Watch: Single Mom Moved Back to India With Two Kids After Life in the US
Sahiti explains why Hyderabad, family support, affordable healthcare, and flexible work made her move back to India work.
The full write-up, with the numbers and the links.
Chapters
- 0:00 Introduction
- 1:00 Updates in the last 1 year
- 2:26 Surprises living in India
- 5:44 Any different planning?
- 6:50 Career opportunities
- 10:44 Life in India
- 12:10 Advice to returnees
Transcript
Auto-generated captions, lightly cleaned
0:02 A Neurologist Has Called Me Up and Said Your Husband Is Not Waking Up When I Went The First Vision After Her First Surgery He Was Talking Cheering Up Cracking Jokes Win The Nurse To The Vision Now He Was Literally On The Bed I Could See Him In Deep Sleep She Thinks That Is Her Family And She Is Happy But Come Back Home She Cries About Her Sister She Talks About Her Dad She Is She And Now I Am The Single Person To Answer All These Questions Is Tough For Me. I was late in back in the US. I would have been I would have had a really hard time. So but in Hyderabad in other bigger cities the health care is easily accessible. The setup that US and other countries have I feel India is very very good. [Music]
1:06 So thank you very much Sahiti for joining us again it's been about more than an year since we last spoke so what has been some major changes that happened in the last one year since you have been living in India has it been similar got better was you know how has the experience been so far or it's been one year but yes there is a lot of changes and I am really happy with the move that I did because personally for my situation it's like ah the kind of setup that I have and with two kids and and I want to focus on my career and thanks to Trump with all the news everyday things. I myself feel that I don't know how I took that decision but if I was there back in the US I would have been I would have had a really hard time so considering that and given to my situation it is working perfectly well my
2:07 Kids have got adjusted very well and ah they are getting all the extended family support and my parents love and pampering ah and they are spoiling them in their own way but we are enjoying it and it is going in a very good way I should say or that's good to here. And what are some surprises you know? Things that you didn't
2:27 Expect that you know, and kids have encountered that you didn't plan. I mean like not in a like see I saw the move as US all the countries that we come from like US, UK or Canada and whatever it is. If you compare I to I, yes, there are lots of things that India needs to be improved. But my ah I did not look at it that way. That world is different. India is different. And India has a long way to go in terms of development. At least I feel that infrastructure wise, pollution wise, yes. But in my case for I am stressing this in my case, in my situation, ah and in the with the set up that US and other countries have, I feel India is very very good. Here, like for women? Yes.
Read the full transcript (15 more sections)
3:20 At least in Hyderabad where I am living there is a lot of good safety. Like Sometimes I Come at 7:30 Late in the Night and 8:30. That's the Late I've Been 8:30. And I have office cabs. They have maps and the reports are being tracked. So the safety is very good. In that way and I am happy about it. And what I was surprised is I joined my kids in schools in school. And there were lots of parents and kids like what we did right. So my kid was in a school where all the kids are in a similar, like similar kind of environment. They moved from Norway and the Netherlands and Canada and America and my my dot found one person who was in a similar school in the same area and all of that. So she was very happy. And me and my neighbors were planning at the same time, right? So, we join together in one school. So, so, the setup is the
4:22 Same. The school is different but the setup is the same. So, They Talk Like My Daughter is like, She Totally Got Accommodated. No issues late. She initially had some issues to figure out with some friends, she slept for 48 hours after the move, and that's it. After that, she found, she went down and she got adapted to Friends and the fun part is like when I was here in India before the move. So, nothing much changed. Only the Country Changed, or. Ah like my daughter is getting to enjoy Halloween celebration, friends are there. So, those are the things that are surprising to me. To me, ah infrastructure, ah corruption, this is there. India has a long way to go. And I am I made peace with it.
