not work." >> Getting that opportunity and freedom in India is really like refreshing. So,

23:41 It was not really really a break because I have a young child and I had other things like we moved to a different house and I I was doing the other work. >> Yes. >> But I didn't have to worry about like earning for that time because there were other things going on and Chetan was already doing it, so I got that freedom for sure. >> career-wise, now that Chetan's completely involved in in the UClean business thing, I am actually exploring a few opportunities and I'm thinking of few ideas and I'm going to do something of my own and not really be in the UClean thing. So, both of us can do our own things. >> Yeah, that's that's the plan for now. >> That's great. All the best with that. One thing I would definitely want to highlight, taking care of a kid is not something you know that can be you know taken away from her. I really appreciate the the In India, definitely there is help, house help and everything is there, but you still have to you know keep engaged >> To get everything done. So, phenomenal thing that she was able to get done along with exploring her own interests

24:42 As well. That's great. So, I know it's been about 1 and 1/2 year and for someone who have lived in

24:52 The tech side and that too in a big metro in US. Moving to Nashik, non-IT. How is the life day-to-day? Did you ever miss like you know the structure, like you know the professional I don't know about the professionalism, but it's a different kind of environment, right? So, that's one thing and then the kind of people that you interact in like a tier two city. So, in general like how has the life been like when you compare and did you miss anything from US? >> There are definitely differences between the systems in the US and the systems in India. It took us about 6 months to a year to get adjusted to the way people work here. I think it might also differ based on the city that you live in because we live in Nashik. There it's a little slower I would say as compared to maybe if you would have lived in Mumbai or you know Delhi or any other like Bangalore or other city like that.

25:39 But they there is there is like we get used to a certain structure when we are in the and we expect things to happen according to that structure, but when we are in India, it doesn't work that way. Like there's a lot of there is there's a lot of human con- like human interaction is dependent more on that more than any like >> It's follow-up, constant follow-up. >> Yeah, you need constant follow-ups. That thing those things happen. We are now used to it, but sometimes it still bumps us out. you need some time to adjust to that definitely. >> Yeah, something similar for me as well especially when you want to get some work done. you have to take constant follow-ups as I said. and it's kind of a part of the process here is what I feel. And people are used to it here in India and it will take some time to get used to it. It's I won't say it's bad per se. It's bad for you know not getting the work done on time, but it's kind of part of the

26:39 System is what I feel. There are people who actually don't you know do things like this, but I would still say you know bigger chunk still you have to take a lot of follow-ups to get some work done. and I won't say it's bad for India's point of view. It's just that how things work here. >> But there is scope for improvement for sure, I would say. Yeah. >> Got it. And how are things with your daughter? I mean that's also another reason to move to India. How is she liking it here and how are things? >> Yeah, I think she loves it. Yeah, she loves it here. From the day we landed here, she was we we landed here just one day before her first birthday. >> From that day itself, even though she hadn't met like my in-laws or even my family, like she had but she was an infant that time.

27:31 So she didn't remember them. She would just talk to them on video calls. But she got so like she was so happy seeing them. She got mixed up very well. And she definitely enjoys here more I think than she would have been in in the US because she gets to be with her grandparents, her aunts, uncles. They spoil her. They show so much love. That definitely she would have missed. This was definitely one of the reasons that we came to India because we wanted her to experience that bond with our extended family as well. >> Not just with us as parents, but we would also also wanted that she would have a bond with her grandparents, her uncles, her aunts, her cousins. She would have great relationship with them So we can see that in in reality. So yeah, we are very happy about it and we are happy that she is happy here. She is thriving, I would say.

28:18 >> Also the place where we you know purchased our flat at home, that place has a lot of other houses as well and she has a lot of friends when going out for evening plays >> In the community, yeah. >> or even morning walks and all. We see a lot meet a lot of people. So she is a kind of a person who will you know try to talk to everyone or you know just be so smile at everyone and she's making a lot of friends. We are very happy about that part. And her schooling will soon start and we are again looking forward to you know she making more friends here and you know being them there with them.

28:57 Is there anything that we haven't covered that you want to bring up? you know, that would help the audience. >> Yeah, in our case because we we're not in technology domain when we wanted to leave. I would suggest that for people who want to be in the domain, definitely they should switch internally in their company, come here. It will definitely save a lot of money in that process. We felt a little bit of burn there where you know we had to make arrangement by ourselves. It is highly recommended that people do an internal switch, come here and later if they want, you know, obviously if they want to continue with the company, great. If not, they can switch here or something. that that is definitely better way to you know come here, bring most of the things that you are used to in the US. You can bring them here easily. with us there was a limitation on you know weight that we can carry, how much you want to pay for you know overall stuff that you want to move here. So we had to leave some of the items that were kind of dear to us.

29:59 We took most of the items but still I would recommend you know people who are planning definitely think about this. Especially with kids if they have something that is very important to them, make sure you are bringing all of them those things here and you know be here. And with the same company switch kind of helps. it cost point of view etc. So that is one thing and I feel people who are already living there, you know, who are in the US, definitely if you are doing great in your careers, very good. but when you are thinking about making a decision here, obviously make sure your finances are sorted. in living in India is difficult if you are low on money I would say. if you are financially sound, you have enough investments and you you know money with you, the lifestyle in India can be great for you and you can actually live a similar lifestyle as in US and have a great life here. So, that's what our experience has been so far.

30:58 >> Completely echo that. I think the finances plays a big role and that's something that people have to seriously consider and that changes the experience at the moment. was there anything that you would do differently knowing that you know you have lived here for well enough year? If you have to go back and redo any of your planning? >> Maybe buy more Amazon stocks in the past. >> Just kidding. But yeah, not not as such. Making this decision, giving it time and very important, you both partners should be aligned on this. Very important. >> you should know your why. Why is very important because if that's not strong enough, then you would always be dicey about the decision. If you have a strong why that you want to move to India and you know the reasons and you are fixed you are sure about it, then it becomes very easy to move because I think the mindset shift is more important than anything else because everything else can be sorted out.

31:54 Finances, okay, everything. You move, you're planning, everything will be done. But unless you set that in your mind that nothing can be done. So, I think knowing your reason and being sure about it is the first step. And everything else will will fall in place. >> For sure.