Watch: Why India is Your Next Move: Career + Finance Insights from Netherlands NRIs

3:24 In 2015 we were planning to buying a house and that at that time I asked my manager I want to go somewhere outside so that he can pay the emis yeah and that's how this started and I was lucky enough to get it the very next day yeah the very next day he came and he asked do you want to go to Netherlands I said okay that's fine we'll go there and earlier to that I had been in Switzerland for one year yeah so I liked it in Europe and yeah I said okay that works and so we moved here and that was how we moved here but but when we moved she had to switch her job I mean to quit I had to basically quit from here so I left my job there and because at that time we just wanted to travel so I was okay leaving my job I was like one or two years of experience I we before that we got married for one year and then this all happened so quickly so we wanted to just travel and like he said pay the emis as quickly as

4:25 Possible and come back so we went with the thought of coming back in two years got so yeah cool I mean so it was very clear the reasons why you want to go abroad it's the travel it's you know having some Financial buffer and then you know come back to India so you know thanks for sharing that and so I know the intent was for two years but sounds like I think something changed and I know we reached there we were told like

4:55 You are not going back in two years I mean whoever we told that we are going back in two years were like no that's not going to happen we also came like that only but it's like stay there forever but yeah that's that's the fact I mean that happens with everyone and actually what happened basically because there is this 30% ruling thing in Netherlands maybe 30% yeah so you can explain on your tax on your income the 30% is made as non- taxable okay the very first 30% and after that they have very high amount of tax but this 30% makes a big difference yeah so at that time when we went there it was for about 8 years mhm and then in 2020 it was reduced to 5 years I think 2018 they reduced yeah but for us it went down till 2020 yeah so for us they did it retrospectively so yeah so and then now it's even less so they have separated

5:59 It like it was was not initially it was just 30 30% till 5 years but now it's like 30 and then they make it 20 and then make it 10 over the five years and after five years become zero just to confirm is it only for sorry for the immigrants or like for anyone who is residing and started working so fors only for got and highly skilled immigrants who work there so you have to apply for it and then do it so I got that she wasn't for it yeah because I for me it took so there are certain rules also for the spouse to get if you are employed within three months then the spouse can also be eligible for this thing but because language barrier was there so it took me 10 months to get a job there so I wasn't eligible for this 30% thing but he was and that's how this so coming back to the question from 2 years to 9 years how it went so because when we went there right so we didn't do any homework or anything like

6:59 Next day manager comes and he says you can go we were like excited we packed back we went there and then we knew that this 30% thing is something which can make a huge of difference and then we were like let's then stay till five years and make most of it our family back in India everyone his parents my parents everyone is employed they are not dependent they're healthy fine so we did it till 2020 when covid happens and then we got stuck for and also in 2020 I conceived and I had a son so because of that things delay a bit more yeah makes sense so know thanks for sharing that I think it's a unique program sounds like I think Dutch wants to encourage experts to come and they are kind of having these kind of programs so thanks for sharing some light on that right now they discouraging yeah so how is life in Netherlands you know it's a small country just curious in terms of the life and how things are there

8:00 Yeah well

8:03 It's just like any other Western countries so people are mostly confined to themselves socially it's like that you need to make your own Social Circle to be around friends to be around I mean family you can't get outside of India so you make you put an effort to make that happen and then that's about the social thing and financially Netherland is okay if you compare it with other countries Netherland has a very high tax slab so in the end Germany or Switzerland would actually pay you more and then the infrastructure Wise It's good public transport is good MH they have it's beautiful country is beautiful beautiful like any other European country we have been to

9:03 Switzerland so our destination like first five years when somebody would come to meet us we would just spack them in a car and take them there yeah swiland Paris Germany a few places and then later on we started traveling in Netherlands I mean one of our friend came and said no I have two days I want to travel in then we looked at for the places and it is nice it's beautiful small country and every other country is very close by so you can plan a week Drive 10 days drive and cover most of the bigger countries and touristic countries within Europe so that's nice cool is there anything that you can shed some light in terms of the work culture so maybe before jumping on that so just no I know the idea was to you know stay there for a couple of years but based on like what you are experiencing right the infrastructure like the life there maybe

