Rajba\'s R2I (Bangalore) Diary

[rajba]

This forum has been helpful to me when i was at crossroads on my r2i planning. Many people had similar issues and the encouragement, perspective provided by some of the forum members were insightful. I decided to start my own in the hope that it may be of assistance to someone some day.

Personal Details :

Family of two, no kids, late - 30s, both USC, have been in the US for the last 13 years - most of it has been in the SF Bay Area. Originally from Chennai, software professionals.


Reasons for R2I:

This has been a serious topic in the family for the last 3 years due to variety of reasons - parent's health, medical issues, loneliness, not having an extended family here, etc. Better half was missing close family tie-up more than i did.

I looked at various R2I dilemma stories on this forum. A lot of them resonated with our thinking. It gave us the sense that this experience was not as unique and uncommon as we originally thought. There were an overwhelming bunch of people who followed their hearts and were happy overall with the decision. Thought it was enough and decided to move ahead.

R2i Plan :
After the recent trip to india, we decided to move if we could get our jobs transferred to Bangalore. I spoke with my boss about this in Jan '11. My transfer details were all finalized by early April. It was and is still challenging for the other, transfer discussions are still in progress. However, we have decided to move irrespective of the outcome. The D-day was fixed as the last day of June.

I'll follow up with my shipping, housing, car selling experiences soon.

[rajba]

Which one is the most discouraging thread in this forum, u might ask. My vote goes to "How much is enough?". When i compare the numbers out there from folks with similar background, i am shocked to see this big hole in my finances. Not sure where all the money vanished - Las Vegas??

Using the how much is enough thread as a reference point, i would think a lot of people would fall somewhere in between and it did give me a good idea on the lifestyle of a r2i family upon return. Its useful to decide on whether one is ready to retire, work part-time, or in my case, work for the rest of your life and then some more.


Job Offer :


We didn't look for a job elsewhere and started with internal transfer, at least the work aspects of life would be familiar. I wonder if HR compensation is tied to how successfully they negotiate and low-ball the offer!!! Its better to do some background work on the low, avg, median and high end of the salaries to figure out the nature of the offer. In my case, it was a bit straight forward. I was able to reach out to my contacts in Bangalore to get some details. And it doesn't matter, if HR says salary is final. In fact, having some of these numbers came in handy. HR person was a bit thrown off when i quoted some of the numbers. At times, it felt like a negotiation with a used-car dealer. They will have the same excuse of talking to Director, VP of HR (depending on your level) to get an exception for you! I got a decent offer when i compare my situation with the Salary, CTC thread on this forum. I could have negotiated for another 2-4% increase with more haggling, decided its not worth the pain - A small price to pay but it does give you the piece of mind, with relocation upto $15K taken care of, familiarity with the product and the people, etc.

One more thing to note - The generic formula for (1.5 * # of years experience) (or) 2 * (# of years experience) is incorrect atleast in my area of work - internet, advertising engineering. Please dont rely on this formula to negotiate your salary.

[rajba]

Preparation for Shipping :

I solely relied on forum feedback to decide on the shipper. I spoke only with Universal Relations. Adarsh Dattani, Khushali Dattani and Balaji were prompt at returning my calls. Adarsh agreed to meet with me early may to take a look at things to be shipped. Around the same time, i had some water damage that required re-flooring the entire living room and 80% of the things were dumped in 2 bedrooms. Adarsh took a look and sugested a 20 feet container if we dont add anything further to ship. From our conversation, i understood that its possible to downgrade from 40 to 20 feet container but not the other way around. We were quiet concerned that this might turn out to be a headache during the last week and went ahead with a 40 feet container. The signing process was pretty smooth and quick.

We ordered some furniture from Ethan Allen to carry. EA is well known for not meeting the dates and we ran into issues with constantly changing deadlines. Adarsh was pretty open to moving around the dates a bit and we finalized 22/Jun for packing and 23/Jun for loading. Ethan Allen folks were open to deliver it directly to the shipper all packed. But Adarsh was reluctant to take that route. I wasn't sure why. After multiple follow ups and escalations, we finally got our furniture on 20/Jun and on-time for packing.

We started around 10/Jun to pack things such as books, CD, DVD, PS3 and WII games, plastic containers, some utensils, clothes, etc. We took All-Risk insurance. However, Uni. Relocations was flexible enough to let us know that unbreakable stuff could be packed by us. Starting 3rd week of may, we started clearing, trashing things that we didnt need. There was quite a bit to be trashed and for the last 5 weeks our trash and re-cycle bins have been full. Gave away a few things grinder, mixer, books, plates, cups, some utensils, grand sweets pickles, other dry good items, etc to friends. We grouped all the kitchen items that need to be shipped together, visible and hid the others behind wooden cup-boards so that the packing guys are not confused.

Darius (the packing-loading lead from Universal Relocations) called on the 21st of June to confirm the packing schedule and asked if everything was ready to be packed at my work address! I was taken aback and gave him the correct address, called Balaji to find out where the confusion is. Balaji took the new address and notified the person that was bringing in the container immediately. This was all after 6:30pm on 21st and could have gone either way. Universal Relocation sends a document by the name Shipper Information.doc over email where you need to fill in some details. Right below Company Name, there is a bunch of Address fields and i filled in the company address.. :)

In all my interactions with Universal relocations over the last 2 months, that's around 10-12 of them, there was only one situation at the beginning when i left a couple of messages for Adarsh but didnt hear back. After that, the response has been quick, prompt and smooth.

I'll cover the packing experience tomorrow - 4 men or is it 3.5 men????

[rajba]

Do you guys have any idea on the best place to look for an apartment if one of us needs to commute to Embassy Golf Links Business park, Koramangala Inner ring road and the other to Kadubeesanahalli, ORR? The priority is to keep commute as easy as possible.

