Kovai23 R2I Blog(Chicago to Coimbatore)

kovai23 · Post by **kovai23** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:38 am

Hi All,

Have been a regular visitor to R2IClubForums for the past year or so. It's been of great help to me in planning my R2I.

Would like to use this thread to post my experiences in moving to a tier II city.

About Us:
I was in the US for about 15 years. Did my M.S. there and worked in various capacities in various companies in the IT industry. Wife is a physician. Have two kids 5 and 1 years old. Returned back in December 2007 to coimbatore.

Moving to Coimbatore:
Both my wife's and my family are based in Coimbatore. So, coimbatore was one of the choices for R2I. Initially the thought was to R2I to Chennai or Bangalore. However, with two kids, we thought that coimbatore would be a better choice since we have an extensive social network there. So far, we are very happy with the choice we made. Coimbatore is a smallish city. Can travel across the city in about 30 mins. Everyone here is complaining about how bad the traffic is, but in reality, it is much better than most cities in India.

IT in coimbatore:
It looks like there are quite a few small companies in Coimbatore. The only big company here is Cognizant. From what I've heard the Coimbatore branch is mostly focused on low end maintainenace kind of work. The Tidel park is under construction. It might take a couple of years to complete. The pace at which constructions take place here is realllllllllly slow.

What to do after R2I:
We took some time to settle down after R2I. Now, for the past month or so, I've been actively researching what to do next. Looking at various opportunities like franchising non-IT stuff, franchising IT training (NIIT, Aptech etc.), finishing schools for IT, expanding scope of websites (I have a couple of websites, socialmd.com, medgraduate.com etc.), writing apps for Facebook, Android etc.. Still trying to decide what to do.. If any of you are returning back to Coimbatore soon (or already in Coimbatore) and are interested in partnering do let me know.

Shipping:
Read most of the shipping thread and asked for quotes from a few shipping companies: sky2c, Eastwest and worldwide. Sky2C was the cheapest and seemed like the most popular one among R2Iers. So, chose Sky2C. I used a 20 ft container and Sky2C's cost to move it from Chicago to Coimbatore came to around $3700. This didn't including packing and loading in Chicago as well as unpacking in Coimbatore. For packing and loading in Chicago, I used 'Roy the movers'. Most desis know about Roy :-).. Very reasonable prices. If you are in Chicago area and don't have Roy's contact info let me know and I'll post it.

Electronics:
As far as the ever popular question of "LCD or Plasma", I chose Plasma :-).. Got a 50" Vizio from Circuit City. It is PAL compatible and has a range of 110-240V. So, was able to directly plug it in here to a TataSky setup box and it's working great so far. I also brought my sound system (Yamaha receiver, Infinity subwoofer and speakers). The receiver and subwoofer are 110V/60Hz. But, they seem to be working fine here with a 1000W step down transformer.

Also, filled the container with a lot of items. Some of them were bought new. I was building a house, so bought a couple of bathroom vanities and medicine cabinets at Lowe's. If you are getting a container, my advice would be to fill it up with whatever you find over there. It is definitely worth it.

I guess I'll stop now. Hope some of it is useful for future R2Iers. Will try to write more as I think of something. If any of you have any questions please feel free to post a message in this thread..

ntl · Post by **ntl** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:45 pm

I am a family physician returned to India - to Hyd. almost 2 years ago. I presently do "free lance" work at local clinics/hospitals. I would be interested in knowing your wife's work related plans in India.

sumu · Post by **sumu** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:52 pm

Way to go.......!! Good posting Kovai23. Pl do include the ever challenging school hunt and final choice of schools too...We pretty much have planned to do the same as you. Where in CBE do you live ? Keep posting..

SSri · Post by **SSri** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:04 pm

Nice post. Hope you are enjoying your return.
Can you give the model no: of Vizio that you took? I am skeptical about ordering the Panasonic (or other commerical, PAL compatible TVs) online. I would rather buy from a retailer. Also not sure if all Vizio models are PAL compatible. It would be great if you can share the model no: that you purchased.

Thanks

ILuvHyd · Post by **ILuvHyd** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:14 pm

kovai23 ,
Congrats! Did you realize that you had a great R2I? For me , moving near parents, in-laws, friends and where one has social capital is the best R2I. I plan to take it easy with work after R2I and glad to see some people like you thinking in the same lines. All the best and keep posting whatever you feel like sharing. What I found was, no post is a bad post and one will always find someone who likes/draw inspiration from it :emrose:

rgk · Post by **rgk** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:34 pm

Congrats. Nice to see a different approach of R2I. I mean Tier II & own business thoughts. Good luck.