10:04 The work culture has thought ever occurred to you that hey why not stay here I mean you know parents are happy healthy they are not dependent so why not stay here or you always have the idea of moving back just curious on that thought yeah so never first word that

10:21 Comes to my mind never it was it ever occurred to us that we should be like staying here forever for various reasons so firstly especially after having the kid we realize that that how important it is to have family around also the culture I it was it was a personal choice like it's my personal opinion that I wanted to let my kid grow in the cult close to the culture and close to the family and how the childhood has been for us what we have seen he should also experience more relationship he should know cousins and all that stuff was there so and also we are very close to our families so yeah it was it never occurred like that even infrastructure is fine see at the end of the day honestly we were we felt we were lonely we had friends of like great circle of friends but at the end of the day I never felt that I belong there and I felt a lot of times that we are on our

11:21 Own here so yeah that was my thing yeah I mean for us it was never the question of where do we want to stay or why do we want to stay in it was always when do we want to when are we going back yeah so that discussion when we were planning finally that we want to go back then we were thinking okay let's just analyze what are the pros and the consons in both the places and the more and more we thought about it it became more clear that this is not the place we were where we want to be yeah at one point we even discussed like that like for example medical system so we really had few very bad experiences so we were like infrastructure is very good but what is the point if you need a some specialist help or something and you're getting appointments after two months or three months so then this doesn't make any sense no matter how good the infrastructure is and also our pastor

12:22 Every year we used to visit India but past couple of years even in India our experience in terms of Road and everything has been very good like the road travels in India so things are improving here also yeah so and again we are in it so in it the pay is good right now and it is comparable so not in the terms of numbers but what you get out of those numbers the same level of living standard that you can maintain in India maintain same or even better yeah better I would say and there also life felt very mechanical at the point like after especially after the kids because before there we were like just traveling and having fun so it never occer but when the five years just went by when you really yeah when you really want stability in life at some point when we get kids we get mature we get age it

13:23 When we want to really also enjoy what we have earned or achieved so far then there is nobody other than the two of us to really had yeah so and also the life was like running around the clock I'm looking at the clock okay now it's 9:00 I should start working and then it's 12 I should pick him up and then it was never there was never a moment where I can just sit relax and enjoy even a cup of coffee yeah so it was very like mechanical very boring I would say it became so all these things like really made it clear to us that this is not the time to move yeah makes sense was there any hesitation part so sounds like it's been very clear it's more of when versus you know this or the other sounds like I think very clear and as you said I think you know living abroad as a single or as a married couple without kids is different and once the kids it's completely different you know because things changes the

14:25 The process the systems like I think everything changes quite a bit but you know especially without having any family support and you know just managing everything it's a different aspect no so let's talk about like I think the plan back to India so I know I think after covid after the kid was born that's when you decided yes it's time to move like is there any specific Milestones that you are trying to look at to make sure that you achieve before the move back I don't know from a career perspective or a financial perspective or anything else that you you have looked at to say yeah this is when we are moving back so there were several things as you said career Finance those were there

15:11 In the mind but one thing that we had like we have to move back before our kid joins a school over here is because there it was either Dutch schools or international schools which is very expensive which is very expensive ensive and then if you get into that school and then he start studying there then there's no going back if you go in the Dutch school so our thought process was clear that before he starts getting older I mean four maybe five but that that's the highest where we stay there and so timeline wise that was the maximum yeah but I think we were also at that point like waiting for a perfect time perfect in the sense when we both get a jobs in India applying from there and then the salary which we have in mind we both are getting that and also like I said like

16:11 I'm not sure if you mentioned we all this while when we were there we bought two house here in Bangalore so one was ready for and it was rented out the other one was getting constructed so we were like when that is ready and we both have a good job good salary he is about to start the school we would move makes sense but yeah but the thing is that this year what triggered I would say actually this year in the start January we both fell sick very sick in fact we three at the same time first we got influenza then we were covid we had covid so for over a month over a month yeah it was a very difficult period of us and there was no medical help I would say so we were waiting even for 6 hours in the emergency with a kid with both are in Fever high fever kid is 40 plus in the fever not eating or drinking anything we are waiting he's sitting in my lap and he's crying mama I want to lie down I'm not feeling comfortable but 6 hours we

