Just wanted to start a thread about people who R2Ied in the year 2010 (From US/Canada/Singapore/UK/Australia etc...) and would like to hear their overall experience so far. What's good, What's bad, do you like it :) ? Do you regret :( ? etc. etc..
I have completed 6+ months of my stay in India post R2I and would be sharing my experiences as well shortly. so stay tuned.....
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
My Experience since 6 Months of R2I:
Here are my experiences/observations post R2I. I R2Ied to Bangalore in the month of July as Internal Company Transfer: I have broken down my experiences into multiple areas comparing with my longer period of my stay in US. Again this is my own personal experiences I don't mean these are generic and applicable to all (some points may be :) ).
Work/Job:
Work is okay, not that great though...almost everyday there are calls to attend from US counterpart and this causes eventually the working hours to be longer than what I used to have in US. Work environment is okay however people lack professionalism, there is no sense of ownership or accountability. You need to keep following up on status (there are some exceptional though). If something is not done as per the plan it is not taken very seriously, though they commit/promise to complete however many times there is slippage in deadline. Many times I have observed that if I don't personally follow up and stay on top of it things never get done. This is quite disappointing :( Work culture is quite different in US than here in India even though it is a MNC company!. So from work perspective US is :thup: where as India is :thdown: again this is just based on my current exp. never know things may change in future.
Travel/Commute:
I stay far away from office and traffic is really a pain. Everyday I spend close to 3-4 hours just on road to commute from office/home. I don't think having a personal vehicle will help here as it will add more burden to the existing road causing more traffic. On my part on Outer ring road (traveling from Whitefield to South Bangalore) the traffic is really a nightmare no matter what time you go during business hours. I think the best time would be between 12:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Though the metro construction is in progress and also lots of flyover constructions are in progress, these will take some time and I don't see having these will solve the traffic congestion problem :( The best way to commute (if you have the option which i have) is via VOLVO bus! Good ride and good frequency as well.... One way to avoid traffic problem people should take public transportation as much as possible and avoid taking personal cars, the roads in Bangalore cannot take this much traffic everyday.... Probably once all METRO and FLYOVER constructions are completed successfully, I am hoping traffic will improve but the question is how many years? We as people to be responsible to help ease the traffic congestion problem. I take office bus and VOLVO and so far it is working fine for me.
Quality Of Life:
Quality of life is indeed quite better in US than India. It could be because of my long hours in Office and Commute that's affecting my quality of life seriously. Though you have extended family etc. however my observation is that everyone is quite busy with their life (I don't want to blame anyone here as I am myself one among them :) ). Also because of this traffic it has become practically impossible to think of going and visiting family friend, the traffic situation really scares me... 4-5 kms normally takes anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes....
Life In A Box:
I thought that in US all of us have a lifestyle of living in a box, all house windows closed (in Summer to get A/C affect and in Winter to get good heating), Car inside garage and we have a mechanical life of going in CAR, working in Office and then coming back in CAR etc... Due to weather we always had our windows closed. Here in Bangalore though weather is nice but still we have to keep all the windows closed as there is too much of dirt/dust in the air. The quantity of dust is way too higher here than in US. I used to see a slight layer of dust accumulated on Sofa, TV etc after few weeks in US here in India however almost everyday you have to dust to get rid of the dirt. You just cannot open CAR window and drive because of dirt. Auto/Two Wheeler is also same, only best option is VOLVO bus. A good walking is not possible anymore in Bangalore (it was back in 1990-91), if one needs to walk he/she needs to go to a good park and then walk. And because of all these Metro constructions you cannot visit some of the parks :(
Kids School/Education:
Good part here is the school bus comes to the door step to pick-up and drop off my kids. Most of the school buses come to the door-step (may be new schools which need students....). Kids are in CBSE school. My son used to be an avid reader back in US however his reading skills have reduced... he does not read much :( Looks like his Math/Science skills have improved (but I am not very sure... too early to judge). My kids are quite happy to go to school everyday and also come back happy, this is nice to see. Looks like they enjoy the 1 hr of bus ride each way!!! Timing wise no major difference, they go to school by 7:20 a.m. and come back from school at 4:45 p.m. this was the same timings in US as well however in US one of us had to drop and pick them up from the school and almost every day they were in ASP program. Not much homework in the school or may be my son complete the homework in the school itself, there appears to be lot of sports activity in the school as they have good sport infrastructure. Recently in the Sports Day event P.T.Usha was invited as the Chief Guest.
Cost of Living:
Cost of living in India is certainly very high! No doubt about that. Most of us in the IT may not feel that much because we get good salaries. However for common/generic people I am not sure how it is possible for them to afford. At this point I am not even considering purchasing a House in Bangalore, for the price you get a house here I am not sure if it is worth the cost (May be I am comparing with US and I should not be....) Currently I am staying in a rental house and plan to do so for sometime.
