Watch: Young Family's Life Who Lived in India for 3 Years After Moving from US

2:53 Syracuse University which is upstate New York again people who are going for masters it looks very glamorous in people's stories do not believe it people are just going to be sharing the best parts on social media that is not how it is you're suddenly going from a very comfortable life back home to a complete unknown where you're doing everything by yourself. You don't have domestic help especially if you're young. It's a bit difficult to you know get used to it but it's a good learning experience. I would say everyone even if you're staying in India stay out of home for a bit. Learn how to stay independent before even you get married because that's a completely different experience. So it was difficult in the sense of studying of course there's a lot to do over there. The good part is you get a lot of exposure. You can choose your own courses. You can choose your own path. Sometimes unfortunately in India there are not great courseworks

3:54 With undergrad unless you're like in a really good college. There are some some places where you know you're just doing things for the sake of doing things assignments etc. So this was a great experience where you know it's actually learning you're making friends you're making friends not just who are Indians but most of the times you are going to find a lot of Indians because in the master for masters especially you will have a lot of Indians in your program. So I think if I have to summarize my master's experience I would say it was a great learning experience quite a lot of exposure in terms of where I wanted to lead my career towards I would say but also a lot of learning experience in terms to how to be independent because I had never done that we had domestic help at home my mom used to do everything including cooking and yeah it's a struggle but it was a good experience plus it was a university town so not like some glamorous city where we could go to some places like to restaurants,

4:55 Bars, you're on a budget, you're doing a student job. So yeah, it's it has both sides. I think this is something that I always advise people that if you're going for masters, number one is you are putting in a lot of money, do not choose any university just for the sake of getting a master's degree from the US. Make sure you do your research and also be mentally prepared that it is not going to be an easy journey and as easy as it looks. So yeah, I don't know if I went all around the place but no I think you know you're sharing your experience right? No, you're you're absolutely you know doing great. so yeah please continue and then you know after the masters yeah sure so after masters I actually in between my masters there's after the first year you usually go for an internship I got an internship at deote and I interned in New York City in fact

5:47 Which was a dream place to be in I was on the east coast New York City is probably is still my most favorite city in the world again you know it was my first experience earning money and working. So you can imagine how much fun it was like you're getting money, you're getting the experience, you're living in a great city but it was consulting. So it was Monday through Thursday I had to travel Friday, Saturday, Sunday back internship is great 3 months you're earning as much as you can and then it got converted to a full-time. So honestly I didn't have to go through the struggle of finding a job. I got ex extremely lucky because my H1B draw also came through my undergrad kota which means right after my internship the very first H1B round that deoid put my application in because I already had a full-time job it got selected so I had my H1B right from the beginning which is also a big struggle for the others which did not happen with my husband so we

6:49 Have completely different stories but that is how I moved to New city after my two years intern went into full-time again was in consulting I worked at Deoid for 5 years as a tech consultant it was a bit in SAP and then I moved to SAP analytics multiple things happened over there had an H1B I never had the struggles of worrying about my visa being picked or not which all my friends including my husband went through so And so fortunately I did not have to go through the worry about what is going to happen with my H1B except for the extensions which usually happen. Yeah. And my I140 also got filed I think in 2018 or 2019.

7:38 So thinking of a journey perspective I could have been the perfect candidate to go through everything because I just got my masters I got a job I got my H1B on the first try. I got my green card filed. So everything was in place. However, you know, as and this happens to almost everyone. There's something that is going to be missing, which is how many ever friends you have. There's always that factor where you feel like

8:06 You're missing out on family time. You're missing out on things happening back home. Especially if you know you're seeing your parents age after a certain time and you feel like US is way too far to even come back home. like what if you're called in some kind of emergency and I've seen some situations where unfortunately the kids could kids couldn't get back on time or they couldn't even come for the final rights. M so those are the things that always troubled me because of which you know I kept wondering okay I don't know if you know we should make the move back but then I was forced into doing it when my husband his is a very very niche field he did masters in environmental management so it wasn't as broad as someone doing something in tech which is why he came back he got a job here which was great and we both decided that if US is not going to come work out we're just going to move back see how it goes because we got married in Feb 2020 and we didn't want to do a long distance