17:12 Are waiting for in the emergency to see the doctors and then three or four assistants are coming doing the same things bre for with the kid like breathe in breathe out look here look there even he was frustrated he was tired because every now and then three to four assistants came but the doctor never came and then at the end they said because he's responding please go back home give paracetamol which is the like the universal medicine there those from Netherlands would understand so give him paracetamol and then he he should be fine so yeah that was a very difficult time and we both were also sick friends of course they did help they were getting us the groceries and thing like that but for over a month we can't expect also everybody has their own life and very busy life so that that's when it really triggered that's now I want to go back no matter what even if I'm not having a job you get an internal transfer because your company is there in India mine was not I was working

18:13 There so my company was not in India so we were like let's go there that's when after like coming back from hospital when we were stable we were fine we actually made an Excel sheet did all the calculation and we figured out what is bare minimum for us to have a comfortable life there and that's when then the things just everything fell into place very beautifully like when we decided it that this is what we want to do and this is when we want to do so we decided time June or July June or July is the month we are moving back when the session starts here he can get an internal transfer I'll see how my job goes and then yeah things last three four months over there were very hectic yeah planning wise and a lot of things happened but in the end it all fell into PES all the pieces in the but that two months we actually realized that if something like this happens we are on our own there is nobody our family was there back in India worried for us all the emotional help they could do for us they talking to doctors here

19:15 The medicines were ready but how to send them so one of our friend was coming so she got some medicines for my kid so yeah this this and you know what whenever like we have this Facebook group like Indians in Netherlands or many groups it's a very common thing there whoever is traveling to India gets medicine in bulk for the people who need there so even though people are living there but they're getting medicine outsourced from India yeah getting Medic in Netherlands is very very difficult you can't get it unless a doctor prescribes it and we call them Dr paracetamol they only prescribe that yeah and also they don't believe in any preventive health care so if you have a history of family like family history of cholesterol or diabetes or whatever it's really hard to get into the system to really get an blood report done like every month or quarterly or whatever so I I could not understand even paying like this huge insurance I never could understand why are we doing this

20:15 Yeah no thanks for sharing that experience and sounds like that had a huge impact on making that happen I think with that like let's pack the bag anded book the tickets now I don't need anything no job nothing I'm going there my family is there we are touch yeah touchwood family wise also we are well Todo family we belong both like we both belong to well to do family we were like let's go back I can't see this my child like this I can't see this yeah makes sense so helpless yeah can we talk a little bit about the actual planning then so I think you kind of touched about it so maybe on a career front was that an internal transfer or like have you applied and how did it go I think you mentioned about even the Excel sheet like hey this is what you know what we need like you know for making the standard of life like whatever you planning to so maybe you can talk a little bit about that aspect as well as on the career yeah so career wise the we were not

21:17 Thinking too much about advancing our career while making the move it was more of let's go there first and then we take the next step or we think about later on and so I was my company was an MNC so I was sure I would get an internal transfer we talked about it and yeah my manager said okay we we we'll initiate it so that that was all done and I got the timeline that about June and July it will be done so that way we were we had about 3 four months to plan everything else and financially what we were thinking was because she had to leave her job her job her company was not in India so in one person's salary right will it be good can we maintain the same standard of living over here in India that we were doing over there so we made an Excel put our bare minimum requirements starting with the maid that was the first thing then the school

22:19 The car travel commute the basic else do we need Miss aneous like traveling out going on vacation and we did a rough estimation of a highend estimation of what we would need and we had to do this because when whenever we talk to people about moving back or Rec coming back the thing that is out there is like oh you have 10 years 15 years experience people are getting 50 60 laks man you should not think about something less than it we are getting one CR it's it's not worth going in 20 or 30 lakhs but in the end it it matters I mean there's no highend for luxury but Necessities if you put down on a paper you would see that this says 20 25 lakhs is enough for a family of three or four if you're not talking about international schools of course so these things are fine and we decided