Please check ur PM.

Thanks

VS007 · Post by **VS007** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:16 am

Kovai23,
Congrats on your R2I!
Please do write more about the city and school admissions.

Samy · Post by **Samy** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:38 am

Hi Kovai23,
Congrats on your r2i, you've made it. Keep this thread active by writing more often.

We're planning to r2i early next year to cbe. We will be visiting this summer during the school holidays here and for the most part I'm planning to spend time on checking the schools in cbe (for my kids 8 & 2) and a good neighborhood to settle down.

Your diary is already a good help.

Thanks for the post.

kovai23 · Post by **kovai23** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:49 am

Thanks everyone for your responses..

ntl,
my wife is planning to startup a clinic nearby. For the past couple of weeks she has been going to a neighbhorhood clinic as an observer.

Ssri,
The model I purchased is vizio P50HDTV10A. I also had purchased a Panasonic DVD Recorder with Hard Disk that could play PAL DVDs. Used that to test the TV before I brought it to India.

kovai23 · Post by **kovai23** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:19 pm

sumu;95312Way to go.......!! Good posting Kovai23. Pl do include the ever challenging school hunt and final choice of schools too...We pretty much have planned to do the same as you. Where in CBE do you live ? Keep posting..

Sumu, VS007,

We visited Perks, National Model, Suguna PIPs, Vidya Niketan, Vivekalaya, Indian Public School and another school in the race course area (I forgot the name :-). It wasn't good)

National Model has a CBSE and a Matriculation school. The CBSE school didn't have any admissions. The school seemed to be very ordinary. We weren't too interested. So, didn't enquire about the Matriculation school.

Perks had admissions. The school has a lot of extra curricular activities. The teacher to student ratio is quite low, 1:45. Also, the building and facilities are very old. It might take a long time for NRI kids to get comfortable there.

Suguna PIPS was started a few years back and seems to have a lot of NRI kids. They outright said there is no chance of admission for our son since he will be joining 1st grade. The only chance to get in there is if you can join during LKG admissions. If not, it is dependent on luck and the kind of recommendations you can get.

Vidya Niketan is very popular in coimbatore. They conduct entrance exams every year for admissions. For their LKG admissions there were around 1000 applicants. For our son, we were told to take the admission exam in April. The exam would include English, Math, Tamil and Hindi. Since he wasn't familiar with Tamil and Hindi, the correspondent of the school, requested us to get private coaching for him for Tamil and Hindi and then take the entrance exam. The school has a reputation for good academic results. There are three or four sections per class and seemed pretty crowded.

Vivekalya was mentioned in R2IForum member snatchim in the Coimbatore forum. The school has only one section per class and only about 30 kids per class. It is a matricularion school and doesn't have 11th and 12th grades. It is on Trichy Road opposite Kannan Department Stores (old Sreepathy theaters). We liked this school quite a bit. Mainly due to the stress on activities other than academics. Upto 4th grade there aren't any exams. Classes start at 8:30 and end at 1:30 upto 4th grade. There is atleast one hour of physical activity everyday as well. Admission for 1st grade was available.

Indian Public School is in the Tatabad area. The school has been started by NRIs. The first school was started in Erode, where the school goes upto 9th grade now. The coimbatore branch was started in June 2007 with classes upto UKG. In 2008 1st grade is being started. In 2009 the main campus will be built in the Saravanampatti area and classes from 1st through 3rd grades will start there. Slowly higher classes will be added. They have both CBSE and International Board classes. The director of the cbe branch has returned back to India after about 17 years in the US. Was very friendly and also has good experience running schools (she ran a montessori school in the US for about 4 years). We decided to admit our son to this school even though it might be a bit of travel for us (we live in the Singanallur area). The school, however, does have buses traveling all over the city.

For future R2Iers to cbe, there are more schools coming up. There is one coming up this year in Saravanampatti inside goumara madalaya. It seems to be an International School as well.

Now, it's time for a shameless plug :emsmilep: :emsmilep:
I am also a partner in a school in the Ganapathy area. Right now, it is a Eurokids franchise and has upto LKG. We are currently constructing the building and in June 2009 will startup 1st grade. Will post more details after the building is completed and the June 2008 session starts, in the Coimbatore schools thread..