9:06 For a long time but I'll take a pause because there was a big break in between where like the pandemic happened and everything changed but yeah that was that was how it was okay yeah thanks for that overview so sounds to me there was something always in the back of the mind you know because of certain situations however I think you know with your husband situation that triggered it and then you made the decision to move in early 2020. So pretty much immediately after the marriage yeah mid 2020 in fact I moved yeah mid 2020. Okay cool. so anything that you want to talk from a logistics or from a planning? so did you look at like from a career transition you know did you plan from a you know moving within the same company or applied for the jobs you know in your husband situation like you know did he apply while he was there or after coming anything that you can talk from a career side physical logistics or any other financial logistics anything that you

10:08 Can talk through you know with Sure. Sure. Absolutely. I think that's a great question. So career-wise, I'll talk about my transition first. I worked for 5 years at Deoid. Honestly, I was always looking for a change because

10:20 Consulting had taken over me. That was not some place I wanted to be in the long run. However, due to visa restrictions and moving jobs, all those kind of things I never really made that change. So, coming back to India, this was a great opportunity where I could make that change. so I started looking for startups in fact. Mhm. Because I was always in a very big company. I wanted some experience in a smaller company to see if it works for me or not and just so that I can keep my doors open to the US. As I filed my I40, I looked for American startups having an Indian base somewhere over here. And that is how I narrowed down my search. So it was very very focused and plus my husband was in Pune so I made sure the location was Pune as well. So I would suggest if you are going to be looking for jobs think of where you want to be next. This is a great you know you don't have to rely on visas anymore right

11:22 You're in your own country you can explore a bit more and think about what you want to do. So if there's any specific career that you want to pursue, research a bit more about it. Research about the companies, LinkedIn is great. I in fact got my job through LinkedIn where I reached out to someone who also stayed in the US and moved back in the same company. And I asked him, hey, you know, this is something that I'm interested in. Could you help me out? And he helped out. So look for people who are probably in your connection or second connection who could make those introductions. And honestly networking is like the new way by which you're going to be getting a job. But be very focused on what you want. Just don't apply for the sake of it because you're no longer tied to a visa. I would say u again you know if your company has an office overseas which had Deoid had told me we could also offer you a job there.

12:15 It's just out of personal choice I didn't go for it if that's like your safest choice. you don't want to take a break or if you want to take a break for a bit go for that as well. this time is not going to come back where you know you have time on your hands to decide what you want to do plus you're in the safety net of being in your own country. So yeah my my recommendation would definitely be be focused on what you want to do next. This is a great time if you're transitioning to decide where you want your career path or personal path to lead. Sure. I think in terms of logistics, I got a lot of box shipped because I had a lot of things to get back home because I was moving plus I'd stayed there for 7 years. I know a you stayed there for 20 years. So I can't imagine how much life you brought back. But there are some good companies which do this. I unfortunately can't remember the name through which I had my logistics done but I can message that to you.

13:16 Yeah they do ship freight and it takes a couple of months to come back but it was a great service where they it was doortodoor. Cool. So yeah that that's the bit in logistics that I could share. Yeah. So I know you spent almost close to 3 to four years in India. So

13:41 How has the life been you know living I don't know if you are originally from Pune or from a big metro. So just curious on that like how has the life been the work culture especially you know when you think about like you spending seven years or five years working in US and in India it's a different experience. So if you can talk a little bit about you know the work culture, the social life you know in India that would be great. Yeah. So I am from Mumbai but I stayed in Pune. again two big cities. Unfortunately 2020 was a time where everyone was shut at home for most of the part. I moved in July or August. so in terms of life it was so much easier having house help, maids, cooks.