23:20 Okay we are not looking for any fancy numbers right now we're looking for a number which can give us what we need and whatever extra is our luxury and then we spend it accordingly so we decided with one person salary well if one is getting 30 then it's fine we just move back and also to mention rent part so because we had our own house so at least that part was sorted so if you include rent again it's very subjective if you include for our in our case like the bare minimum for us was 30 to 40 we were fine with that because we didn't had to pay any rent or anything no thanks a lot for sharing that I think and it just gives a perspective right especially for someone who lived abroad for so for so long and who might not be aware of the inflation in India right and you know there are so many numbers floating around and it depends on the lifestyle that they have to choose but at the end you know just getting a rough idea you know would help like I think the big things are especially the house rent and kids education I see those are the two big buckets depending on

24:22 You know from a lifestyle and then the other things changes you know the kind of travel that you do the how much you eat outside and so on and that can fluctuate but the two big buckets are the house and the kids education at least from what I have seen yeah for us the biggest two were the house H oh yes that is that too and and housewise see because in Bangalore the rent is Sky High right now so if you are get looking out for a 3bhk it can't be below 60k in a good Society gooded community so we were not concerned about that because we already have a good house in community so that b our number a bit down but still if you think about it right 25 30 we said we will be also saving every month something for for ourself as well so that's a number we came on I mean luxury aside yes yeah because at that time the priority was just to move

25:23 Like I said that thing was there not that Jan and Feb I just wanted to get out of that Place yeah it had some components for parlor and selfcare as well that's a necessity we didn't compromise a yeah like he want what he wants to say that we didn't compromise so it was not a compromise I mean it was comparable to our life over there and better than that sure definitely so maybe curious so Anita were you like able to find the job after moving back or like so maybe you can share a little bit about that experience because that's also another common question for a lot of R in terms of the opportunities in terms of how it goes so anything that you can share on that that would be very happy yeah yeah sure so before that I would like to mention that also I have citizenship

26:12 That citizenship not him me I have and my son and that is also like I was not very inclined even though I was eligible to appear for this exam and get the citizenship 5 years later 2020 2020 only I will I was eligible but I wasn't keen on it but few like our close friends and cousins they like kind of convinced us what's wrong in having it don't like both of you don't go for it just one of you what's wrong there's nothing wrong in having an option and then we thought about it we thought okay let's do it so I cleared all the exams and I got the citizenship last year and then I applied oci and everything also during this process so getting a job from there was a difficulty at that time because so February is the time when we decided he spoke to his managers and his transfer was initiated but in my case my oci was still pending so I was like very skeptical even if I attend the interviews and everything then I don't have documents complete at my end to

27:13 Support for the employer and everything but then I thought let's do it it'll be a practice U if nothing else so I engineer here in India which is like it's it's a European company they expanding here in India like last year October they opened their office and there's building the team so that's when I got into this team and the thing was that when the interview was going on at that point in time I didn't had oci or anything still and I was like after the interview I was telling him that I'm very positive I might get it but what if I tell them that I still don't have oci and I can't work immediately are they going to wait

28:14 For me because in India there are a lot of people why would they wait so but you won't believe the very next day oci came before the generally oci takes seven to eight weeks even for my son it took seven or eight weeks for me fifth week started and the very next day I had this interview and I was very hopeful I was telling him what will happen if they are going to offer me next day morning we are opening I check the status and see I was ready and very next day I got the offer letter confirmation so I had the document that I am eligible to work for otherwise if I don't have oci I would have to have some work visa and all those complications which I was not sure if company is going to help me on that part but yeah that's how it happened so I got the offer letter from there itself and the bare minimum we had decided right we actually Excel that because yeah I think like when you want something like they say in Hindi right when you want something very badly right the whole universe conspired to have it for you so that is what happened in our

