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A few updates along with Comparision of life in Inda vs. in the U.S
I thought I provide a few updates, in some cases; I may have changed my opinion since we have been living in India for nearly 20 months.
HyderabadReal Estate – near-term stagnation due to rapid price increase in the past 2 years, Luxury apartments are quoting above 4,000 Rs/Sft – which is slightly more expensive than Bangaluru and pretty close to Mumbai rates. In Hyderabad, they sell walk-ways, walls, common areas etc. as part of apartment square footage whereas in Mumbai, by law, realtors can only sell carpet area.
Schools – I get lot of queries about Hyderabad schools so let me give a quick update. Although Oakridge standards may have been lowered in the past year due to doubling of number of students enrolled, it is still only real option for R2Ier kids. Chirec & DPS are good alternates but Oakridge still has better facilities compared to other schools. I have not visited Srinidhi’s new campus, it supposed to be really good but too far from the city so daily commute may be an issue. Kennedy International School can also be another choice. For children in primary school, they can consider Future kids, Orchids, Srinidhi etc. schools.
Jobs – there is a bidding war for right talent (IT, Financial services, bio-tech, construction engineering etc. fields). It should only take about 2 to 3 weeks for getting a job under 8 Lakh compensation; it could take 2 to 3 months for executive/senior management jobs. About 1 to 2 months for mid-level manager jobs.
Personal front – we took a family vacation back to the U.S during this spring break. It is our 2nd trip to the U.S since we moved back and we loved every moment of it. After living in India for more than 20 months and been to the U.S twice during this time, I thought that I actually draw measurable conclusions of life in the U.S vs. post R2I life in India. You can never say never but I really don’t like to live in the U.S after living in India for nearly 20 months. If possible I would continue to visit the U.S once a year.
Comparision of Life in India vs Living in the U.S:
Daily Commute
In India: About 45 min to 1 hr each way; don’t compare distance or hectic traffic conditions
In the U.S: It is about the same in most major metropolitan cities
Office Environment
In India: Thanks to SEZs, IT office building and infrastructure can beat more offices in the U.S
In the U.S: In general, office buildings/infrastructure/work environment is good
Salary
In India: 15 to 50 lakh depending on level of experience, timing, opportunity etc.
In the U.S: 60,000 to 150,000 USD
Evening routine
In India: Usually you stay in the office till 8:00 P.M and let your domestic help take care of after school activates of children; you can also easily find folks to come to your house/community to take care of after school activates
In the U.S: Better get busy if you want keep your kids occupied other than watching Cartoon network, no chance of delegating any of these chores to others; weekday evenings are most stressful for working parents
Dinner
In India: Not difficult to prepare a decent healthy meal at home
In the U.S: Not easy to find time to prepare a healthy meal on daily basis so you can continue re-heating age-old food, depend on fast-food or frozen food
Sleep
In India: Usually folks go to bed between 10 to 11 P.M
In the U.S: Better be in bed before 9:00 P.M so you can be ready for another day
Waking up
In India: Folks typically get up between 7:00 to 8:00 A.M to be in the office by 10:00 A.M
In the U.S: If you wake up after 6:00 A.M, we have to worry about your neighbor in the office who will have to put up with excessive deodorant or plain old B.O
Weekends
In India: Pubs, Clubs, Parties, Ceremonies, Movies, Eating out etc. with friends & families; cleaning & cooking are part of daily routine so no need to do anything special during the weekends; you just need reliable domestic help to make your life better
In the U.S: Mowing lawn, shopping groceries/produce, cleaning, cooking (need to do it so that you can thank inventor of microwave during the dinner time on week days), laundry etc. If you still have a bit of time, you can socialize with limited number of friends you may have (only possible if you make serious plans way ahead of time).
Sickness
In India: If you have to go to a doctor, it is not an easy task – you better think it is an all day effort; for routine sickness, you can simply go to neighborhood pharmacy and get medicine; in general, you can not compare quality of health care in India vs. the U.S but you also pay hefty fees in the U.S. You can easily get some help to take care of house/kids when you get sick; most companies in India have liberal sick leaves and annual vacation.
In the U.S: First thing most parents worry when they get sick, who will take care of kids; if kids get sick, what do they need to do – schools/daycare centers do not want sick kids, most of us don’t have extended families to help us out, you can expect any friends to step in since they also need to work so you may simply have to take leave and care for your kids. If you get sick, god knows what happens!!! Yes you can get quality health care in the U.S but who will help you with daily routines when you are sick.
Vacation
In India: Thanks to booming economy and growing middle class using air travel as an option, Airports are over crowded – they are as much crowded as Long Distance Bus Stations; you can at least be glad that you can fly any major cities in India and return back home on the same day; there are plenty of places to visit and plenty of options to enjoy vacation
In the U.S: You can’t beat vacation spots in the U.S and vacation packages that you can get in the U.S. Whether you ski, golf, gamble, camp-out, enjoy beach – there are lots of options and lots of ways to enjoy a great vacation – only glitch is to find time and make schedule for you, your spouse and children.
Financial Stability
In India: Once you own a house and a car, you can live with as little as 10,000 Rupees per month (this is not a practical figure, you need about 50,000 Rupees to maintain reasonable standard of living); don’t need to worry about lawsuits, insurance premiums, healthcare costs, retirement savings, college education etc. These really do not matter as much. Of course, it is nice to have financial stability to take care of all of these needs even in India.
In the U.S: You better do not die without a will and a life insurance in the U.S. Even if you pay off your house, you need at least 3,000 dollars to make ends meet; you better worry about retirement, healthcare, long-term care etc. in the U.S.
Law & Justice
In India: There are rules on books, but not many people follow these rules; you can say it is pretty much not a rule-based system; despite high levels of corruption and lack of rule adherence, do understand India with over 1 Billion people still successfully maintains democracy. Most of us crib about lack of rules when we are not the rule-breakers. I am sure most of us broke rules many times and we took advantage of same weakness of the system. As long as game is fair, under normal circumstances, rule-based or rule-broken system does not matter.
In the U.S: You will definitely see pinch of rule-based system many times, lawsuit abuse, unnecessary insurance protection, delayed action, too many lawyers etc. Simple example: Many of our Indians (particularly Telugu folks) marry their first cousins, it is against the law in the U.S and court can punish couples as well as nullify their marriage. Each time you mail a piece of letter, you never know that you might be committing postal fraud as per the law. If your child complains to a teacher that you whipped as part of normal parenthood, you may have to answer to Child welfare officer next day. If your child misses school for more than 3 consecutive days without informing school, you might be violating a state law. Lot of these rules are good but if you simply apply as they are, even normal folks might have to be categorized as law offenders – thank god, there is not a through process to apply every freaking law against each and every citizen otherwise we just have to build more jails than residential communities.
Entrepreneurship
In India: With GDP growth of 9%, there are plenty of opportunities for entrapenuer, you just have to know ways to work within the system
In the U.S: By far, U.S still is the land of opportunities – with over 13 trillion dollar economy, there is no country with more number of
Security
In India: In general, it is pretty safe to walk around. Other than petty crime, there is really no issue with security; when things go wrong, you are on your own – you can’t depend on police or law to protect you.
In the U.S: It may not always be safe to walk around, crime is certainly high in metropolitan cities despite strong law enforcement; Despite level of crime, you can feel secure living in the U.S.
Emergencies
In India: Things are getting better but system is not adequate to handle emergencies – if you have heart attack, you might die before ambulance picks you up and takes you to the hospital.
In the U.S: No doubt, in case of emergencies, you want to be in the U.S – system works its best to handle emergency situations (hospitals, police, fire, coast guards etc.). Although life should be valued the same universally and all human life should be given equal opportunity, considering resource constraints, you can not compare value of life in the U.S to India.
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Lifestyle: Pubs, Resorts, Massage Parlors, Clubs and more
Indian economy is hitting all cylinders – real estate, IT exports, stock market etc. Lifestyle of the upper middle class Indians also changed quite a bit in the past decade. Nightlife in Hyderabadis pretty good, there are a few decent lounge bars and pubs. Most of the pubs have at least couple of days called “Ladies Night” which means only couples are allowed into the pub. Of course most pubs make exceptions. It is fascinating to see young girls in designer outfits/party clothes at Pubs and you will also see matured folks in Saris and Chudidars. Once music picks up the beat and everyone start dancing, out of peer pressure or natural reaction to the environment, you will see matured ladies who may have never danced before in public start shaking their legs and try to enjoy themselves. Their heart wants them to enjoy the movement and get into action while their mind keep pulling them down to their old traditions. I have noticed similar things when I go to a swimming pool or water parks. You will see women jumping into the pool in their Chudidars or trying out water slides. They might as well dress appropriately for the occasion but too shy to wear modern wear.