14:28 You are going to live a much better lifestyle to be honest than in the US where within the salary range that you're earning. of course I'm not converting it into dollars. But if you look at the purchase parity calculator, that's something everyone should look at and not really convert INR to USD. That is not how someone should do the conversion at all. Just convert your INR

14:52 Into a purchase parity calculator to USD and see how much you're earning. That's a lot. you're going to live. We were living life king-size to be honest. There was absolutely no problem. We had a great house in Pune. Pune rentals are also not as expensive as Mumbai. So, we had a great house, very big house with a nice balcony. We could do our gardening and you know, of course, cooks could do as healthy food as you would want. You have all the time in the world to focus on your gyming and whatever personal work you want to do. So it was very comfortable I would say. Again the other one the other thing that I was very surprised with is the pace of how India is developing. It is unbelievable how things have changed. It could be as simple as I have noticed how over the years honking has gotten so much lesser than what it was. And this is just a just very one small thing. And you know

15:52 My husband especially he believes a lot that India is going to become like absolutely another big player which it already is in the world but I could see the change and I can see it changing even more. There's a lot of infrastructure there are a lot of things happening people are a bit more aware and as and when generations are changing you're going to see the change. So it's not like you know no one's changing everything is changing. the best thing was G pay and like phone pay which you don't get anywhere. You don't have to carry your card or like cash anymore. Even vegetable vendors like on the road have Phone Pay and G pay. Everything is very easy, extremely easy in that way.

16:55 So it wasn't a problem. The hours were a bit messed up because I had to work a well. So so because of that I I still think it was okay. It went up to let's say 11:00 a.m. I used to log in 7 to 8:00 p.m. maximum I used to be done which is great. For my husband, it was horrible because I've seen him work till 1:00 a.m. 2 a.m. So that was very stressful. So if you're choosing, you know, some place to be, look at the timings. If you're comfortable with it, especially if you're a couple, I would suggest do discuss these timings and see if it makes sense. If both of you are working evenings, it's fine. At least

17:33 You get some time in the morning. If someone is working morning, evening, then it's all messed up. social life, unfortunately, all our friends from Pune had moved back to India. Mumbai. So we did not have many friends in Pune. but again because you know you there's everyone like neighbors are not like how you have neighbors in the US. You're just going to be speaking to everyone. There are a lot of festivals happening. almost every 3 weeks we used to go back to Mumbai for something or the other happening someone's birthday anniversary festivals and because it was our initial years of marriage it helped us a lot get very close to both the sides of the families which was I think a blessing where now it's reached a point you know that we it's established like the relationships are established we've done whatever we could in those three years in terms of attending

18:31 Whatever we can and it strengthened it. So overall it had been a great experience. I can tell you about why we chose to look for some you know some other country as well. So again we don't have kids yet. In our head it was like okay if we do want to explore how life is going to be outside might as well do that now. Once you have kids, once our parents get even older, I'm sure we we are going to be moving back to India because that's where we see our future. especially, you know, with aging parents, we can't like keep moving them around and you'd want India has honestly the easiest health care ever where you don't have to worry about going to a hospital, taking an appointment. If you have to see a doctor on urgency, it's just urgent care. in the US of course otherwise the appointment is three weeks away where you're stressed out about what can happen. I've experienced it with my brother younger brother who is

19:32 Doing his PhD in the US too on how bad healthcare has been in the US whereas in

19:37 India you can literally walk into any doctor's office and get things done. So yeah that's why we made the move to Paris thinking about there's still time where we have to make a decision of you know okay it's time to just stay back in India. I wouldn't say we're extremely young but yes we're young in terms of making these decisions about let's just take this chance and see how it goes while we have you know time on our hands. So yeah I wouldn't say our experience in India was bad. The one thing that affects me, it still affects me is the dust and the pollution because I have allergic amma. So it it does affect me the dust. I have a lot of dust allergies. So that is the one thing that definitely affects me every time I go. That is one big problem that I always have. But apart from that, I honestly haven't seen any big issues which are like red flags that everyone has to be aware of. There is of

20:37 Course you know some people feel like oh we had like a very free life back in the US will we have that in India? It's up to you on how you want to do it. if you're you know you're staying in your own place no one cares about what you're doing at home. No one cares about where you're going. So those things are very minor things when you're thinking about the bigger picture honestly. So and you can make those adjustments. I don't see

21:00 That as a problem. Yeah. So no thanks for such a detailed answer. I know you covered one of the cons. I know you covered a lot of pros in India. Are there like any even minor things that bothered you like initially after the move just from a social life or from you know work life or you know with the family like you know you you also married recently and then you just kind so just I mean these are like some common misconceptions that people might have or maybe it's a real thing. So if there's anything that you can share in terms of the initial stages of adjustment u after the move. Yeah sure. So one thing is definitely people are going to be prying a bit more into your relationship. Unfortunately in India I'm not even talking about family. There will be strangers coming up to you asking very personal questions which are not needed. which happened with us where strangers weren't just asking us they were even asking our maids about why don't these guys have kids.