29:15 Case no thanks a lot for sharing that and especially like how you approached you know to which companies you want to apply and sounds like I think you had a good experience at least you know where people took you serious and you know the offer letter while you are living abroad and you know you have one thing we we did actually yeah I would like to suggest to the people also who are looking for the job three months earlier when when she started searching I was also in P I was also looking out because I wasn't sure what is the package that my company is going to offer just wanted to have some option in my head so we created our LinkedIn and monster and profile and we did that with India number so we activated two India numbers kept it with us and that's what made makes the recruiters in India reach out to you so there one thing we are missing we very clearly in our description

30:18 Mentioned that with a date that this is the date I am available to work because otherwise they normally think that they are just trying out if this doesn't happen what if they are coming back or so we had the ticket books and everything so we made it very clear that this is the date I can start working on in India so then actually doing all these update and everything we started to get a lot of calls makes sense no I think that's a common thing that I have heard also with other people to have an Indian number I think that helps a lot in terms of getting the calls and you know having the certainty of the date that gives a more Assurance from the employer side that you are serious I think you have a tickets booked or whatnot you know from so I know you have worked in India and you have spent close to 9 years in Netherlands and then now you back to India anything that you can share from a work culture or anything from an opportunities or a career growth because that's another a perception you know especially when you move back to India

31:19 You might miss on some of the career opportunities right you know one is a financial aspect yes you know the savings the lifestyle that you have I think which we have covered but anything that you would see from a career opportunities is one and also the work life balance in general because that's also a like you know a concern for a lot of people hey you know which might make it very hard yeah so I I'll start with the

31:41 Finance one because Netherlands they don't have like a big increase in the packages when you switch or when you when the year changes so that way it's not great like in India if you try out you might get 30 40% in on a general General increment but there it's like 1% 2% 3% year on year plus if you switch as well so that way there's no big difference it's kind of gets saturated after a point yeah in Netherlands and then my job was mostly working from home so I did not have any office in Netherlands and I was only talking to the clients which were in Europe and traveling to their locations when when was required so it in terms of Netherland work culture she is the better person to say that but as a European work culture different

32:43 Countries they have different way of working things but mostly it is like yeah after your office hours are done it's done so that way the work is stopped and you can focus on other things and and yeah so that's about the work kind of thing back in India I worked actually there in three different companies in all these nine years in Netherlands I worked for three different companies so the common thing was so like the work was chilled the they are very chilled people I'm saying in a better way otherwise I don't know I may get thred or something but I at point I find them very LED back also so but they are very chilled they prefer like their Prof personal life also as much as they pref they are into their professional life so that way this balance is always there definitely you have after four five you are not expected to be there no matter what happens even I was working for a

33:44 Retail company and this black flly Day Sale was there and the system crashed and I was like oh no I this night I'll have to be like completely occupied with work and everything but by five everyone was leaving I'm like what is happening so tomorrow we'll see doesn't matter so they are very like very chilled in that way so work life balance is definitely there is better than in India but then having said that if you really want to like challenge yourself technically or if you're very skilled then I would say at least in Europe or the company I have worked for it's not very challenging also those those people like they don't want to change the system or Technologies or upgrade it I would say not very keen in doing it so what they have been doing it they will be happy doing it for next 50 years also if that works so that kind of culture is not there and also there's one more culture this burnout culture is very popular in Netherlands so burnout

34:45 Culture means like in it so people will be on burnout for years for months and companies are paying them and I was wondering how what made them burn out so yeah this these things are there but after like in terms of like in comparison to India work life balance is better there now that's another point that what you do after your work because we we doing the household course looking after the kids B WEA we can't take him out so we were like not really enjoying it after even though I'm shutting down at five so got it I won't a work life balance but I would say the work timings have fixed yeah but what is left after it is not life you have to do the household course and by the time it is like s or 8 in the day at the night you so tired so exhausted you can't go out anywhere and you yourself are so tired and exhausted that yeah hitting the bed is the only