Golf Courses: There are at least 20 proposed Golf course around Hyderabad in upcoming gated communities, if they all keep their promise we will have too many golf courses and may not have many golfers and courses may not be well maintained. Due to excess heat, Golf courses require lot of water and lawn maintenance, I can’t imagine all of these Golf courses can financially be feasible but trend is on their side.
Resorts: There are at least 10 resorts around Hyderabad. Most of the resorts came-up as part of their real-estate ventures to sell 200 to 300 acres of land by luring folks with their resort. All of these resorts stay busy due to corporate parties/meetings/seminors during the weekdays and leisure crowd during the weekends. Resorts offer decent ambiance, landscape, swimming pools etc at affordable price compared to Five Star Hotels.
Massage Parlors and Beauty Salons: From Panjagutta X-Roads to Kondapur/Jubliee Hills, you will find one Beauty Salon or Massage Parlor every 500 meters and they are all upscale and stay quite busy. Full body massage can run anywhere from 500 to 1500 Rupees. Women spending money on skincare is not uncommon, lot of young men also get their facials and other skincare services which is quite uncommon even in the U.S.
Parties: We may have gone to one new year eve party when we were in the U.S whereas New Year Eve parties getting bigger and better every year in Hyderabad. There were at least a couple of dozen organized New Year Eve parties and 3 or 4 of these were hosted in stadium type of set-up. These parties are big, they attact upto 10,000 party-goers and each may shell out anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 Rupees. Music/DJ, dance, food and drinks are primary elements of these parties.
IT companies are big in hosting corporate parties to cheep-up and motivate their employees. Event planners do a great job of bringing a theme, Goan, Bollywood, Texas, African etc. with professional performers, DJ, Dance groups etc. I don’t remember ever attending a corporate party with a great theme in the U.S. Usually you have dinner/dance and a show at the best and they are usually conducted indoors at a Hotel. Corporations here go out of their way to build a theme at a resort or outdoor setting or indoor/outdoor set-up, lavish food and entertainment to motivate employees of oneness.
Clubs: Social clubs such as Nizam Club, Secunderabad Club, Jubliee Hills Club, Film Nagar club, Country Club etc. are well in demand. You can always get membership into Country club but they are considered to be low end of the strata. You can’t get membership into Nizam Club or Secunderabad. You can get membership into Jubliee Hills and Film Nagar Club with good contacts. When I took membership into Film Nagar Club about a year ago, it was 1.25 Lakhs, I am told that they increased membership fees to 3 to 3.5 Lakhs and are not willing to give out memberships easily. A tipical club would have swimming pool, indoor sports such as badminton, squash, table tennis etc., restaurant, pub, cards room etc. In addition, these clubs coordinate movies, new year parties, community events etc. Once you pay initial membership fees, they do have nominal monthly charges but offer food and bevarages at very affordable prices. In addition to these social clubs, you have travel clubs such as Club Mahindra and sport clubs. Club Mahindra raises its membership fees every 3 to 6 months and they raise as much as 8 to 10% based on the demand.
In may ways, Indians who are living aborad are much more conservative than upper-middle and high-income Indians here. Indians living abroad are consciously conservative and they try hard to keep their heritage whereas people here take things for granted.
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Job Market in India
I have received couple of e-mails from folks asking to share my thoughts about Job Market in India for R2Iers. Therefore, I will try to give-out my thoughts and observations about Job Market in India particularly for IT folks planning to return to India from abroad.
Job Transfer vs. Finding a job in India:
It is always good idea to opt for Job Transfer to India vs. finding a job in India once you move back. There are several benefits that you get with job transfer: relocation benefits, better salary, and paid-leave during the relocation, same company, same work methodology, HR policies etc. However, more and more MNCs are realizing that they can easily find right talent locally in India (even for high-end management positions) so they are not inclined to transfer jobs from overseas and incur unnecessary relocation costs and cause unnecessary disparity to local employees in India. By all means, if your present employer wants you to move back to India – go for it!
Job with MNC (multi-national corporations) vs. Indian Companies:
Most R2Iers are inclined to take-up jobs with MNCs. However, I really don’t think that there is much difference in work culture, environment, and practice of Indian companies vs. MNCs. In many ways, you are simply working for Indian origin MNCs vs. foreign origin MNCs. Indian companies are rapidly becoming global players (Infosys, Tata, Reliance, Videocon, Reddy Labs, and Ranbaxy etc.). However, I do think that your role, your relationship with your immediate manager, job location, travel, job timings, salary & benefits etc. should weigh in your decision making rather than distinguishing MNC vs. Indian company.
To be honest, most of these MNCs in India are run by local Indian managers so they offer traditional style people management (micro management) than highly-energetic/young/bright Indian (or R2Ier) managers working for highly visionary Indian companies. Therefore, you don’t need to distinguish jobs with Indian companies vs. MNCs.
Consulting Job vs. Corporate Job:
There are only a few corporate jobs available in India. In general, local Indian job seekers prefer to work for consulting firms and don’t believe in establishing long-term career with one company/corporation. To large extent this is also true with R2Ier since most Indians typically work as consultants/contractors while they live abroad when they live abroad. Corporate jobs do not offer accelerated career as much as consulting firms do. At the same time, you can expect better quality of life working for a corporation compared to working for a consulting firm in India. Typically IT folks in India work from noon to mid-night (IST) or 10:00 A.M to 10:00 P.M (IST). Once you add 1 hr daily commute each way, you can easily imagine of quality of life – it simply sucks! All consulting jobs primarily supporting U.S or Europe or Middle-East based companies so you are required to work these odd/late-night shifts. In addition, as a consultant, you may be forced to take short-term on-site assignments abroad which also become a problem to rest of your family. Finding a decent corporate job which can be challenging and offer decent compensation and growth potential can be a challenge task in India. Corporate jobs do have some inherent disadvantages such as dealing with corporate policies tailored for all employees (not necessarily specifically designed for IT folks), unnecessary red tapes, limited of career growth, less entrepreneurial/agile, too many layers of organizational hierarchy, relatively less salary/compensation etc. Having said all of these negative points and Corporate jobs offer stability, meaningful work schedule so you can have more time with your family. If you are serious about highly challenging/demanding career, why return back to India.
– I can honestly say you can maintain better rewarding career in the U.S or other developed countries than in India. Although Work Environment is the same and work ethics are similar, there are significant differences when it comes to type of work you do in India vs. in the U.S. Bottom line: Try to find a good corporate job (in the city that you want to live in India) and willing to take a pay cut for the sake of quality life.
Job Searching Tips:
Indian private sector work force is very young compared to other countries. India truly started building good private sector jobs since late 90’s. Most of mid-level managers are barely in 30’s and Senior Managers are no more than early 40’s. Once you cross 40, typically you are considered too old to do routine/hands-on work and you are expected to fit only for senior management positions. If you don’t have right skills to take a Senior Management position, you will have tough time finding a high-quality job in India.
Naukri.com, Monster India, Hotjobs India, Timesjobs.com etc are popular web sites for finding IT jobs in India. For senior management positions, best way to find them would be through your personal/professional contacts. Secondary option would be through recruitment consulting firms such as Convergance, Elixir Web Solutions, People One Consulting, Net Consultants, Techpoint Solutions, Skillstor Resources, Oxford Consultants, Enterprise-e-soft etc.
Companies look at attrition risk, your commitment, energy level, communication skills, people management skills, relevant technical expertise (to some extent even demographics), salary requirements etc. during job interviews.
Expected Salaries:
You can expect 1 to 1.5 Lakh salary per 1 yr of IT experience and base salary is no less than 3 Lakhs.
- Entry Level College Graduates – 2 to 4 Lakhs (0 to 1 yr experience)
- Programmer/System Analysts/Consultant – 4 to 6 Lakhs (1 to 3 yrs experience)
- Sr. Programmer/ Sr. Systems Analyst/Sr. Consultant – 5 to 10 Lakhs( 3 to 5 yrs of experience)
- Architect/Project Manager – 10 to 15 Lakhs (5 to 8 yrs of experience)
- Delivery Manager/Sr. Project Manger/Program Manager – 15 to 25 Lakhs (8+ yrs of experience)
- Asst Vice President – 20 to 30 Lakhs (10+ yrs of experience)
- VP/CIO/CTO – 25 to 50 Lakhs (12+ yrs of experience)
Work Environment:
IT infrastructure is great, lot of buildings in hi-tech city, SEZs etc. are far modern and superior in ambiance, esthetics etc. than most office buildings in the U.S. Video conference (by the way – I never had participated in Video conference until I moved back to India), telephone systems, network, PCs, Laptops, Cell phones (I never used a Blackberry until I started working in India) VPN, wireless connectivity etc. are very comparable to office infrastructure abroad.
