Moving back to India is always in the lines for a lot of Indians who move to the US, especially. So when I left for the states to pursue my higher education, I had always thought that I would go back after my graduation. I spent about 5 years after graduation there. In the meantime, I got married and also had a baby there. By the time my baby turned 1, me and my husband knew that if we really wanted to go back, it has to be sometime soon. We did not want a 5 year old to crib and complaint when we went back. So we moved when Dhruva (my son) was a year and a half old. It was always about how difficult it was going to be for our son to settle down that we did not pay much attention to how things might turn out for us. Our thought process was that since we lived through most of our lives in India, 7 years was not going to make a huge difference in our case. BIG MISTAKE!!
Things turned out to be difficult for us. In the beginning it was the weather, the traffic, the food, the inflation and so on. But after we started working, we found the huge difference in the way a business is conducted in India. We found the commanding and authoritative managing style out dated and simply a failure. I was not able to understand those meaningless meetings that went on forever. I found the failure of time management on a large scale at my work place. In general, people here are not used to following time. There was no clear line between work timings and family time. Weekends and work days alike. I found that it was very normal for people to spend an hour or two at the most with family on the weekdays and not much more during the off days. Work style was horrible. I was not able to find time for my son. It was a very pressurizing situation. I was not able to balance work and family. I found out that it was time to make that decision to take a break and concentrate my time and energy in taking care of my little one.The story of my work life here is one big complexity.
The situation with my family was not very enthusiastic either. After my time in the US, my personality went through a lot of change. I think that is normal. I found that I was not alone in this after a brief chat with a friend who lived in the US and came down to spend a few months in India with family. Our priorities have changed and what is important and precious here in India might not be as important to us now. And getting everyone to be on the same page is impossible.
Things turned out to be difficult for us. In the beginning it was the weather, the traffic, the food, the inflation and so on. But after we started working, we found the huge difference in the way a business is conducted in India. We found the commanding and authoritative managing style out dated and simply a failure. I was not able to understand those meaningless meetings that went on forever. I found the failure of time management on a large scale at my work place. In general, people here are not used to following time. There was no clear line between work timings and family time. Weekends and work days alike. I found that it was very normal for people to spend an hour or two at the most with family on the weekdays and not much more during the off days. Work style was horrible. I was not able to find time for my son. It was a very pressurizing situation. I was not able to balance work and family. I found out that it was time to make that decision to take a break and concentrate my time and energy in taking care of my little one.The story of my work life here is one big complexity.
The situation with my family was not very enthusiastic either. After my time in the US, my personality went through a lot of change. I think that is normal. I found that I was not alone in this after a brief chat with a friend who lived in the US and came down to spend a few months in India with family. Our priorities have changed and what is important and precious here in India might not be as important to us now. And getting everyone to be on the same page is impossible.
2 comments:
R u planning on moving back to the US.I have been thinking about moving back to india for awhile now but am on H1B-I am not sure how easy it will be for me to come back if i leave.The alsy holiday I took to india-I didn't like it at all-I was counting days till I could get bacl
I am not moving back to the US. Many things have happened since I wrote this blog. And now I am a happy soul.
I was looking for ways to take the easy way out. I hated my job here. So I quit. Kept looking out for something interesting. Now I own an online Organic Food store called VAER. I love what I do and I am happy to have come back. I feel the freedom here which was lacking in the US. Hope I helped. Take Care.
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