35:45 Thing that you can do so yeah and then yeah on the weekend there is that that another list of course that you have to finish and and then you have to make plans also with friends in it advance so that everybody the kids and everyone is occupied so everything was just so planned and I was missing that the random chai parties in India let's go for chai the coffee those things I really was missing no yeah yeah thanks a lot for sharing that I I I Echo that I think you know sounds like it's more of a fixed work schedule but I think the after work the life is a little bit different than it's a culture right the social fabric is different in Western world than in India yeah in terms of these random Hangouts you know random dropping at someone's place and all that stuff if you're okay can you share your thought process in terms of the Investments or the finance right because you always have this in the back of the mind to move after two years or five years so

36:48 And like how did you approach like you know while you're living in Netherlands like you know investing in India versus there or how did you approach from a financial plan if you're open to share that see we are not very much into planning

37:02 And all so but we did some good investment in India so when we were moving out we got a house in a big society and the aim for buying it in a big Society paying Premium cost was that when we have to sell it let's say after four or five years when we maybe we will not settle down in Bangalore itself we are from lnno I'm from L she's from see so there was a thought process like okay maybe maglor is not the destination Final Destination but what we buy something which can be sold and we don't have to go after people for selling it so that's why we bought it in this society and then when we reached there we started doing I mean we were depleted completely no bank balance nothing after buying this out and when we reached there we started doing a little bit of emis emis on this home and a little bit of sips so in stocks in mutual funds and that c was

38:05 Buil over the time we were doing a little bit of ppf and that's the kind of investment that we did and back in 2019 we were actually looking for a house we started looking in Netherlands as well just just to see what's the market like and then we re came here in India to for for registration of this house and we saw that they making another phase which was really good so we had a 2bk initially and by that time we were feeling like okay 2bhk might be less for us so we saw another house in the society which was about 4 bhk and we thought of okay let's do that so financially we planned out we thought yeah this could match in Maybe not maybe yes we don't know but we said okay let's try it and yeah so the these are the two big in investment that we did and then in the mutual funds and stocks we continued investing throughout these

39:06 Years so we built up a corpus in India got and we did nothing in Netherlands yeah we were only spending there only the pension because this pension thing is there and I don't know like nobody yet knows that how do we get it and what happen we just left it the pension over there you cannot withdraw it prematurely it was only when you retire yeah in their retirement age so at that time only it can be withdrawn so state pension and employee contribution both included got it no thanks for sharing that so how is life in India how how was your kid adjusting here and just curious overall how how was the move so far yeah from the day one he is telling us different reasons why we

39:54 Should not go back to Netherlands yeah they one started with I don't want to go back because here I don't need to wear a socks every time and there it was cold so he had runny nose and bad throat at least eight or nine months of the year the Year almost every yeah the all these four years he got all kind of infections and he's very happy going very happy like he settled so and also once like very funny thing I told him okay after a couple of days can you help me pack the bags we're going to Amsterdam he said oh Mama but you'll be alone there me I and papa will miss you so he was so clear that he's not coming with me even he'll back so he we we enrolled him in ICC board school and that school is also within our society so like 100 200 meters it's in inside inside the society so he goes to that school and he settled down very quickly he's starting in nursery and then yeah initially he said I like two days two couple of days

40:54 Because they don't have any toys he was in daycare over there and now he started in school and even Dutch schools they start with play yeah after after you are six or eight years then only they start a bit of study writing and everything yeah here he said I don't have any toys in the school I don't like it but after a week or so he said I like these schools because I learn over here I want to learn more there I was only playing playing playing I don't want that and also I would like to mention the school so schools are also changing a lot since what we had been to and like the general idea still is outside India that there is lot of competition and teachers is still punished that is a lot things have changed a lot thesee people should come and see and for him also like there is no homework policy at least till first standard and it is not just writing writing they are doing like the pretend play or the writing with I mean teaching with some kind of activities they are doing so it's not like he's sitting only and just reading

41:55 He's doing a lot of activity also so and learning from from those activities so the method also is very good in this school so also they have outdoor subject also as a something as outdoor subject so he's really enjoy that's the culture in Bangalore now or maybe other big cities as well so schools have changed a lot yeah there a lot of options lot of you know changes or things that have evolved and depending on kids learning style you know yeah you can have the options to check out I think is the key thing definitely not as relaxed as European education but it is good we preferred it but I think yeah because like I mentioned this burnout culture right somehow I think everything is like how you are that environment how where you grow right you should be prepared to handle stress of situation like stress situation also so I think I don't find any stress I also studied from Indian cbsc normal school right