Office space/work area is comparable to the U.S. Most folks work in cubicles and there are only a few offices for senior level management. Conference rooms are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. However, walk-ways, kitchen, common amenities are limited due to space constraints. Cafeteria/Canteen offers pretty affordable meals, like anywhere else you do get bored of eating the same old food everyday so people do complain about quality/taste of the food – this is no different in the U.S or anywhere else. However, you find primarily Indian or Chinese or a few bakery items in the Cafeteria/Canteen. It is amusing to see people eating full-fledge South Indian meal during lunch (rice, curd, sambar, curries, pickle etc.) and still try to be productive after lunch hours. Personally I don’t think South Indian food suits for office lunch settings particularly for IT industry, there is no physical activity so you end-up gaining disproportionate weight and become less productive/lazy. Consuming so much sugar, fried food and carbohydrates surely impact overall health.
In younger IT workers, there seems to be higher-level of office romances compared to the rest of the white-color society. Personal hygiene is still questionable among matured IT folks, body odor (B.O) is not uncommon as folks still have not figured out usage of deodorants and body sprays. There are no issues with back-up power, air-conditioning system, lighting, office supplies, printing, presentation material etc.
People gossip way too much, there is no issue of privacy, folks have no problem talking about their job title, salary, promotions, job search etc. with their colleagues. Surprisingly people are very noisy, everyone seem to know everybody salary and how much someone is getting when they change jobs, real-estate investments, other investments etc. Folks want 15 to 20% raise every six months (if possible), want new job title/promotion every couple of years and never stop searching for jobs – this is one single issue which might cripple Indian IT sector in the long-run if we don’t address it right away. In the end, I would say Work Environment in India for IT folks is not much different from abroad.
In summary, I suggest that you get a job transfer to India or find a corporate job based in the city that you will be moving into. Pay attention to Work/Life balance and don’t be try to be extremely career oriented yet never loose your passion. Also, Indian life style still do not support duel working family so I strongly suggest wife and husband to discuss this matter prior to R2I and decide to give-up one career. There is no life if two people work in a family (to some extent this is also true in the U.S but even more demanding/prevalent in India).
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It has been a year since we moved back to India………..
We moved back to India on August 10, 2005 exactly one year ago. It has been quite interesting experience in India since we moved back. There are a few accomplishments, a few disappointments, lot to adjust, learn to live again, made a few new friends etc.
Our Road Trip Prior to R2I (over 40 day trip - traveled over 8,000 miles; we thoroughly enjoyed every place we visited)
- Houston to Dallas
- Dallas to Little Rock, AR
- Little Rock to Peoria, IL
- Peoria, IL to Chicago
- Chicago to Detroit
- Detroit to Niagra Falls
- Detroit to Mackinac Island
- Detroit to Cincinnati
- Cincinnati to Smoky Mountains
- Smoky Mountains to Atlanta
- Atlanta to Pittsburgh
- Pittsburgh to Wheeling, West Virginia
- Wheeling to Frederick, Maryland
- Frederick to Hershey
- Frederick to D.C
- Frederick to Philadelphia
- Philadelphia to Boston
- Boston to New Hampshire
- Boston to Kennebunkport, Maine
- Boston to Cape cod
- Boston to Wilton, Connecticut
- Wilton to New York
- New York to Hyderabad
My very first day experience after R2I (August 10, 2005):
We landed in Hyderabad early morning around 5:00 A.M, it took about an hour for us to receive luggage – obviously we were worried. Since went on over 40 day road trip across the U.S prior to moving back to India, we had lot of stuff with us. Once we received our luggage, we noticed “X” mark on couple of pieces of our luggage – Golf bag and a suitcase. Because of this “X” mark, we had to go through customs red zone where they would inspect luggage and asses any customs tax. We were pretty impressed with customs duty officers; they were quite jovial and courteous. They did not make us open these two pieces of baggage, they simply asked us the value and we had to pay about $30 tax to clear customs – we happily paid $30 and thank them for their professionalism and politeness.
My wife and son went to my parent’s home in Khammam, I stayed back in Hyderabadto finalize school for my son and start looking for a rental apartment. I did not have a car or any vehicle with me. Just to get started with life in India, I decided to venture out in local RTC bus along with my cousin. Getting into a local RTC bus itself is an experience; we got off at Gachhibowli and had to take an auto-rickshaw to go to Oakridge International School. By coincidence I was wearing a polo shirt with “SAP” logo on it – you can imagine type of unnecessary attention that I got in the RTC bus from unemployed/fresh graduates etc. After checking out Oakridge, we wanted to go to Orchids school – unfortunately there are no auto-rickshaws or RTC buses near Oakridge Schoolso we had to catch a shared mini-taxi to get back to Gachhibowli area. Oh Boy! Shared Auto/Mini-Taxi experience is unforgettable – by the time we reached Gachhibowli (only about 2 K.M distance) I was about to puke from intolerable B.O. By the way, you have to deal with acute B.O even when you visit so called upscale places like “Hyderabad Central” during weekends (particularly during the sale).
Once I checked out Oakridge, DPS, Chirec, Orchids, Sri Nidhi etc., pretty much made a decision to join my son into Oakridge. On Augst 10th evening, I travelled to Khammam on a RTC bus. There were no seats so I had to stand all the way from Hyderabad to Khammam (about 4 hours) which was not too bad. I was surprised to see so many people talking on their cellphones while they were travelling in a crowded bus.
As we are celebrating our 1st stanniversary of R2I life, I am registering to participate in Hutch Delhi Marathon on Oct 15, 2006. I will try to complete Half Marathon (21 K.M) run.
A few accomplishments:
- My wife and I have already visited the U.S since we moved back to India
- Able to drive around in Hyderabad.
- Got a great job with most admirable company in the world.
- My son is able to continue his after school activities as he used to do in the U.S (Golf, Taekwondo, Violin, Tennis, Swimming etc.).
- My wife started working as a volunteer physician at a local hospital
- Moved into our new house, we love our community – it is very secure, peaceful, and well maintained.
- Made a few friends with similar background, interests, passion etc. that we can socialize.
- Nice to be able to see parents, extended family, relatives etc. (occasionally if not often).
Disappointments:
It was a long and hard struggle to complete our house; there are still a few things to be done.
- Within 1st month after we moved back to India, my wife started disliking life in India and has not changed her opinion.
- Wanted to do something great for our community, that was our primary reason for us to move back to India– unfortunately, we have not made any progress in this front.
- You need to spend lot of money in Hyderabadto maintain reasonable standards of living/lifestyle.
- My son still gets sick if he is exposed to unhygienic environment/foods.
When we were living in the Chicagoland area, my parents visited us for the first time. My father started disliking life in the U.S within a week. Although my father stayed with us for over a year (during his two trips), he did not really care for the life in the U.S. Once we moved back to India one year ago, my wife started disliking life in India within our first week – well she has not changed her mind about it yet.
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Best of Both Worlds
Long time ago, I read a news article on Samachar.com, in that news article, one of second or third generation full-blooded Indian from South Africa was sharing his experience about his recent trip to India, he was saying that he realized how different he is and how much he is not an Indian. Therefore, he decided not to migrate back to India. When I read this news article, I was sarcastic about this South African Indian. Well this is my turn, we moved back to India, now I can actually relate to this South African Indian. Although I only spent most of my adult life in the U.S, I know that I am quite different from an average Indian when it comes to thinking, behaving, doing things. Looking back, I was unfairly being sarcastic about the person referred in Samachar news article.
I recently took a personal trip back to the U.S for 10 days. My wife was already there since she took a 5 week temporary job at an air force base. It has been over 10 months since we moved back to India so we wanted to take a trip back to the U.S. Thanks to my wife’s temporary job, we can pay for the trip without having to dig into our savings.
I was in Southern New Jersey. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip, U.S felt like “Heaven on the Earth”. It is nice to be able to drive quietly on wide roads surrounded by lots of greenery and without so much noise, pollution and chaos. I love food, drinking, partying and enjoyed Mother Nature. You pretty much only get Indian food in Hyderabad, you can find places where they sell other ethnic food but usually they taste like Indian food or they are simply no good.
During our recent U.S trip, we enjoyed simple things like having good cup of coffee, well proportionate pecan muffins, variety of beers, good quality wine, American, Italian, Mexican etc. ethnic food, shop at clean malls without large crowds, be able to shop for many things under one roof etc. I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, jogging on a track, driving on interstate highways, gambling in Atlantic City etc.
There is a big difference between visiting vs. living there. When you visit, you don’t need to worry about daily chores, taking care of children activities, work pressure, paying bills etc. so you simply do what you feel like. As long as money is no object, obviously there are many things for anyone to do in the U.S.
I know that I felt pretty good when I visited India every time while we were living in the U.S. It was always a bit depressing to go back to the U.S at the end of our India trip. I felt the same way about the U.S when I was returning back to India from my recent U.S trip.
I am so glad that we have multiple options to visit the U.S whenever we want. We want to live in India, serve our great community/country, raise our son here but we would love to visit the U.S every year if nothing else just for the sake of sanity check.