Quality of Living:
The quality of living is definitely not the same as in US. Long and cumbersome commute. Long office hours due to follow up with US team. Not able to spend good quality time with family compared to US. Travel with-in Bangalore city is a pain, parking is a big problem. Auto drivers are very dominating and arrogant, they will ask you where you want to go, think for a while and refuse to take you, sometime they demand 1.5 or 2 times the fare this is so ridiculous. So far I have not seen much issues with basic amenities like Water/Electricity/Gas but what I have heard is in Summer it's going to be issue, so I have to wait and see.
Settling in:
Settling in US is a breeze it does not take much time and things are very much structured and there is very good customer service for everything. Here in Bangalore my initial days of settling I had to really struggle. You got to know somewhere or else nothing gets done. Going through honesty route does not work. Corruption is open and rampant. Water/Electricity person openly asks for money or else your work will not get done or delayed. There is no time commitment and value for customer. These guys will ask you to come at a specific time and if you go they will not be there. I had to go through these couple of times to get things straighten out. Even for my son's police clearance certificate for FRRO registration the police clerk clearly asked for money in the police station, so disappointing. Govt. officials openly ask favor or else your work will not be done. Especially if you don't know local language it's a nightmare :angry:
Food/Restaurants:
Undoubtedly India is much better here, you have tons and tons of choice for Vegetarians. If you are in place like south Bangalore there are tons of hotels/restaurants/fast-food center with-in walkable distance so that you get wide varieties of food of your choice. I really love this. You get pure cane juice, fruit juices, ice-creams, pizza(s), coffee(s) .... to name a few.... Vegetable vendors come on your front-door, milk/newspaper gets delivered to your home, tender coconut vendor comes everyday front of home, flowers get delivered everyday morning and so on...
I am slowly settling in Bangalore... I guess it will take some time, many times I still compare life here with my life in US whenever I struggle here, for me it's starting my life in scratch from here. I will have to bite my teeth and get adjusted with Indian Environment before I get fully merged into everyday life here... Kids have kind of settled in, sometimes they do miss US...
I hope others will share their experiences as well and I am eagerly looking forward to hearing the same from people who have R2Ied in the past 6 months to a year.
Here are my experiences/observations post R2I. I R2Ied to Bangalore in the month of July as Internal Company Transfer: I have broken down my experiences into multiple areas comparing with my longer period of my stay in US. Again this is my own personal experiences I don't mean these are generic and applicable to all (some points may be :) ).
Work/Job:
Work is okay, not that great though...almost everyday there are calls to attend from US counterpart and this causes eventually the working hours to be longer than what I used to have in US. Work environment is okay however people lack professionalism, there is no sense of ownership or accountability. You need to keep following up on status (there are some exceptional though). If something is not done as per the plan it is not taken very seriously, though they commit/promise to complete however many times there is slippage in deadline. Many times I have observed that if I don't personally follow up and stay on top of it things never get done. This is quite disappointing :( Work culture is quite different in US than here in India even though it is a MNC company!. So from work perspective US is :thup: where as India is :thdown: again this is just based on my current exp. never know things may change in future.
Travel/Commute:
I stay far away from office and traffic is really a pain. Everyday I spend close to 3-4 hours just on road to commute from office/home. I don't think having a personal vehicle will help here as it will add more burden to the existing road causing more traffic. On my part on Outer ring road (traveling from Whitefield to South Bangalore) the traffic is really a nightmare no matter what time you go during business hours. I think the best time would be between 12:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Though the metro construction is in progress and also lots of flyover constructions are in progress, these will take some time and I don't see having these will solve the traffic congestion problem :( The best way to commute (if you have the option which i have) is via VOLVO bus! Good ride and good frequency as well.... One way to avoid traffic problem people should take public transportation as much as possible and avoid taking personal cars, the roads in Bangalore cannot take this much traffic everyday.... Probably once all METRO and FLYOVER constructions are completed successfully, I am hoping traffic will improve but the question is how many years? We as people to be responsible to help ease the traffic congestion problem. I take office bus and VOLVO and so far it is working fine for me.
Quality Of Life:
Quality of life is indeed quite better in US than India. It could be because of my long hours in Office and Commute that's affecting my quality of life seriously. Though you have extended family etc. however my observation is that everyone is quite busy with their life (I don't want to blame anyone here as I am myself one among them :) ). Also because of this traffic it has become practically impossible to think of going and visiting family friend, the traffic situation really scares me... 4-5 kms normally takes anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes....