42:57 There was no pressure on me at least from my family even if I'm not doing I actually in during btech I had some what you call it some drop or no I don't know I mean fail let's say fail I failed few of the exams and my parents were so supportive like I was never like Dro de no just some subjects that I had to reappear for it but my parents were always very supportive and that is the thing I think the pressure comes from the family also let's like if the family is very supportive kids will never feel any pressure or anything so that way we were like we we not going to we are not going after him that you should be this you should be that we'll just provide him the good environment and let him grow yeah so yeah he's actually enjoying his school time and then we also started his after school care because school is for four hours and then he's doing going to the after school care also that's also by the school so he's there till 4:00 and he's very happy enjoying very hygienic School

43:59 Everything is good so that's great that he SED yeah even for me like the education wise there was no pressure yeah and whatever we did we did on our decisions and all so and for now actually if you compare at that back at that time we had only two option become a doctor or engineer if you want good package or salary but now we seeing there are so many things I mean one of my niece is doing marketing and desig and one of her niece is doing something related with law even I don't 11 and 12th and I mean these are the options that they have right now yeah and it's growing it's definitely good to know right I mean I especially like when I was studying it's engineering or doctor and it's good to know that the new generation has more options and pursue what they want to do I think that's a key thing yeah and also parents are very supportive now they are not like you should do because somebody else is doing that you should do that and and back in that time the package and and the money

45:01 Was only in those two right if you are doing those or government job or if you thinking about is PCS I mean these these were the 506 options that you had but now there is so much private sector has so many options and the kids now also know it that these are the things that they can get so exposure is also there yeah they have the knowledge yeah great so he s down quite quick yeah was very happy even him for me only thing is that because my office is like from where I'm staying it's 25 km away so the commute is the only problem at one point I'll get used to it but if that is something like which makes me go back no I can do that but when I'm coming home I know my kid is wellfed he's happy he has played in the park he has with friends and I have I come to a clean house cooked food so I'm I'm happy that my priorities are different yes definitely and our parents are visiting

46:03 Us yes very soon yeah my sister came and visited her brother's engagement was in July as soon as we landed here within 10 days so we spent a good amount of time with family and then yeah marriage would be soon so my cousin sister marriage in there a lot of events also plan these are things that we can also plan to be part of now and these things we were missing badly over there and last 8 years we haven't been to any of the marries his cousins are here like in Bangalore so we celebrate festivals like raki just went by right we celebrated it together yeah after eight or n years I I had someone same it is it's good really good that's great now sounds like I think things are going well with the moo and I know sun is enjoying the school there few things there are few things that still need to be sorted out like after 4 when he comes back from school there's there's a over between our office and his play time and then the commute is a problem the the

47:05 Memes about Bangalore traffic are not just meme they are real you can get stuck and if you are stuck you're just stuck so there are problems we not saying that it's all a bed of roses that we are landing over here so it's not that picture that not not that's happening but we have to manage and the things that we have to manage over here are easier and can be done in comparison to things that we had to leave out over there so it's a big difference I mean there we had no options to the problems that we had but here all the problems that we have there are options we are trying and they might get solved yeah we just like it's not even like July we shifted right but lots of things are sorted we are building our like like we said right we have a new house so we are getting Interiors done so lot of things are there in our moving things are there lots of lots of but it's better it's

48:05 It's better moving towards settlement yeah got it yeah I know you kind of touched on the traffic is there any other like one or two other things that bothers you like just so that you know you know well those are the general points right see if you go out there is pollution there the traffic is really bad she had to go to her office and when she's using a cab or something it's like