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Cheap Labour but not skilled and not accountable……..
Couple of my good Americans used to ask me, how much money that you have to spend on monthly basis to live comfortably in India (to maintain similar living standards as in the U.S) ? Once you own a house, you can maintain decent living standards for about $1000 per month. I was wrong, I totally underestimated cost of living – that is another subject. I also used to say that we can’t compare lifestyle in India vs. the U.S. There is no way you can consume as much as energy as you do in the U.S, most houses do not have centralized air-conditioning, and you don’t drive as much as you do in the U.S. On other hand, you get benefit of cheap labour: When you are able to spend $1000 a month in India, you can have a driver and maid which is not possible in the U.S. Since you get additional help to do household chores, you can have more time to focus on career and family. You have to deal with excessive population, large crowds everywhere, massive traffic, pollution etc. On other hand, you can visit your relatives, stay in touch with parents etc. I used to tell my American friends that you gain some and you lose some, on the whole it is really a personal preference to return back to India. They used to love the idea that you can live well for $1000 a month.
When you clean, mop, buy grocery, take kids to their activities etc. you wish that you could afford to get additional help in the U.S. In India, it is pretty much given to have basic help: Driver & Maid. Believe me, it is not fun to have strangers in house. Our maid spends couple of hours in the morning and an hour in the evening – particularly in the morning, I can’t wait for her to leave. You can be in your own comfort when you have maid walking around, you can make decent conversation with your spouse and kids. It is the same with driver, you can talk about private matters such as financial matters, taxes, real estate, kids, gossip, and romance etc. in the car because there is a stranger in the driver seat. I always thought, Indian IT department and Police Dept can find so many tax cheaters (nearly 100% Indians) and criminals just by interrogating drivers from elite families.
Furthermore, you get cheap labour but very unskilled and unaccountable. As I mentioned in my previous notes, Indian houses have transformed quite a bit – lot of use & throw stuff and modular furniture, these require proper cleaning and maintenance. Most maids do not have basic education and do not know how to keep things clean. One day, my maid was sneezing: I could not eat because she would sneeze around kitchen counter and wipe it off with a cloth, she use the same cloth to wipe-out entire house. Acid & Marble is another common mistake. Maids love to use acid to clean floor tiles, in that process, by mistake they can easily ruin marble flooring. Not showing up to work is very well known fact. They don’t take job seriously because most of them don’t get paid well and they can easily find the same lousy job somewhere else. My driver cleans car everyday which is a nice thing. I have to put up with mosquitoes inside the car everyday because he opens windows and cleans or take nap. Once you get used to having a driver, you won’t feel like driving in hectic traffic and you get screwed when driver do not show upto work. Same thing with Dhobi, you can get your clothes pressed for about 2 rupees a piece – you may find multiple creases in paint or unwanted stains. Dry leaning is not a convenient option yet. If you don’t keep an eye on your help, they will start stealing stuff. If you want to sleep longer, you can't do it because your maid is going to ring the bell and you have to open the door - you may also keep an eye on her (to some extent). I notice too many times my doorbell rings on daily basis: maid, driver, watchmen, dhobi, neighbors etc..
Bottom line: Having used to live independently in the U.S for a long time, one must be prepared to make several compromises to depend on cheap, unskilled and unaccountable labour force here. You will have to compromise on privacy and can’t always do things in your way.
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Buying a House or Apartment in Hyderabad
I have said many times in the past, you must own a house or an apartment prior to R2I to have smooth transition into Indian lifestyle. It is easier saying than doing it so most of R2Iers won’t have luxury of owing a house or an apartment. For most people, house is your sanctuary so you want to build or buy a house/apartment which suits your budget as well as your lifestyle and will measures upto your taste. Therefore, it is not easy to depend on your relatives to buy a house for you to live. YES you can buy land or property for real-estate investment purpose, to buy a house to live, you must be in India.
Indians typically are good at making compromises; we get married over the phone, just by meeting our life partner only once, exchanging photos via mail and get engaged via video conference etc. – Rest of the world would not imagine any of these methods are acceptable to have a fruitful long-term marriage. Against all odds and marriage counselors (global standards), Indians perhaps have lowest divorce rate among democratic nations. If we can get married on mathematical formulas and able to maintain successful marriages, some people might say – why not house? I can’t argue with them. In my opinion, although most of us can’t lay bricks, we must pour love, thoughts, efforts, imagination, creativity etc. into our house/apartment to be able to call it a “home”. Your house should represent your personality and your way of life, not someone else’s.
We moved to Hyderabad in August, 2005. Very first gated community that I visited was “Hillridge”. I wanted to give a try because it is located in Gachhibowli and reasonably close to Oakridge. Hillridge folks told me that they have 3 or 4 types of houses starting from 1.3 Crores to 1.6 Crores, each house comes with 500 to 600 Sq Yrds plot and about 5,000 SFT house. I took a look at their model house, I told sales person: Why do you guys build such a big concrete structure without leaving much room between houses. Why would any Indian family (IT/Professional background) require more than 3,000 to 3,500 SFT house? Sales person agreed with my assessment and said that these houses were selling for 55 Lakhs about 3 years ago so their planning and building specifications were to meet 55 lakh budget. If you buy 1.3 Crore house, you must add at least another 40 lakh for taxes and interior – way too much for my wallet so I walked out of Hillridge. A good friend of mine told me couple of days that Hillridge folks are asking 2.7 Crore for a similar house that they shown me for 1.6 Crores in Aug 2005 – UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Going rates for Independent houses in gated communities:
Gachhibowli/Nanakramguda area:
500 to 600 Sq Yrd Plot – 5,000 to 6,000 SFT house - 2 to 2.7 Crores (expect to pay 12 to 15 lakh for taxes & registration and 40 to 50 lakhs for interior works): Example: Hillridge, Emaar etc.
400 to 500 Sq Yrd Plot – 4,000 to 5,000 SFT house – 1.8 to 2.5 Crores (expect to pay 10 to 12 lakh for taxes & registration and 30 to 40 lakhs for interior works): Example: Aparna, Jyabheri, Janmabhomi, Lumbini, Bloomfield etc.
Miyapur Area:
250 Sq Yrd to 400 Sq Yrd plot – 3,000 SFT to 4,000 SFT – 70 Lakh to 1.2 Crores
Nizampet Road Area:
250 Sq Yrd to 400 Sq Yrd plot – 3,000 SFT to 4,000 SFT – 80 Lakh to 1.2 Crores
I am not even mentioning about Shamshabad, Srisailam Road, FabCity areas since nobody with common sense (unless someone is ready for daily traffic torture) is going to live in that area within a decade.
Narsingee/Gandipet Areas – 400 to 500 Sq Yrd Plot with 3500 to 4000 SFT house for about 1 Crore to 1.5 Crore.
Going rates for deluxe apartments:
2,800 to 4,200 per SFT in White Fields/Hi-tech city areas
4,000 per SFT in Sri Nagar Colony and Begumpet areas
2,500 to 3,000 per SFT in Bowenpally and other Secunderabad areas
Times of India publishes real-estate rates in various parts of the city every weekend.
My Prediction on Hyderabad Real Estate: I really believe that these skyrocketing real-estate prices have peaked (more than peaked) for now. We will go through a period of consolidation for next couple of years before prices can go up from here. In general, you will always have more buyers at the peak of any industry/sector (example: NASDAQ @ 5,000 attracted several lame investors/day traders than ever before). In the past 6 months, people are paying any price for high quality housing in Hyderabad because they are afraid that they may never be able to afford a house as they were spiking-up on daily basis (Real-estate bubble along with dot-com bubble got busted; BUYERS were reverse bidding on listed houses in Bay area during dot-com bubble; how weird for a buyer to pay more than what seller asked for).
Hyderabad real-estate will take 20% correction over next 12 months. Here are my reasons:
- Telangana is a reality (personally, I think this is the stupidest idea to separate our great state of Telugu people into multiple states but it is a political reality – Congress will do it).
- Earnings/salaries do not support extremely high-cost of real-estate (BLACK money is playing a big role; it will remain be a factor for sustaining high costs).
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Hyderabad along with Bangalore quickly have become less competitive when it comes to atracting highly skilled work force at low cost.
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Lack of infrastructure – it takes years for govt to build proper infrastructure in many of these boondog places.
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Too many real-estate investors/traders in the system - not everyone can make a quick buck, most of us have to work hard and earn money. No easy way to flip a coin and make money, real-estate business has been so good for the past couple of years, any idiot could make money in it - this will change. Just like most investors lost money ultimately in the U.S stock market after NASDAQ crash, these so called real-estate investors/traders will lose their back soon. With Hyderabad real-estate, you use quite a bit of black money when you buy or sell. If you make profit in real estate investments, only way is to invest back into real-estate to hide black money.