21:56 Well that is going to happen. be prepared for it. in India unfortunately there are no filters. Everyone feels like their family. It's I don't think it comes from a bad place to be honest. initially I took offense to it then I was just like yeah sure I mean it's fine. It's whatever they're asking it's no use getting offended but people are going to be asking you personal questions. There are also going to be people who are going to be shocked at why you made the move and sort of belittle you that oh like US is such a great place like why did you move back you should just move back to the US remember that they haven't stayed there they haven't gone through the same things they will never know what you've gone through so unless don't let these things affect you you are going to have people giving you a lot of opinions in the US you didn't have family there which is why people weren't giving you opinions and your friends were in the same boat as you.

22:53 But if you if you were an American staying there, you would also have people talking about the same things. So don't feel like I came back to India and now people are like talking to me. It's going to be absolutely everywhere. It's just Indians are more free to each other. We just ask people personal questions. That's it. the other thing the other con I would say is because I was in Pune I used to find like people being very not not on time I would say. So that was one big issue where I was very used to getting things done on time but again you get used to it. You tell people to come like 5 hours early then they'll come on time. So you just make that calculation in your head and try adjusting to it. You let go of something. It's no use sticking to you know very oh I used to get the best customer service es honestly like in India you're going to get great customer service on phone and stuff you have swiggy which never worked anywhere in the US it's a great app there are some

23:53 Things which are are you know being worked on so just give it time be a bit more patient with things and for me it was honestly like the dust and pollution don't it's just getting worse unfortunately itely the weather is getting bad. I still love Pune weather but the people in Pune are like it's gotten worse from what it was. Mumbai has gotten unbearable during summers but the climate change is affecting everywhere in the world. So that is something you need to be prepared with. In terms of work culture if you're in an organization which I am I still am working with the same company as I was in India. they helped me you know work from here too. If you're working with young people, you are not going to have any issues. everyone's young, everyone's aware of the world. If you have good leadership, they ensure that you have a good working environment. So I didn't go through any drastic change in terms of how you know people are

24:55 Working in the US versus India. things are changing, especially startups are nimble and they're very quick to pick things up. So, I haven't gone through it, but I can imagine someone might go through it depending on where they're working. But yeah, I'm trying to think of like other cons. of course, Mumbai was much better, but Pune driving was really bad. I was very scared to drive initially and I drove in the US everywhere. Of course, US is a more car oriented country. So, everyone drives. But you come back to India, if you're in a big city, you have public transport or you have rickshas or there are a lot of metros going on, the construction going on. But if you drive, it is a challenge. Like I was honestly scared and people used to laugh at me. Oh, you've lived here for your life. What are you scared about? But you get used to people following their own rules. So if you move back that's a bit of a struggle where you know you get annoyed with how people are just driving rash and not giving signals. The honking has

25:57 Definitely reduced but you will get annoyed at that is going to happen. So be prepared for all these things. but again you have the luxury of either having a driver or going by public transport. So that's another pro that comes in place. But these are like the overall cons I can think of. that's great. thanks a lot puja for that. so I know this is something that you touched slightly if you're okay I would love to get a little bit more insights on this. So this is in regarding the purchasing power right I mean you know not comparing like from a salaries the cost of living. This is also like a common question that people have like in terms of the quality of the life that they can spend like you know the the salary or whatever. So if there's anything that you can touch on that topic in terms of the US versus India from a cost of living or you know the purchasing power from the salary I think that would give some insight for the people because you lived in Pune for 3 years.

26:56 Yeah. Yeah. What I would say is there are a lot of purchasing power yeah PP however it is called it calculators online. You can go and try it out. What you do is I'll explain to you what it is trying to do. It is trying to even out one's salary in one country to the other based on the cost of goods over there, the rentals over there, those kind of things. I can I don't think I can I wish I knew like the percentage of change but you can check that out on the website and see. The one thing I would say is if you're looking for a job in India, go to the purchasing parity calculator, put in your US salary that you were earning, see how much you should be earning in India accordingly and then you can negotiate your salary.