48:28 One and a half or two hours and you don't know the upper limit minimum is one and a half and also the customer services in general is really poor in India so but these things were always there when we moved out also these things were always there and when we move these were not the bothering things for us so we still can adjust with these things so yeah but yes there are problems there are problems but you have options to you know work around things yeah like like the other day we were at the hospital to for for our kid just for has regular checkup and see what the vaccinations are different so there was like a MAA over there I mean it was a big hospital not not a government hospital I was used to seeing that kind of crowd in government hospital but not in a private big hospital and it was like why are there so many people over here it turned out that it was Saturday I body is it over here everybody got

49:30 There is an outbreak right I don't know if you have seen the news the malaria outbreak is also there so that was also the reason so this caused the the heavy more than normal gathering over there but still it was we we saw there we waited for some time and then it didn't turn out for us so we asked them can we come back on Monday they said okay so we had an option yeah our son wasn't sick we were there for regular CH so we came back and then we went on Monday and it was cool Monday we we could but we can't think of postponing our appointment there in Netherlands we don't have an option you have to just otherwise after months you have to wait months yeah you have to wait for three months I me any scan or anything one of my friend had a nervous breakdown nerves problem so he got a scan after one and a half month so it's these things are really bad no yeah have yeah thanks a lot for sharing that so is there anything that we haven't covered that you would like to bring up or any advice for the future aspirants who

50:31 Are thinking about moving back to

50:35 India well think one thing that we have seen is moving out of India when you have a child a child I mean if he a grown-up kid then it's different thing but with a child when you are moving out you're taking care of the expenses thinking about what you're going to save and all remember remember that a child care is very costly outside so we used to save a lot for the first 5 years with both of our jobs but then after the kid that was almost zero and we had a nanny at home who was taking care of the child take care also he was going and Nanny also we had so we were having people around him for the most of the time of the day otherwise there was no way we could work so that costed us a lot a lot and that just made the savings back down to zero so that's something that needs to be

51:35 Considered if somebody is moving out right couples you would say go and explore yeah but with kids and if you are doing really well and happy year just think many times and then maybe go for trips and everything for for couples it's fine like you go to see the new culture new side of the world it's different but with family with kids think and the people who want to yeah the people like you asked who want to come back I want to say this because I have seen this right a lot just don't go by others experience because mostly I have seen from my personal experience people for who return back and it didn't work for us they don't say it they put it on pollution and stuff like that but the social or the family support is missing in lots of cases that they don't feel connected to the family and because the simple thing is think it like that way if you are having a failure in

52:36 General in life but you have your loved ones around you supporting you you will get through it you will not find feel like running away but in this situation when you're coming and you're settling down you're struggling with lot of things but if you have good support system around you you'll be fine at the end of the day but the people who move back I think and I have after talking to them I realized that the also the social connection they had was missing so and but they put it on infrastructure IND which is true it's fine it's true in that's not the real but that's not the real thing so I those who are like who are looking to come back just don't go by the general opinion everybody's situation is different think what you want and what compromises you can do and no place is perfect exactly places yeah and one more thing if somebody wants to come back right don't make a plan for your kids don't do it for your kids or don't do it for your

53:36 Family I mean if you're going to do it for someone else you'll regret it so think about yourself and we did did this she thought about herself what she wants to do yeah I thought what I want to do and we both wanted the same thing that's why we both are happy and looking forward to settling down into to the things which are not settled looking forward to find out the ways to get it done but if one of us was in was doing it for someone else then we would not like it and we would be calling it as an excuse and trying to move back and think about but having said that we made sure that our son's future financially secured he'll not have to struggle in that way but then we also didn't want to just be struggling there ourselves just to give him a comfort and luxury so our thought process was different that we want to do it for ourselves we made sure that he doesn't have to struggle for finances or

54:36 Anything at any point in time but this is something we want to do also for ours we also got have just have got one life so we want to want to live it to the fullest no so that was the thing completely makes sense so yeah I think it's a very important big move and important decision and both spouses has to be on the same page about that and what's important for the family right I think that's the critical Factor yeah thank you very much for taking the time and sharing your story and you know especially lot of insights on the planning and the reasons like how you approached lot of details so really thank you very much for taking the time and sharing your story with us today thank you thanks a lot for having us and I hope it might help somebody in any which ways yeah yeah for sure yeah thanks