Life In A Box:
I thought that in US all of us have a lifestyle of living in a box, all house windows closed (in Summer to get A/C affect and in Winter to get good heating), Car inside garage and we have a mechanical life of going in CAR, working in Office and then coming back in CAR etc... Due to weather we always had our windows closed. Here in Bangalore though weather is nice but still we have to keep all the windows closed as there is too much of dirt/dust in the air. The quantity of dust is way too higher here than in US. I used to see a slight layer of dust accumulated on Sofa, TV etc after few weeks in US here in India however almost everyday you have to dust to get rid of the dirt. You just cannot open CAR window and drive because of dirt. Auto/Two Wheeler is also same, only best option is VOLVO bus. A good walking is not possible anymore in Bangalore (it was back in 1990-91), if one needs to walk he/she needs to go to a good park and then walk. And because of all these Metro constructions you cannot visit some of the parks :(
Kids School/Education:
Good part here is the school bus comes to the door step to pick-up and drop off my kids. Most of the school buses come to the door-step (may be new schools which need students....). Kids are in CBSE school. My son used to be an avid reader back in US however his reading skills have reduced... he does not read much :( Looks like his Math/Science skills have improved (but I am not very sure... too early to judge). My kids are quite happy to go to school everyday and also come back happy, this is nice to see. Looks like they enjoy the 1 hr of bus ride each way!!! Timing wise no major difference, they go to school by 7:20 a.m. and come back from school at 4:45 p.m. this was the same timings in US as well however in US one of us had to drop and pick them up from the school and almost every day they were in ASP program. Not much homework in the school or may be my son complete the homework in the school itself, there appears to be lot of sports activity in the school as they have good sport infrastructure. Recently in the Sports Day event P.T.Usha was invited as the Chief Guest.
Cost of Living:
Cost of living in India is certainly very high! No doubt about that. Most of us in the IT may not feel that much because we get good salaries. However for common/generic people I am not sure how it is possible for them to afford. At this point I am not even considering purchasing a House in Bangalore, for the price you get a house here I am not sure if it is worth the cost (May be I am comparing with US and I should not be....) Currently I am staying in a rental house and plan to do so for sometime.
Quality of Living:
The quality of living is definitely not the same as in US. Long and cumbersome commute. Long office hours due to follow up with US team. Not able to spend good quality time with family compared to US. Travel with-in Bangalore city is a pain, parking is a big problem. Auto drivers are very dominating and arrogant, they will ask you where you want to go, think for a while and refuse to take you, sometime they demand 1.5 or 2 times the fare this is so ridiculous. So far I have not seen much issues with basic amenities like Water/Electricity/Gas but what I have heard is in Summer it's going to be issue, so I have to wait and see.
Settling in:
Settling in US is a breeze it does not take much time and things are very much structured and there is very good customer service for everything. Here in Bangalore my initial days of settling I had to really struggle. You got to know somewhere or else nothing gets done. Going through honesty route does not work. Corruption is open and rampant. Water/Electricity person openly asks for money or else your work will not get done or delayed. There is no time commitment and value for customer. These guys will ask you to come at a specific time and if you go they will not be there. I had to go through these couple of times to get things straighten out. Even for my son's police clearance certificate for FRRO registration the police clerk clearly asked for money in the police station, so disappointing. Govt. officials openly ask favor or else your work will not be done. Especially if you don't know local language it's a nightmare :angry:
Food/Restaurants:
Undoubtedly India is much better here, you have tons and tons of choice for Vegetarians. If you are in place like south Bangalore there are tons of hotels/restaurants/fast-food center with-in walkable distance so that you get wide varieties of food of your choice. I really love this. You get pure cane juice, fruit juices, ice-creams, pizza(s), coffee(s) .... to name a few.... Vegetable vendors come on your front-door, milk/newspaper gets delivered to your home, tender coconut vendor comes everyday front of home, flowers get delivered everyday morning and so on...
I am slowly settling in Bangalore... I guess it will take some time, many times I still compare life here with my life in US whenever I struggle here, for me it's starting my life in scratch from here. I will have to bite my teeth and get adjusted with Indian Environment before I get fully merged into everyday life here... Kids have kind of settled in, sometimes they do miss US...
I hope others will share their experiences as well and I am eagerly looking forward to hearing the same from people who have R2Ied in the past 6 months to a year.
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
back2desh
Thanks for sharing experience. I think you should give yourself more time to get used to. Estimate is about x number of months for x years spent overseas read US.
- Dust problem is annoying especially if you are living near the main road, major street. VVBuggy had proposed sealing windows and doors in this forum (you need to search for details) which others find effective and helpful.
- 3 to 4 hours commute is pain in the neck, it will be better if you can use public transport or company transport (not cab - small car) - at least you can take a nap or read a book.
- I thought professionalism is getting better in Des but I guess have long way to go. Sense of ownership will follow.
One thing is great for you that you took a company transfer that way transition must have been easier. Most have a big question how to manage a job in new environment and work culture.
Thanks for sharing experience. I think you should give yourself more time to get used to. Estimate is about x number of months for x years spent overseas read US.