[rajba]

Things we shipped :

* Micro Fiber Sofa and Recliner
* Wooden book shelves with file cabinet
* Teak Office Desk
* King bed, mattress
* Queen bed, mattress
* Futon (found nice ones at Murasaki, Cupertino)
* Buckwheat and hard pillows (Murasaki, Cupertino). I was looking for hard pillows at macys,

costco amongst others for the last 13 years. And i found one a month before return!
* Coffee Table

* Toilet paper from costco
* re-usable kitchen towels from wal-mart.
* Correlle casual Dining set. Milpitas mall has better choices than Gilroy, confirmed by store manager.
* New Sony EX521 TV from Costco
* Used Sony 52HX909 TV
* BDI Marina Media Cabinet
* Garbage disposal bags to keep things wrapped.
* Aluminium Foil
* Ziploc bags
* King and Queen fitted sheets
* Wireless router, Vonage
* Vita-Mix mixer - Used. Not a wise investment but its used once in a while for soups, etc.
* Jack lalanne juicer (very satisfied with the quality.. available for $99 at costco)
* 2000W 220 - 110 voltage regulator (2 nos)
* Rowenta 220V steam iron (Very happy with Rowenta's made in germany and decided to carry a
220V one). Available for 75$ at indian stores.
* Space Saver bags - Works really well for pillows, comforter, clothes, etc. Available at As Seen on TV, costco, Bed, Bath and Beyond.
* Batteries from costco - guaranteed to stay fresh for 7 years
* Redken Shampoo, conditioner
* Plastic wrap to cover good.
* Oxo airtight container - 30$ at costco
* New and used kitchen utensils that we didnt want to leave behind.
* Non Adhesive Shelf Liners from Wal-mart.
* Ipad2 - my only choice before r2i!
* Shoes - (comparatively better and cheaper than similar brands in india)
* Knives from East West Store in sunnyvale - love the 5$ made in germany knives.
* Stainless steel peeler from East West - top notch again.
* PS3, WII and games.
* microwave containers
* canisters, miracle foot repair from bed, bath and beyond.
* Bath Towels from costco
* Perfume, cologne from T.J.Maxx. Quality ones at bargain prices. Nordstrom Rack is another one.
* For Karmic reasons, some Le Creuset cookware and hand made crystal glassware. Good quality Crystal glassware seem hard to find. William Sonoma had a good one. Macys had a few choices.
* Sony store. Found some good noise cancelling headphones.

Shops i used for r2i :-
1. We looked around for Bone China dinnnerware in india a year ago. They were quite expensive. We couldnt find a good one on time for shipping. Will hunt for them again sometime in the future.
2. Sur La Table, Santana Row had some nice stuff for indian kitchen.
3. Le Creuset, Gilroy has good deals going on from time to time.
4. DSW, Kenneth Cole in Gilroy for shoes.
5. Home Consignment Center for furniture - New ones at discounted prices from time to time. Found the book shelves and coffee table here. There is one in Campbell and another in Mountain View.
6. Murasaki, Cupertino. Looks like most of the r2i's these days carry tatami mats!
7. Ethan Allen if the preference is to have custom furniture.
8. East West store in sunnyvale. have been shopping there for a while and like the people over there, unlike Kumud Electronics.
9. Costco
10.Slickdeals.net hotdeals, starting 3 months ago. Especially on ps3, wii games.
11.Bed Bath and Beyond.


Still working on the packing experience content. Will post the update tomorrow.

[cyberabadi]

1. We looked around for Bone China dinnnerware in india a year ago. They were quite expensive. We couldnt find a good one on time for shipping. Will hunt for them again sometime in the future.

Finding good high-end quality in India is real difficult. Brand name is also important for 'Bone China'. IMHO, half of them available in India are fake or much much below par. We have shopped extensively (by number of hours, I was dragged :) to look at some set in Macy's, etc) for 'bone china'. Both of our sets were directly from the manufacturer - Lenox and Noritake. I would suggest that people look up the brands and models in Macy's and track them on Amazon and on manufacturer's web sites.

[boca]

Brand name is also important for 'Bone China'.

Just curious...what bones are used in 'bone china'? Wonder if vegetarians are okay with using plates made of bone ash. :)

[cyberabadi]

Just curious...what bones are used in 'bone china'? Wonder if vegetarians are okay with using plates made of bone ash. :)

Mostly cattle. If vegetarians are not okay with bone china.. porcelain comes close.

[okonomi]

Just curious...what bones are used in 'bone china'? Wonder if vegetarians are okay with using plates made of bone ash. :)

Wiki says they are cattle bones:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_china
[QUOTE]The production of bone china is similar to porcelain, except more care is needed because of its lower plasticity and a narrower vitrification range. The traditional formulation for bone china is about 25% kaolin, 25% Cornish stone and 50% bone ash.[10] The bone ash that is used in bone china is made from cattle bones that have a lower iron content. These bones are crushed before being degelatinised and then calcined at up to 1250°C to produce bone ash[11]. The ash is milled to a fine particle size[12]. The kaolin component of the body is needed to give the unfired body plasticity which allows articles to be shaped.[13] This mixture is then fired at around 1200°C[14]. The raw materials for bone china are comparatively expensive, and the production is labour-intensive, which is why bone china maintains a luxury status and high pricing.[15]
When vegetarians eat that holy-ash from shivite temples, are they eating bone-ash ? you know....the kind that Shiva wears ?

[Chaptersoflife]

Whoa even toilet paper.. Lol you are not moving to a remote village in india are ya ... Im messing but im sure this list will help many others. But how do you plan on replenishing some of the stuff you are taking along with you.