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Supply will catch upto demand (lot of gated communities and apartments are in the pipeline)
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I bought a house - I know my luck, typically if I buy something that value/price goes down and it is also true conversely.
Cost of living (particularly housing) in Hyderabad is very similar to Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati and Atlanta. When you add everything (house, two cars, schooling for two kids, utilities, insurance, food, travel, entertainment, charity, health care, retirement savings etc.), cost of living in Hyderabad can be as high as 2 lakhs per month (5,000 USD) which is very similar to cost of living in some of U.S cities that I mentioned.
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Work Environment, Getting a job, Salary Expectations etc…
Work Environment:
I have been working in Hyderabad since Nov 2005 so I know reasonably well about work environment at IT companies in India. Servers, PCs, Office supplies, Conference Rooms, Desktops, phone system etc. are comparable to the U.S. NetMeeting, Dial-up connectivity, wireless connectivity etc. are largely UNAVAILABLE. People drive one end to another for couple of hours to attend a routine weekly meeting which can easily be done over the phone and NetMeeting. If you work for any company in Hi-tech City area, infrastructure is far superior to lot of Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. Work atmosphere, team activities, time management etc. depending largely on the middle management. I have not had privilege of experiencing Cafeteria food in Hi-tech city. You get predominantly South Indian food so it gets a bit messy during lunch time. Calling everyone singularly and by their first name is not quite acceptable practice. You will hear Office Assistants, Fresh Graduates, Brown Noses etc. keep saying “Sir” – I am still not used to this word yet.
Most of the IT companies depend on U.S, Europe and Middle East clients. Unless you are working on a software product development project, usually you are expected to work odd hours (Noon to 10:00 P.M or 3:00 P.M to Midnight). Also, you may have to go abroad for a few months at a time if there is a demand from the client. It is not bad to go on a business trip for a few days but it gets difficult to travel abroad for a few months once you settle-down here and have childreen in school. You need to worry about so many logistics to go abroad for a few months such as furniture, home security, childreen school, car maintenance, house maintenance, personal health etc.
Getting a Job:
There are plenty of low-level jobs particularly in Hyderabad. Even with 1.1 Billion population and 200,000+ Engineering graduates per year output, there is still lack of supply of quality resources in India. For anyone with decent programming skills and good communication skills, you can get 4 to 5 Lakh per year salary job in Hyderabad within 2 weeks. Once your CTC (Cost To the Company) crosses 10 lakh per year, it gets challenging to find a mid-management position – it could take couple of months depending on your personal contacts and timing. For each 5 Lakh CTC over 10 Lakh, it will get exponentially difficult to find high-quality senior management jobs in Hyderabad. I am guessing this is the same case everywhere in India. Friendly referrals, websites like (Naukri, MonsterIndia, TimeJobs etc.), walk-in interviews, recruiting agencies can help you to find jobs in India. Walk-in interviews are quite popular among MNCs to attract large sums of talent at once.
Salary Expectations:
Based on $20 per hour rate, no company can afford more than 10 Lakh CTC for a billable offshore project resource. There is good 30% overhead factor due to high real-estate and infrastructure costs in India. These are the primary reasons you find most managers managing hundreds of resources in India. Senior Management positions are considered as overhead factors since they are usually not billable to clients. Most Desi IT professionals in the U.S never manage more than 10 to 50 people. Therefore, R2Iers particularly find it challenging to be qualified for a Senior management position in India. In addition, there is still so much emphasis on theoretical project management stuff such as CMMI, PMI, CM etc. buzz words. Having worked as an IT consultant for more than 15 years in the U.S, I never heard of word CMMI – had to learn all over about quality, project management, team management etc. In addition, dealing with resources is also a challenging factor for R2Iers. People quit jobs here if they get 1,000 Rupee salary raise or have a chance to go abroad. I believe that there is over 25% turnover among IT professionals in India. If you are working on some sort of niche product, you might find 50 to 60% employee turnover. Most employees virtually have no loyalty or long-term commitment to the company. As a manager, you will be forced to deal with recruitment, employee turnover, visa process, overseas travel, employee retention, delivery management, training etc. High employee turnover is not a good trend for Indian IT sector, definitely going to cause serious problems for the offshore model in next couple of years.
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Various Automobile Options in India
You are expected to pay nearly twice as much for similar car in India compared to the U.S. As I had already mentioned in the past, we have Honda City (also proud owner of Royal Enfield). Having driven in Honda City for about 6 months, I won't recommend buying non-Indian vehicles soon after R2I. Honda City does not have ground clearence so you are always hitting something when you drvie on bumpy roads.
First car after R2I should be something like TATA Indica, Maruti Wagan-R, Maruti Zen, or Santro. You find multiple service centers for Maruti or Tata. You can easily get parts and get repairs done cheaply. If you buy any fancy car, if you need a part - you have to wait for 20 to 30 days - basically screwed.
They don't have concept of loaner cars. It is not easy for R2Iers to depend on public transportation. Most of us like to live away from city (away from large crowds and pollution clutters) so you don't find many options for public transportation. You have to depend on your car as much as you would in the states. Therefore, you need two vechicles and one of them must be an Indian made like Tata or Maruti
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State of Mind
Happy New Year !!!
I will try to pen emotions in this article. As I mentioned in the past, housing and office environments are comparable to the U.S standards. There are equal number of positive things about life in India to negative things. Yet I am not totally satisfied with life here. I can say the same about my son and particularly about my wife. I know for sure I won’t be happy even if we move back to the States. Let us face it, U.S and India are way different: our religious values are different, our skin color is different, our family values are different, and our priorities are different. Legally we are Americans but we consider ourselves more Indians than Americans. At the same time, we also like many things about America and happy to be Indo-Americans. We loved to live in the U.S though we were legally Indian citizens. We moved back to India though we are technically Americans.
When we go out to party, it is nice that we don’t have to worry about if we are going to fit-in or not. Even at high-end pubs, you still see ladies wearing from saris to trunk-tops so no issues with the dress code (other than men wearing shoes). Having lived many years in the U.S, no issues with language or hip-hop music. Regardless what any restaurant in India claims about their cuisine, you only get one ethnic food – INDIAN. I can drink any type of liquor but don’t like many types of food. When we used to attend Office Christmas parties we always had to go through a day of preparation: what to wear, what to eat, what not to say etc.
One thing that I really don’t like about life in India: as much as I don’t like to compare myself with others in terms of wealth or success, somehow you can’t avoid it in India. When we lived in the U.S, we never bothered how much wealth someone might have or how successful someone is. We always felt that we are blessed to have what we have and we never were envious of others who have more. In many ways, we are one-dimensional people: only objective in our life is to earn money (another may be to raise kids).
YES I miss many things about America: Starbucks coffee, Decent Margaritas, Fajitas, Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, Grilled Chicken Salads, High quality Broccoli, Grapefruit, wide roads, cleaner environment, NFL etc.. My wife is not computer savvy so I am going to say one more thing that I miss about America: Women. When I used to go to the gym for a great work out, it is always nice to see well proportionate women in awesome work-out clothes. I have not started working out at any high-end boutique style gyms in Hyderabad, I work-out at my apartment it is quite demotivational to see many disproportionational women. Body Odor puts nail in the coffin; it reminds me of my couple of months stay in Africa. (I idolize Lord Sri Rama so don’t make any judgments or draw conclusions).
It will take more time for us to get over American life, time has magic – it can heal many wounds and wipe out many memories. 4 months after R2I, knowing what we know about life in India, I still think it is the right choice for many Indians abroad to move back to India at some point in their life.
Once you are born as an Indian, you will always be an Indian !!!
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Roads, Traffic, Pollution and Driving
Automatic vs. Standard Shift Car:
You can get automatic cars if you don't mind about petrol consumption. Since over 95% of Indian cars have stick-shift transmission, I bought standard shift car. I already know how to drive a stick-shift car so I did not have to learn clutch/break/gear coordination.
Standard-shift cars usually go back couple of feet when you tri to go forward. This is particularly true if you are not driving on a flat surface. Therefore, when you are driving in heavy traffic areas such as Ameerpet, Dilshuknagar etc. you need to be able to place one foot on the break & clutch and the other foot on the gas (accelerator) - you need to release break gradually by accelerating and releasing clutch so that your car won't go back and hit the vehicle behind you. You can also play the same trick with emergency break (hand break). I use hand break when I absolutely have to.
Road Conditions:
Once we take-off American babu hat, Hyderabad roads are not bad. We are renting in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Hyderabad yet we have the worst neighborhood road in entire Hyderabad. It is amazing how much traffic flows through on daily basis on these mediocre roads. Besides pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaws, autos, Lorries – the same roads have to be shared by animals as well. I was fortunate to visit many places including a few West African countries. I never saw any animals on the roads. You will find animals crossing roads even in busy and upscale streets such as Jubliee Hills and Banjara Hills. I always wonder who is milking these cows in Jubliee Hills area – well I don’t know answers too many of my own questions.