- Dust problem is annoying especially if you are living near the main road, major street. VVBuggy had proposed sealing windows and doors in this forum (you need to search for details) which others find effective and helpful.
- 3 to 4 hours commute is pain in the neck, it will be better if you can use public transport or company transport (not cab - small car) - at least you can take a nap or read a book.
- I thought professionalism is getting better in Des but I guess have long way to go. Sense of ownership will follow.
One thing is great for you that you took a company transfer that way transition must have been easier. Most have a big question how to manage a job in new environment and work culture.
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
I take office/company car for my daily commute to office and sometimes VOLVO bus. I don't think i will ever drive my personal car to office unless I find a job closer to where I live.
Froogle;362557back2desh
Thanks for sharing experience. I think you should give yourself more time to get used to. Estimate is about x number of months for x years spent overseas read US.
- Dust problem is annoying especially if you are living near the main road, major street. VVBuggy had proposed sealing windows and doors in this forum (you need to search for details) which others find effective and helpful.
- 3 to 4 hours commute is pain in the neck, it will be better if you can use public transport or company transport (not cab - small car) - at least you can take a nap or read a book.
- I thought professionalism is getting better in Des but I guess have long way to go. Sense of ownership will follow.
One thing is great for you that you took a company transfer that way transition must have been easier. Most have a big question how to manage a job in new environment and work culture.
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
Hey back2desh, you really took a long time to write your experiences. First thing I would like to ask you "Where were you born?" Your allegations on dust, traffic, etc has been prevalent since 50 years - it's nothing new and you seem to complain about this in every experience point of yours. You got to stay calm and give some more time yourself to get adjusted. Well, Good Luck and I really appreciate that you decided to go back.
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
This is my personal experience and I am not generalizing it. It's not a complain it's the experience that I am talking about. I am from Bangalore and my observation is purely based on how it was before I left to US 17 years ago. Looks like this is your first post in this forum! Please read through postings from others experiences as well.
bking007;362900Hey back2desh, you really took a long time to write your experiences. First thing I would like to ask you "Where were you born?" Your allegations on dust, traffic, etc has been prevalent since 50 years - it's nothing new and you seem to complain about this in every experience point of yours. You got to stay calm and give some more time yourself to get adjusted. Well, Good Luck and I really appreciate that you decided to go back.
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
B2Desh, thanks for sharing your experiences, much appreciated. I see a common theme among R2I experiences in terms of the work environment, cost of living, traffic, corruption and pollution. On the positive side, it seems across the board, children do a superb job of adjusting and blending in and end up enjoying India more.
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
My experience related to Work environment is similar to what back2Desh said. So reduced my aggressiveness and getting used to Indian work environment. Jaisey desh waisey vesh.. One thing worked out very well is being friendly with everyone at work -- give respect and take respect working very well..
I am in Hyderabad and definitely enjoying food, commute (not at all bad as I am working in 2nd shift 1-12PM).
Regarding relatives not much expected from them so not much disappointed. Set frame of mind before R2i - Teek hai chalthaa !!!
Freinds yessss Friends --meeting childhood friends and spending evenings with them recalling past times is definitely worth R2i.
Tomorrow I am going on long ride to see Farm lands with child hood friends.. Kind of fun.. will have Biryani, paan etc etc...
Iran chai, panee puri, cutlet, sweets,fruits,samosa --lot of movies in theaters (including new Mirapakaay movie)...
Enjoying every bit of fun ...
Overall life is getting better in Hyderabad -- may be because I am localite...
More next time...
I am in Hyderabad and definitely enjoying food, commute (not at all bad as I am working in 2nd shift 1-12PM).
Regarding relatives not much expected from them so not much disappointed. Set frame of mind before R2i - Teek hai chalthaa !!!
Freinds yessss Friends --meeting childhood friends and spending evenings with them recalling past times is definitely worth R2i.
Tomorrow I am going on long ride to see Farm lands with child hood friends.. Kind of fun.. will have Biryani, paan etc etc...
Iran chai, panee puri, cutlet, sweets,fruits,samosa --lot of movies in theaters (including new Mirapakaay movie)...
Enjoying every bit of fun ...
Overall life is getting better in Hyderabad -- may be because I am localite...
More next time...
Post R2I Experience between 6 months to a year..... What do you say?
rmandy;363237My experience related to Work environment is similar to what back2Desh said. So reduced my aggressiveness and getting used to Indian work environment. Jaisey desh waisey vesh.. One thing worked out very well is being friendly with everyone at work -- give respect and take respect working very well..
That's the only option I see (when in Rome do what romans do approach) and with lot of difficulty it looks like I have to follow this approach only, it's going to be quite difficult but seems like there is no other option! Good to know rmandy that you are having great time in Hyderabad!!! Enjoy