IAD - HYD - May 02 - 2012

[washdc]

Yep did it !!!!!!!!

Day 1 - drove a standard car (had to, because we had no one to drive the car back from the mall that day). It was not bad at all....

3rd week - decided on the house to rent.
3rd week - bought an automatic I10 for my wife so we could give my dad'a car back to him.
4th week - moved in to the new crib.
8th week - kids started school. The first reaction about school from my 5th grader - "School lunch is the best I've ever had" :))

12th week - I came back to the US to wrap things up. Plan on going back in a month.

Details->

So.. the journey was long and hard. You know how it is when you are standing in the line to get on a roller coaster .. there are signs at certain points saying "If you must exit, you can do it from here" etc etc.. This journey seemed the same. I saw several points like that but our will pushed us through..

I want to say a little bit about how we planned and I must pat myself on the back... Because the execution was simply perfect. Thanks to a lot of info from here .. the forum.

We more or less decided to move in 2012 at around Aug or Sep 2011. The thought was on our minds for about 5 years or so and finally decided to pull it off for this school year. The school admission process started in November 2011. We wanted our kids to go to Chirec(hyd) because that is where all our friends send their kids to. Another friend of mine who also moved was going to be in this ls and school. After several emails going back and forth between the school management and us, addmisions were given. That was a huge relief.
Money matters -> I decided on moving funds from my bank here to India through the ICICI transfer thing. Moved those funds in Dec 2011. You can only move 15k per week and so it took us a few weeks to get the funds moved.
After researching for the movers, we decided on using Sky2C.

The moving date -> this was critical. My wife did not want our kids to miss school here but I strongly insisted on the kids getting their summer break. I was not going back on this one item and she agreed with me. We left school 6 weeks early and booked out tickets for April 30th. This turned out to be a huge deal favoring us finally.

We also felt we could manage without having all the items at home and decide to ship out goods on March 21st. That way, we wanted our stuff right when we got there. Shippers arrived as planned and we shipped out all the stuff leaving the sofa/beds we planned or throwing away. We do regret now that we had about 5 feet left in our 20 feet container and could have carried a lot of stuff we threw away. There could have been several takers for those items.

So, I started packing boxes one after the other carefully almost 3 months before the shipment date. Put boxes together and put them in the basement. We shopped for furniture and all that stuff came in right before the ship date. All said and done, the stuff moved out on March 21st. Like I said, we had a lot of space left and could have sent a lot of things but.. no big regrets.

Luckily I was working from home for the last 4 months and it helped us a lot in doing all these things.
The last month, we saw a lot of people coming and telling us not to go because they were going to miss us and it was very touching. Neighbors and friends threw somany parties, it was unbelievable.

One thing I did not execute properly was figuring out the amount of work involved in removing the left over stuff and cleaning out before getting on the flight. Not to mention the last minute shopping :) because we now have 8 suitcases and someone likes shopping :wink
The last day, we figured we could not complete it and had to rely on some of our very very good friends to take care of it. Without them, this would not have happened. They were awesome.

Airport check-in on FB -> So, we got on the flight with about 30 - 40 people coming to the airport on a Monday with kids and some crying was involved etc..

Arrived in Hyderabad early morning on May 2nd. Family and friends came over to pick us up. It was nice (nervous a bit) to be there and say - this is it. The dream has come true !!.
We got to be with our parents for almost a month while looking for a place to rent close to the school. We found one of the best places in the area and my wife loved it. She said we have to take this and we signed up for it.

Schools started in June 23rd or so and that gave enough time for our kids to get a feel about india. I saw somany families move back to india in the second week of June and also July. Felt bad for their kids to jump right into school after they finished up over there. everyone of them felt our idea was good.

My fifth grader had to jump into 5th grade Telugu and he did not know a single letter to write or a word to speak. Thanks to the unprofessional admin folks in the school. He was admitted into CBSE when we thought it was CIE all along. Anyway, we got hold of the teacher and she decided to do tution for him. She claims kids usually pick up the language ina couple of months. So, that is taken care off.

The only thing left is my kid should find friends. Once that is done, I do not see any problemson that side. My little one is not an issue at all. He was made the class leader (PP2) and is excited about it.

My wife loved the place so much that we are buying an apartment right above where we live. That means - the move is for real !!

I had to come back to the US to wrap things up with my project. Got here last week and will be here for another 4 weeks. And now that I am back, I could actually get time to write this.:wink Can't wait to go back and be with my loved ones...

All in all - it was an unbelievable journey and am very very happy with how things turned out. Hope you all are successful in your journeys as well. Wishing you all the very best.

My wife says - from week 1 itself my body got reprogrammed itself into a true hyderabadi. The language, the food everything ...

[Chakraan]

Congrats!
I was wondering and worried about your wine bottles

Are the safe ?

[Desi2return]

Yep did it !!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!! Nice to read through your dairy. So Cheric gave admission without seeing and talking to the kid? That's great...Could you let us know the fee structure for Cheric? How is Hyd traffic and how are you dealing with it? Are you staying in Kondapur area?

[washdc]

Congrats!
I was wondering and worried about your wine bottles

Are the safe ?

Yes Chakraan. They made it safe. Not a single scratch. In fact everything in the container was exactly the way it was, when we sealed it. Opened a few bottles of wine but did not get a chance to open the good ones... Will do that when I go back.

[washdc]

Congratulations!!! Nice to read through your dairy. So Cheric gave admission without seeing and talking to the kid? That's great...Could you let us know the fee structure for Cheric? How is Hyd traffic and how are you dealing with it? Are you staying in Kondapur area?

Chirec did a formal interview through Google talk - video thing. It was a formality. It looks like they pretty much gave admissions to everyone. The fee is around 2lakhs for each kid for the first year. This includes fees, bus, food etc...

It is funny when some one complains about traffic in India. I've lived in the Northern Virginia area for 8 years.. To go to DC from the suburbs, it take between 60 - 90 minutes. Traffic is everywhere. You have to figure out how to be closer to the important thing ie kids school or work or parents... what ever is important..

We rented a place in Nanakramguda near the financial district. Pretty near to the Chirec campuses. A lot of families who R2I-ed this year are living in our apartments.. All in all, like I said... You can look it either as "Glass is Half empty or Half Full"

good luck

[abadgi]

Chirec did a formal interview through Google talk - video thing. It was a formality. It looks like they pretty much gave admissions to everyone. The fee is around 2lakhs for each kid for the first year. This includes fees, bus, food etc...

It is funny when some one complains about traffic in India. I've lived in the Northern Virginia area for 8 years.. To go to DC from the suburbs, it take between 60 - 90 minutes. Traffic is everywhere. You have to figure out how to be closer to the important thing ie kids school or work or parents... what ever is important..

We rented a place in Nanakramguda near the financial district. Pretty near to the Chirec campuses. A lot of families who R2I-ed this year are living in our apartments.. All in all, like I said... You can look it either as "Glass is Half empty or Half Full"

good luck

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[pegasus2012]

[QUOTE]We rented a place in Nanakramguda near the financial district. Pretty near to the Chirec campuses. A lot of families who R2I-ed this year are living in our apartments.. All in all, like I said... You can look it either as "Glass is Half empty or Half Full"

good luck



Would you mind telling us the apt complex, I am in the process of shortlisting a 3 BR to crash land(:o) and would love to know some details like rent and BR (Rent could be approximate or range).

Also, were there any other schools considered by you other than Chirec, Chirec has got some good revs but not sure if is in my budget (me :()