TDP Govt under Honorable Former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu leadership improved basic infrastructure in Hyderabad. I am glad to say that the present Congress Govt under Honorable Chief Minister Y.S Rajashaker Reddy, Hyderabad roads are becoming wider and are being maintained reasonably well.
Traffic Condition:
In Hyderabad, traffic hardly jams or stops – you may go thorough a few bottle necks and feel like you are crawling slowly but never have to face stand still traffic. When I lived in Houston, there were many times, traffic don’t go anywhere for 30 or 40 minutes. I have not faced that kind of traffic jam in Hyderabad yet. If you are driving car, sometimes you may have to follow rickshaw or a pedestrian but you are keep moving. It takes about 30 minutes for me to get to work from my apartment. If there is bad traffic on road, it could take about 45 minutes, 60 minutes will be in the worst traffic & road conditions. Commute time of 30 to 60 minutes is not bad for most major metropolitan cities in the world.
Making U turns and Right turns in traffic takes an effort. I used to wait quite a bit of time to clear traffic, pedestrians etc. to make U turns and Right turns – you simply have to give up concepts of right of way, safe distance, 3 second rule etc. to be able to drive on Hyderabad roads.
Traffic accidents:
It is not a big deal if someone dings or scratches. People won’t care to stop and file an accident report until there is serious dent or personal injury. Surprisingly, most of the Mercedes manage to drive without any dings or scratches – I always wonder about that.
People drive pretty aggressively and have no fear of safety or accidents. Most of the accidents are petty, occasionally you will see fatalities. I believe fatalities per number of vehicles may be on par with the U.S and numbers of petty accidents are much more in India than in the U.S. You don’t need to worry about lawsuits or insurance premium increases so folks don’t care much about petty accidents. In the U.S, even if you commit a petty accident you need to worry about police reports, insurance claims, insurance premium increases, personal injury lawsuits etc. Thank god, we don’t need to put up that crap here.
Parking: Parking is really a nightmare in Hyderabad. You want to own an SUV to drive and own a Maruti 800 to be able to park easily. If you have a driver, it is nice to own an SUV and don’t have to worry about parking. In addition, SUVs tend to be safer when you are involved in any petty accidents.
Traffic Pollution:
Hyderabad/A.P Govt must adopt to reasonable air pollution controls immediately. When I am on the road, I feel like that I am not getting enough oxygen. There is black smoke everywhere on the road primarily from auto rickshaws, stretched auto rickshaws, old diesel cars etc. I hate stretched auto rickshaws (mini-taxis) and sand & water carrying trucks, they exhaust nasty smoke and don’t want to be behind these vehicles. I pity traffic police, they have to bear this horrible pollution all day.
Noise Pollution: You hear constant honking on the road. In the U.S, if someone honks at you means that you are doing something wrong or they really got pissed at your poor driving habits or they are in really hurry and you are slowing them down. Until I got used to Hyderabad traffic, I used to react to honking and see if I am making a mistake or need to allow other vehicles to pass by. Whenever you hear honking, this only means you need to keep your eyes open nothing more than that.
Night Driving: Most of the roads have 2-way traffic and people drive with their high-beam lights on so it is really difficult to see anything on the road. In addition, you have to worry about pedestrians, bicycles, bullock cots, rickshaws etc. on road when you can’t see a thing because of high-beam lights hitting your eyes and effecting your night vision.
Traffic Rules: Do we have any traffic rules ???? If you need to make a right turn and the road has a divider, folks usually drives against the traffic and merges with other side traffic at the traffic island. I hate when you have to put up with opposite side traffic even when you are driving on a road with divider.
Hiring a Driver: Well we already had to let go two drivers within 3 months. Present driver seems to be good with directions, traffic sense, service and taking care of vehicle – I am going to cross my fingers and hope that he is going to stick with us for a long time. You can hire a driver for about 3,500 to 4,000 Rupees per month salary. Usually they work for 9:00 A.M to 7:00 P.M from Monday to Saturday. You can negotiate flexible hours, additional compensation for service on Sundays etc. Having a safe and dependable driver is priceless. On the down side, you need to schedule things around driver’s working hours and also may delay (or even prevent) for you to master Indian traffic conditions.
In summary, it is highly advisable to have a driver to commute without having to increase your blood pressure. Once you master standard-shift mechanism and get feel for traffic flow, you can venture into Hyderabad traffic safely. If you drive cautiously, you may still be involved in petty accidents with or without your mistake.
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Houses/Apartments
Just like choosing the life partner, most of us have our Dream house and all of us are not lucky to own/build our dream house. Also, our taste/requirements change depending on circumstances, age, wealth etc. so our definition of dream house will also change accordingly. As I mentioned before, we have purchased a house and trying to make it like our dream house. Since we bought a house in a gated community, there is no flexibility with exterior elevation so our house won’t look anything like our dream house. When it comes to interior, we will have lot of attributes of our dream house. We will have a pool table, poker table, work-out area, hardwood/laminated wood floor, island kitchen, walk-in closet, imitated bay window, open kitchen, bar etc. We won’t have specious bathrooms, spacious kitchen, high-ceiling, spiral staircase with Chandelier etc. in our house – that is reality due to timing/land/space/budget limitations. We also had to cut-down on our wishes (gothemma korikalu) because of dust, pollution and concern about on-going maintenance.
In general, modern houses in India are not like our old grandma house. These houses are not built last forever and not built with almost ZERO maintenance concepts. Outside concrete structure may not require much maintenance; folks go for lot of modular interiors which require constant maintenance and periodic replacement. Hardwood/laminated wood flooring needed to be polished every 3 to 5 years and need to be replaced 15 to 20 years. Modular kitchen cupboards need to be replaced in 15 to 20 years. Marble flooring (especially Italian Marble) needs to be polished every 3 to 5 years. POP False ceiling needed to be replaced every 15 to 20 years. Thermacol needs to be replaced every 5 years. Most new home buyers hire interior designers.
My thoughts/observations on various things in a typical house/apartment in Hyderabad:
Interiors: There is a big demand for good Civil Engineers and Interior Designers. Interior designers are as arrogant and unreachable as builders. These folks need to learn concepts of good customer service before we can have satisfied home owners/buyers.Interior designers charge anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 Rupees for a 4 to 5 bed room above middle class family house (values about 1 Crore in Hyderabad). Home buyers spend anywhere between 12 to 20 lakhs on interior work. If you don’t worry about initial cost, on-going maintenance, replacement costs etc. interior designers are turning average house into a posh hotel room in a nice resort. Honestly, in many ways, these new houses/apartments have superior aesthetic conditions than most Desi houses in the U.S.
I don’t think most houses in the U.S would have indirect lighting, veneer wood finishing doors & cupboards, wood carving, elegant POP ceilings, designer bathroom tiles, granite/Italian marble flooring type of features.
Plumbing: In my opinion, we still have ways to go when it comes to resolving pluming issues such as clogging, leaks, lack of pressure etc. Just go to “Jaquar.com”, they make international standard faucets. I am not completely impressed with their designs but they seem to have high quality faucets, showers etc.
Sanitary Ware: I always get little tickle when see Hindware advertisement on a billboard, somehow they managed to hire an awesome looking chick to promote their Sanitary ware products. What does this ad mean? What is next – bathroom tissue ad?
Exterior: One of the major problems for gated communities is exterior elevation. Usually, builders don’t let you change the elevation. All houses pretty much look alike – sort of like government quarters.
Kitchen: Most folks go for modular kitchens; these are not as durable as hardwood cabinets handmade by carpenter. However, they look much better and they come with lot of storage options.
Flooring: Carpet is not recommended due to dust and pollution. You find all kinds of flooring such as Marble, Italian Marble, Granite, Hardwood or Laminated Wood, Vitrified Tiles etc. In our case, we are going to have Rustic vitrified tiles in the kitchen and ceramic or stone tiles in bathrooms. We will have couple of types of Indo Marble (mostly Macarana) and laminated wood flooring in the game room.
Ceiling: People do all sorts of designer ceiling with Plaster of Paris (POP) to improve ambiance, lighting, insulate from heat etc.
A/C: Forget about having Central A/C system in a house. Most folks prefer Split A/C unit or Window unit.
Hot Water Supply: Solar heaters and fencing (for gated community security) are common features. You can have back-up geezers during peak winter and rainy season.
Lawn: Thanks to cheap labor, you can design a beautiful lawn if you have open space and maintain it easily when there is consistent water supply.
Power/Phone/Broadband connections: Thanks to Mother Nature, we had lot of rain so there is no issue with power. Most apartments and gated communities have back-up generators. If you merely look at number of phones per capita statistics, India is reasonably developed nation. There are multiple options when it comes to Broadband connectivity ranging from State owned BSNL to Cable or DSL based service.