27:46 It's never going to be one one to one. Look up like some you know on glass door etc what your baseline salary should be. In terms of cost, things are much cheaper in India. Of course, even compared to the salaries that you're getting, you'll be saving up a lot of money. You can invest a lot, which is what we did. And you'll see a lot of returns too on your investment. So, the cost of living is comparatively lower in India even if you're living a great life and you know living luxuriously and not really in the US. you just had to there there are a lot of things which are super expensive things are getting way more expensive from what I've heard when I left even you know simple things like I'm the only one thing that's coming to my mind unfortunately is a drink in a bar but things that used to a drink that used to be like eight dollars are now up up till 12 I think in the same place where we used to go to in

28:48 The US in India don't come back and expect vapa to be four rupees it's No, no longer that everywhere things are getting more expensive. So, expect that to happen. But you're going to give live a much much more luxurious life because compared to your salary, you're going to be getting cheaper things, I would say, and being able to save a lot more money. Just be cautious of it. Make sure you have a good financial planner or things on hand. we in fact hired one to make sure that you know we know how much to save and we have certain goals that we're trying to cover using it. So things are cheaper I would say compared to the US not like of course US to INR but according to the calculator that Avin and I spoke about. So just go I can again Ain I can ping you the link so that people can go and we did the same thing by the way before coming to Paris we calculated the same way where we saw if you're earning this much in India how much should we be earning in France to live the same quality of life. Yeah.

29:49 And that's what everyone should do without if someone tells you, "Hey, my salary is $100,000 in USD." Don't be like, "Oh my god, 100,000 into 100 I will do. Oh my god, this guy is earning so much." Never do that. Yeah. Go to the website and try converting it into using the purchasing parity and see how much it is in INR. No, thanks for sharing that and I think we will post those links in the description u of the video so you can check it out. so I know we covered quite a few things. Is there any topic or that we haven't covered that you would like to bring up or any advice that you want to give the future aspirants who are thinking about moving back to India? Yeah, I would say you know there are a lot of emotional elements when you move back. it's it's not an easy decision.

30:38 Take your time. List down pros and cons. Talk to as many people as you can. I'm glad a you're doing this so that people can look up experiences. reach out to people and talk to them themselves. Try not to talk to someone who has just stayed in the US and not moved back or just been in India and never been to the US because they're not going to understand the the you know what you're going through right now. Most of the cases especially with young people I've been noticing is that they have been moving back because of not getting their visa which is sort of a very unfortunate place where you're forced to move back. But think of it as

31:20 You know take it take it like in a nice way. Don't feel disheartened by it. It wasn't something that you did went wrong. It was literally a luck thing unfortunately. So take it as you go. And if you're doing it once you have a family, you made the decision to go back home because of a certain reason, all good. I I think just be cautious of who you talk to when you're trying to make the move and make the move on your own decisions. Do not do it because someone has asked you to do it. Otherwise, you are going to regret it. So don't let that happen. Be confident of what you're doing. And what's the worst that can happen? when you're going back to your own country. It's not like you're moving to some stranger place. You have someone or the other there that you can back on.

32:09 But yeah, that's the only advice that I can, you know, give people. Oh, yeah. Thanks for sharing that. I think it's definitely important to listen to the people who went through the same or who had a similar experience, right? I think they can understand the the things that individuals are going through and can provide a better more context you know feedback. Yeah. So thank you very much Puya for taking the time and sharing your journey and being with us and with lot of information especially like your experience in India in the last 3 years. so wish you all the best and thanks again for all your time and sharing your journey with us. Sure. Thank you Avin. It was great talking to you and I'm glad I could share whatever I could. and yeah, you know, feel free Ainina to post my Instagram ID or wherever you can. I'd be more than happy to speak to anyone if they do want to go into details too. But thank you for arranging this.

33:07 Yeah. Thanks and have a good day. You too. Thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of DIY. If you enjoyed this episode and want to explore more stories and expert advice, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell. Don't forget to leave a comment below with your thoughts and experiences. By the way, check out the links in the description below for our Facebook group and social media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting with fellow this. Thank you once again and until next