5:09 That country is different. This country, this world is India, it is entirely different and their problems are entirely different. And we got adapted to easily. But what surprised me is that the kind of Indians are really rich. The Kind of Ah Expenses and the Kind of Cars and the Kind of Communities We Live In and the Kind of Celebrations Are Much Different From What I Got to See in My Childhood and Early 2012 and 2015 It Is Much Different Now That's What Surprised Me. Ya Ya Got It. So looking back right I mean you once you
5:45 Made a decision to move to India is there anything that you would have done differently from a planning perspective you know thinking and looking back or so I thought like I had a home so I could just pump in into that my own home but with the kind of with the kind of setup that I came in but I bought that home as a just young graduate and just ah ah two of us right? So that home is not suitable to my current needs. So I would have thought it over, given it a little more thought and planned it proper and got into a correct, right-as suitable home then. But I did not do that. So, I got into my home right away and then had to think again and revisit my decisions and then move to a better home. So I would have made that choice better. Or or thank you. So one more question on the career side. I know you wanted to focus on your career. You took a break. So
6:46 May you share your thoughts about the opportunities here at Work Life Balance? How has it been
6:52 Going for you? So far? Or. So in 2024 I stayed I think I came in 2024 or I stayed with my current organization with my current organization until September and so and then I took a break. I wanted like I had to travel every November then to Bangalore and it was and I wanted my family to be in Hyderabad so it was not going well so I thought I would take a break and I would see how it goes but then I didn't want to stay at home so I thought I should start preparing so I started giving interviews from November ah I think my experience with the US was like from November like Thanksgiving Christmas the market would be a little down but in India in 2024 that was not the case. I got lots of calls and like lots of calls meaning I was open to startups, bigger organizations and everything. Ah ah like if it was just me who was holding up to give those interviews. But the ah but the calls
7:54 Were ah I've been I've been getting. Like I've been getting startups. And I've been getting a bigger organization calls also. Ah but I took one at a time like I mean I started with startups interviewing reevaluating myself and then move to give different interviews and by ah by far I could make or by or by far and I could make two offers ah to no three of three offers and I had to pick one so I picked an organization like two where like ah one was my ex city startup and and the other was a bigger organization and the other was another startup. So it was me who had to decide. So I had picked an organization which would fit my current needs. Meaning I want like as an enthusiastic person I wanted to work for startup but it wouldn't fit my current need like meaning the pressure, work stress it wouldn't satisfy
8:55 My current important personal needs. So I thought I will take the bigger organization and that decision is very good I believed even now because it has been wonderful working with them so far and coming to work life balance and I work with an organization which is UK based. So the timings are like I am busy from afternoon meaning I start my work in the day ah day time only around 10 o clock. I go to office only for two days. It is two days work in the office and three days work from home. It is a very friendly environment and I was surprised more there because lot of my colleagues are returning from US are returning from UK. So that's another good ah surprise it was for me? Because Why Are All of Them Returning? Because wherever I see it's like a If You Want to See Something Orange You'll See Only the Orange Kind?
9:50 I even my colleagues are like my friends are also like they are back from US and UK and something like that. So that was surprising another thing. So, I start my work at 10 o'clock. But I am mostly busy from afternoon meaning now with the daylight savings from 2 to 6:30 6:37 I am very busy because I have to sync with the UK team and other things. So, and after 6:30 UK team peerards say that he and my leads also say that he it is 6:30 it is very lit for you. You should turn off your laptop and focus on your family. So that was the like that was very sweet. I mean like that was that it is helping me to focus on other things on the family front and the personal side. So it's been going very well.
10:40 Or That's Good to Hear. So if you have to
10:44 Summarize you know the journey in India so far in one word how do you describe it in one word it's hard or but if I if I have the comfort of saying in one sentence I would say like see as I put it earlier also I am not comparing earlier I to I ah India is very different western world is very different and and thankfully my kids have got adopted it very easily. Like my elder one who has spent like if you take her up in the middle of the night also she says i want to go back to my previous school meet my friends. That's Her Nostalgic Place Right? So may be her ah eventually her am would be going back to us probably. Right? So but for me ah ah for my situation India is being treating me very well. And things are going very good.
11:39 And personally I am not comparing it eye to eye. And I thank you for the exposure that I had with the West so that I can now see what is good, what is right and how to think. That is that exposure is helping me to take my life forward in India. That's what I can say. But I am not comparing it eye to eye. I would recommend anyone to not compare it to each other because India has a long way to go in terms of infrastructure. Yeah. Understood. And the last thing is is there anything that you would advise for people who are considering moving
12:10 To India? Or I I have been suggesting it to my friends also anybody like if we are like if we are settled in US for a good time now oh I wanted to highlight I missed that point I thank India for that for another thing that ah health care is like at my very easily affordable like I I don't know about internal villages internal towns and other things and there might be a lot of ah things that need to be changed but in Hyderabad in other bigger cities the health care is easily accessible if not one hospital like another hospital for my kids like every day they every month there would be some other situation right so I got health care wonderful health care wonderful doctors at no I mean like very easy or very easily that is very good and coming to advice I have like having been settled in
13:11 Western countries and we think for me it was never a home Two I like it two I like the free air hikes and all of that I it was never a home it was always like I came some sort of a vacation which is not which is and extending for a long time. So, if we want to go back home. Don't get scared. Don't think that we are downgrading our selves by moving to India. India is like ah there is lot of scope for development. And there are splendors of opportunities. And there are libraries. Or, ah there are lots of hug options too. There are more people here who are focused on fitness like, more than us. There are like lots of wonderful groups. Ah there are so many things happening and it will treat you better. Ah and consider that move if you have that in your mind one day to return and or. India is growing but never compare eye to eye. That's what I would say.
14:08 Yeah. Yeah. So yah. Thank you very much Sahiti for sharing you know the updates really appreciated and glad to hear everything is going great and all the best with everything thank you thank you Avinash ya