Furniture: You get awesome quality handmade and leather furniture in India. Some of these high-end furniture stores have huge collection. InnerSpace in Hyderabad is Interior Decorators paradise, it is owned by Sanghi (Vartha news paper) group, and this store must be bigger than Star Furniture in Houston. You get high quality (usually made in China stuff or handmade Indian stuff) furniture with brilliance at reasonable price.
Lighting: Chandeliers are very expensive in India. I was told it is better to import them from the U.S or from Austria. So R2Iers, you may want to add a Chandelier to your shopping list. You get all kinds of lighting shapes, colors and designs in India. Despite all of these lighting options, my son still has tough time reading under the light and I have tough time getting a clean shave - that is quality of our products. You can find elegant lighting options but not functional lighting in India.
Woodwork: Interior designers/carpenters do a good job of designing elegant wood work with appropriate color coordination and theme. I am not big fan of wardrobes so we are going to have Closets in our house. People say that you need to have wardrobes because of dust and pollution. I am going to take chance and go for American style closets and have a few wardrobes. Doors, beds, wardrobes, end-tables etc. all match in style and color if you don't have any furniture to begin with.
Storage: I notice lots of houses don’t have adequate storage areas. Fancy wardrobes don't accommodate all clothes so people end-up putting their clothes in suitcases and throw away package wraps and cartons. For this reason, we are going to have LOFT in each Closet; we can use space above loft for storage. In addition, we are going to utilize Maid-servant quarter mainly for storage purpose. For some reason, we are not comfortable having a live-in maid with us. Our walk-in closet will nicely accommodate clothes, sporting goods etc.
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90 day report card
It has already been three months since we landed in India. I mentioned the same fact to my son and wife this morning. My son said time went by fast. On other hand, my wife said she feels like it has been 3 years since moved back. I am going to give more realistic view of 90 days life here.
First tough challenge faced: Getting a gas connection. Due to severe shortage of gas supply and excessive demand, Govt. halted issuance of new gas connections.
Learning to deal with HELP: We already had to let go of two drivers. We let go of first driver within 20 days because he was unreliable and impolite. We had to let go of second driver in another month because he is not a confident driver on Hyderabad roads. We really like present driver; hopefully third time is going to be charm. In general, we still need to learn to handle service men and women here. You can find cheap labor but usually they are not reliable or accountable.
Some of the good things happened:
- Got a good job
- Bought a reasonable house
- My son seems to enjoy school and seems to be fine with three language system
- My wife started Observership at Apollo Hospitalto gain Indian medical practice experience
- Drove to a movie theater and came home safely
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R2I shopping list
I will add more to this shopping list as I come to know. In general, don’t throw away anything other than old electronics. You will be surprised to know, how good you feel about things that you threw away once you move back to India. Don’t buy any new electronic stuff either. Don’t think twice, if you are planning to R2I - YOU NEED TO BOOK A CONTAINER.
Electronics: Other than Desktop, Laptop, video gaming systems for Children, I don’t recommend bringing any electronics from the U.S. You can get Plasma TVs in India, prices are falling fast. You definitely need to bring 230Volt to 110Volt converters with fuse if you are planning to bring any electronic items.
Furniture: One of my neighbors brought pretty much everything (including kitchen cabinets, exhaust, chimney etc) from the states. Another neighbor brought paint, commodes, wallpaper, interior decorative stuff etc. If you are building a house, you can easily have 110 Volt wiring along with 230 Volt in the kitchen.
Refrigerator: You get Whirlpool here so why waste container space.
Exercise equipment: You don’t need to go out and purchase, if you already have them you can bring them. Gym quality treadmill costs over 1 lakh in India. You get Norditrac, Precor, New Balance, Nike, Reebok etc. brands here too.
Hardwood furniture: Definitely bring everything that you have.
Kitchen Stuff: Definitely buy high-quality non-stick utensils (like Calphalon), dinner sets, pans, pots etc. In my opinion, you get much better quality for much better value stuff in the states than in India. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about custom taxes for non-electronic items.
Herbs & Spices: If you are used to cook Italian, Mexican type of ethnic food, you may want to bring plenty of required herbs & spices. You will start craving for non-Indian food once you get settled here.
Liquor: If you declare that you have liquor, Customs folks will give you hard time. I know couple of folks brought ton of wine, scotch, vodka, tequila etc. and they did not have any issue with customs since they don’t usually open all of the boxes.
Hygienic & Cleaning liquids: Bring plenty of bathroom, carpet, wood, kitchen etc. cleaning supplies. Definitely bring lots of deodorants, perfumes, body sprays etc. for personal hygiene.
Children Stuff: Bring lots of board games, books, video games, sports equipment etc. If you are planning to bring kids bicycles you need to bring high-quality bike rack. In India , you can’t get bike racks.
Home Improvement Equipment: Bring all the home improvement tools that you have. It is worth to buy a nice set of tools from Sears or Home Depot to help you with Auto repair, Carpentry, Gardening, Plumbing etc. I strongly recommend bringing flexible pipe which is used to remove clog. Also, bring a pressure hose for cleaning cars and gardening purpose.
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Deepavali Celebration
Our family celebrated first Deepavali together in a Hindu traditional way in Hyderabad. Other day as we were reaching our apartment, looking at lighting decorations, my son was saying it was like Christmas. I replied to him: but it is nice that we get to celebrate Deepavali rather than Christmas - isn’t it ? He said "YES".
One of the perks of R2I is able to celebrate our festivals as per our tradition and be able to share joy with our relatives and extended families. How can we put price of joy or teaching Hindu traditions to our children ? We always enjoyed Christmas time in the U.S but we truly loved Deepavali celebrations this year.
Fireworks: WOW! These are not old grandpa’s fireworks, they have so many cool ariel blasters. When we went shopping for Fireworks I only have five hundred rupees so we did not buy much. You can easily spend about 5,000 rupees on Fireworks.
Deepavali Party: Our apartment owners association organized a wonderful party on Sunday evening, it was really nice to see such a colorful event with armature kids performances and couple singing/dancing/dhandiya and enjoying delightful food.
Deepavali day: As per Deccan Chronicle, Deepavali is notorious for card games. Well, we played Theen Patta three days in a row with 4 or 5 families in our apartment complex. Everyone shared sweets, flowers, bursted fireworks together and went out for an authentic spicy Andhra dinner at "Spicy Venue".
Overall, I can say that it was definitely the best Deepavali celebration that I can remember.
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Living Expenses, Required Savings, Salaries
1) Living Expenses: You must own a house or an apartment before you R2I. And you need to buy a car without taking any loan. Your monthly expenses will be:
10,000 per kid for school and extra circular activities
15,000 to maintain car (driver, fuel, repairs, insurance etc.)
10,000 for monthly association fee, electricity, gas, phone, cellphones & other utilities
5,000 for vegetable, fruits and grocery
10,000 for medical bills, eating out, entertainment, misc.
15,000 for charities, shopping, travel, gifts, parties etc.
After owing a house and cars, you will need about 60,000 to 75,000 per month to maintain above average lifestyle in Hyderabad.
2) Required Savings: In India, you can expect safe return of 8% per annum so you would need about 1.5 Crore rupees in Fixed Deposits, Savings, Government-backed bonds etc. to earn 75,000 Rupees per month after tax earnings on monthly basis.
3) Salaries: There is lot of myth about salaries in India, typically R2I IT professionals can expect about 10 to 15 lakhs per year Salary. If you have less than 7 years of experience, you may get less than 10 lakhs salary. In India, they call fixed and variable compensation - usually there is about 20 to 25% of total compensation is variable based on company/individual/group performance. Also, quite a bit of the compensation is paid as a benefit such as travel allowance, vehicle loans, furniture loan, book loan etc.
If you are getting over 15 lakhs per year Salary in Hyderabad, you are doing well. Only senior management jobs command over 20 lakhs per year salary. Typically, you get 1 lakh salary per one year of IT experience. ( If you have more than 20 years of experience, you need to worry about prostate health or menopause than worry about getting an IT job in India). Based on my job search, here is the ranking of various metropolitan with most IT jobs:
1. Bangalore
2. Mumbai
3. Pune
4. Chennai
5. Hyderabad
6. Gurgoan
7. Noida/New Delhi
8. Kolkata
In summary, you MUST own a house or an apartment before R2I and have at least 1.5 Crore Rupees liquid cash to live comfortably in India. If you continue to pursue IT career, your salary may cover living expenses - you would still need to own a house/apartment.
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Positive things about life in Hyderabad
* Having a driver, maid, cook, dhobi etc. You get help from your friends, family and labor easily.
* Social life: you can meet folks and make friends without any formalities, since there are quite a few R2Iers and IT professionals in Shilparamam area.
* Kids: Based on our personal experience, R2Ier kids adjust very easily. We don’t need to worry about their security. You can leave your kids (of certain age) at home without thinking that you are violating some god damn state law (For some reason, most states in the U.S think that they care about our children more parents). Kids can go to any neighbor without thinking he/she could be an asshole or sicko.
*Dining Out: Although we only tried a few places, I believe that you get really good food at reasonable price at many places. You may not get lot of ethnic food other than Indian.
* Travel, Leisure and Entertainment: Airline tickets are delivered to your door steps, there are many resorts and timeshare type of clubs, plenty of options for entertainment (not just movies). Personally I like to explore nature and adventure/physical activity based travel. Based on my preliminary analysis, most of the travel options are lazy type (to rest and relax) and you can’t trust safety of adventurous activities such as river rafting, safari, skiing, mountain hiking etc.
*Buying Car: Definitely much better than the U.S. Usually, they have fixed prices other than promotions, corporate discounts, low-rate financing etc. All dealers bring car to your doorsteps for the test drive so it is fairly easy to buy a car. You expect to spend nearly twice as much for a car in India compared to buying similar car in the U.S
*Prosperity: Although you still see lot of slums, poverty, dirtiness, you can also find richness - unlike our dads generation, people do really spend in Hyderabad.
* Culture: Hinduism is still intact. In my opinion, we Hindus are very adoptable but spiritually we will continue to be Hindus. We used to dress pancha, kurtha, saree etc. now you don’t find many people wearing these clothes other than in formal occasions. Hyderabad must be a hub of Spas and Beauty Parlors. They have so many beauty Parlors for men also. I get my haircut at neighborhood barber, I am cheap so I only pay about 25 rupees for a decent haircut and message. I have seen several advertisements in magazines like WOW, mens facials, haircut and message costing over 500 rupees. Weekend parties, D.Js, Pubs, Bars, couples hangouts etc. seem to be pretty common.
Most NRIs (like me) are hillbillies compared to outgoing Hyderabadis. Even with this constant exposure to hip-hop culture and without knowing concepts of Vedas or reading Bhagavadgita or speaking much Telugu., I still think that Hindu Children brought-up in India will continue to be Hindus when they grow-up.
* Houses: There are lot of reputed builders trying to build awesome looking structures. Interior designers design beautiful floors, ambient ceilings, lighting and colorful interiors. I just wish builders also pay special attention to plumbing, electric connections, ease of use etc. Overall, you do get high-quality housing with very high price-tab in Hyderabad.
* House loans: We have high quality banking system, if you have a decent corporate job, you can get housing loan as easy as you get it in the U.S
*Economy: Indian economy is hitting all cylinders. NDA or UPA or ZXMYZ governments don’t matter, our economy is intact. SENSEX crossed over 8,000 and market is going to a minor correction. It is my personal opinion, we are testing new waters and ain’t seen nothing yet. My 3 to 5 year target for SENSEX is 25,000 based on expanding investor community, deregulation, opening capital markets etc.
*Taxation: Surprisingly, India has investor friendlier taxation than the U.S. Dividends are tax free, low taxation on long-term capital gain, tax free/tax deductible government savings bonds, tax free/tax deductible life insurance premium etc. Introduction of VAT is a good thing to improve consumption based taxation, I truly hope, government will abolish PERSONAL INCOME TAX soon and continue to promote consumption based tax to get rid of so called BLACK MONEY. Central government gets only about 8% of national budget from Personal Income Tax and most of which is paid by employees. Govt can get more income from consumption based tax and encourage liquidity and simplistic accounting by abolishing personal income tax.
*Corruption: I am against Corruption, personally I would never accept any sort of corruption. However, how many times in the U.S that you have thought only if you could just pay-off to get rid of the damn thing rather than going though legal hoops - Well in India, it is still possible. In someways, rule based and heavy legal burdened system produced largest trial lawyer population in the U.S. This is one thing really separate from people with contacts/power/money from common man on the street. Conversely, this ruins system of a rule based society so often leads to naxalism and social disparity. You can bribe police, government officer, even priest in the temple....... Personally I don’t mind to pay for the better service but I really hate people give you hard time/bureaucracy and still expect money from you.
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Our Life in Hyderabad
* We bought Honda City car (I never owned a Japanese Car in the U.S, after checking out all options I decided to buy Honda City).
* I bought Royal Enfield Thunderbird motorcycle (Indian Harley) a few days ago. This is a 350 CC motorcycle which is good enough for Hyderabad roads.
* We bought a 3300 square feet three-story house on 300 square yard lot in Dream Valley gated community (one of my friend had mentioned about this development about 2 years ago, we checked it out on the internet and said it is one ugly looking gated community - well after returning to India and checking out various gated communities, based on the cost, availability, location, community etc. we decided to buy a house there). We are paying nearly twice as much for this house compared to some of our neighbors in the same community. We should be able to move-in in Q1 2006.
I still have mix feeling about quality of life in India/Hyderabad. Akil is doing well. He got sick three times due to Gastro Entities, about a week ago, he was in the hospital for a day. However, Akil seems to be busy all the time, don't complain about Hyderabad life or missing the U.S etc. Sudha does not like life here. Given a choice, she would jump on the next plane and get back to the U.S. Sudha started working as an Observer at Apollo Hospital to gain some India experience. I did not particularly like the high cost of medical care or pill popping society in the U.S. However, there is no care in India so it really sucks to get sick in INDIA. We took Akil to high-end Children Hospital (Rainbow Hospital), we did not like one bit. There is chaos everywhere in the hospital, no one seemed to know what the hell they were doing.
I did not want to work in the IT industry after R2I. Unfortunately, things have changed. I started applying for IT jobs in Hyderabad - I am getting slow response.
My favorite places:
1) KBR Park (nature treasure)
2) Chutney's restaurant (Babai Hotel Idli is the best)
3) Hyderabad Central Mall
4) Spencer's (Walmart style department store)
5) Touch (Nagarjuna's restaurant - offers low quality Italian food; great ambiance)
In summary, I say that the best of Hyderabad/India usually won't match with worst of the U.S when it comes to quality, service, cost etc.
I will have to blog separately about poor customer service, punctuality, quality assurance etc. -
Hyderabad Schools
Schools: Akil is going to Oakridge International School. To our surprise, Akil seems to adjust fairly well and he has already made a few friends at home and school. Since Akil took SPANISH as second language and Hindi as third language, there is no issue with three language system. CBSE syllabus only requires three languages until 9th class. Oakridge is the only school that I am aware which offers Spanish. There are quite a few schools offer French or Sanskrit. We surveyed Delhi Public School, Srinidhi, Chirec, Orchids and decide to go along with Oakridge.
Orchids: Located near Jubliee Hills Checkpost, small school so you get quite a bit of personal attention. Unfortunately, it does not have much space for extra circular activities.
Srinidhi: Located near Jubliee Hills Checkpost, small school so you get quite a bit of personal attention. Unfortunately, it does not have much space for extra curcullar activities. Srinidhi is moving their campus to Gandipet area next year on 30 acre land. I believe Srinidhi is going to be the best school in City. However, we don't want to deal with relocation.
Delhi Public School: DPS folks did not even allow us to visit campus. DPS already has over 1700 kids, they have 35 to 40 kids in each section so it was not an option for us.
Chirec: Sudha liked Chirec the best. It seems to have right balance between local (high-middle class) and NRI kids. Chirec does not have Spanish as second language and they have alternate Saturday school so we did not like six day schooling.
Oakridge: At present time, this is the most expensive school in Hyderabad. Everytime I visit school, I don't quite feel Oakridge as a school. In my mind, all of the kids are rich/spoiled brats. Among all the schools that we surveyed, Oakridge offered the most so we joined Akil. 5 day a week school, offers Spanish as second language, try to maintain 25 max kids per section, only school with proper tennis court and swimming pool, offers violin, dance etc. Despite the fact Oakridge does not represent reasonable demographics of students, we joined Akil due to above mentioned reasons. One more factor, all damn schools mandate school uniforms. Oakridge school uniform is less churchish - this is another factor for us.
I heard about Future Kids, at present time, it is really a Chettu Kinda Badi (School under the tree). Kennedy High, DRS, Ivy League are good schools for NRI kids if they want on-site accommodation.
Akil is doing well in 6th class despite missing first-term so I am guessing any NRI kid will be OK if they return before 8th class.
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Hyderabad Golf Club
I only took three photos due to low battery. Although only three holes are complete, Golconda Golf Course is pretty decent. I am planning to take membership for 1.5 lakhs. Once the land dispute is resolved, they are planning to build 18 hole course there. I was told this is the only course which has real greens in Hyderabad area. Here are Golf Course photos:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/srinivasrao/album?.dir=/89f0Membership Demand is so high, Hyderabad Golf Club stopped taking new members. However, non-members can continue to play three holes and driving range. If you need more details, you can contact them at 040-23567207.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
R2I Experience - http://wyra.blogsource.com/
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