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Back to India

yugal.me

61–70 of 382 posts

Re: Back to India

#61
post #25
post #5

I'd imagine moving back to India after being successful in the US gives you lots of leverage and status, in the sense of being a big fish in a smaller pool (what a beautiful irony, thinking of India of all places as the smaller pool, heh). But lets be real, isn't the quality of life much worse? I've never been there (or in the US, for that matter), but I'd imagine that things like infrastructure are far worse in Indi…

That's correct. I live in Bangalore, India and there are a lot more issues than just quality of life. 1. Since, I am from North India, Bangalore treats us like foreigners i.e. if you don't speak the native language, you will be at a significant disadvantage when requiring the assistance of police. 2. Rather, the police has been known to discriminate against `outsiders`. You can even head over to r/bangalore to know m…

Not trying to prove / disprove things, but here are some observations.

1. Yeah the language barrier can be a lot - but no matter which city I lived in - I have always had people help me out with the local language. In smaller villages/towns - it can be harder to find people who can do that for you though.

2. I can't say much about this because I didn't have to deal with this in a meaningful way.

3. I think it is more complicated than "tech people make much more". As a point of reference - the street food vendors (pani puri guys for eg.), the uber drivers, the blue collar workers and sometimes even the house help i talked to - they all made more money than the "IT people" they provide services to. And outside IT - my doctor, lawyer, architect friends all earn quite well - while being under a lot less stress. I do see huge income inequality though - but at the same time it is more complicated than I thought it would be.

4. Honestly - I used to think the same too but you need to figure out what/where to look at. We IT folk tend to live in a bubble (Especially when living in another city) and that hides a lot of the cultural aspects of the city from us. I have had friends who are into hiking, cycling, rock climbing, theater, dance classes, standup comedy, music making, painting, cooking clubs. And sometimes, You really might be alone when it comes to some hobbies. But that's when your high PPP can come in real handy and help you get started with your own club. I don't think "I can save a lot more money here but..." would be a problem once you figure out what exactly you want to spend that money on.

Re: Back to India

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they the same? To me immigrant implies a newish arrival, probably with the intention of staying and integrating. Expat implies orientation towards the "fatherland" (patriae) to me, so someone who lives in a different country for a while (maybe a long while) but hasn't and has no intention of "going native". But maybe those are private definitions?

Immigrants come from poor countries, expats from rich ones.

Not from the meaning of the words however - "expat" describes your relationship to your former country, and "immigrant" describes your relationship to the country you are currently living in. So if you live in another country than you were born in, you're actually always both at the same time - i.e. an American expat living in Germany is an immigrant to Germany.

Re: Back to India

#64
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immigrants come from poor countries, expats from rich ones.

This is the right answer. People who continue to say “expat” will justify it by saying “oh, they don’t plan to stay in the country long term”. But you can’t possibly know what a persons long term plans are just by looking at them. You can’t even tell with certainty if they came from a poor country or a rich one. All you can see is their skin colour. That’s what people base the “expat” tag on. Sincerely, an immigrant.

There are many cases where “expat" are sent to a different country by their company. They are there for a couple of years depending on the projects. I don't see how they can be called immigrant, and they certainly don't see themselves as such.

Re: Back to India

#65
post #5

I'd imagine moving back to India after being successful in the US gives you lots of leverage and status, in the sense of being a big fish in a smaller pool (what a beautiful irony, thinking of India of all places as the smaller pool, heh). But lets be real, isn't the quality of life much worse? I've never been there (or in the US, for that matter), but I'd imagine that things like infrastructure are far worse in Indi…

There will always be subjective differences between India and the USA and not everything is hunky dory, but there are some things India is IMO better than USA for an Indian expat: 1. Climate: India is definitely sunny and enjoys predictable weather patterns all year round. Climate change might upset the equation, but it is still bright and sunny. 2. Biodiversity: India is 7th largest country with lots of great places…

Except 4 & 5, the first few cannot be said "subjectively better". This is your personal opinion, not the "statistically true" opinion.

>Climate

Definitely hotter in most (80%) of India, from late February to mid-October. US states enjoys more cloudless sunny weather per annum.

>Biodiversity: India is 7th largest country with lots of great places to visit. Mountains, deserts, beaches, jungles, plains [...]

US is almost a continent. It has all these and more. Sorry.

> Food: Most Indians eat locally grown stuff sourced from the region

True for US too. California, Midwest, Florida and North Carolina produce majority of US food primary produce. Infact, they export it. And we import a lot of these to India.

Re: Back to India

#66
post #57

A friend of mine sent me a link to this article and said > Yugal Raj Jain. He’ll be fine in India. Indians will understand what my friend meant by that.

It'd benefit the discussion in a forum filled with non-Indians if you explained what he meant. But I assume it's a caste-thing...

Re: Back to India

#67
post #57

A friend of mine sent me a link to this article and said > Yugal Raj Jain. He’ll be fine in India. Indians will understand what my friend meant by that.

I’m not Indian & barely know about the place, but I’m still near certain this is reference to the caste system.

Caste system is ungodly fucked. I once had an otherwise super hippy in the US explain to me why the caste system is totally okay because of “centuries of religion” or some weird shit like that.

Anybody who advocates for the continuity of the caste system is irredeemable scum in my book. Unfortunately, for me, I think that writes off a lot of people as irredeemable scum. Maybe I’m the baddie.

Re: Back to India

#68
post #57

A friend of mine sent me a link to this article and said > Yugal Raj Jain. He’ll be fine in India. Indians will understand what my friend meant by that.

Indian here. I don't understand what your friend meant. Can you please elaborate?

Re: Back to India

#69

Good for you but there’s no real advantage professionally in moving back, but no disadvantage either. Sure you’re saying H1B restricts but does it really? Have you truly explored all immigration options? Or did you just balk at all the extra beauracracy and said I’ll go back to india? Which is fine, but do note the irony of moving to india to avoid bureaucracy lol. Apply and do your GST, run between five different br…

I agree things aren't the best and you make several valid points. However, seems to me that you are in the camp who would rather shit on their own country instead of finding ways to make things better for everyone. You too are a part of the privileged class at this moment - sitting in the US (presumably).

Re: Back to India

#70
post #66
post #57

A friend of mine sent me a link to this article and said > Yugal Raj Jain. He’ll be fine in India. Indians will understand what my friend meant by that.

It'd benefit the discussion in a forum filled with non-Indians if you explained what he meant. But I assume it's a caste-thing...

It would benefit the non Indians, certainly. And it’d also get me flagged.

But what the hell, I’ll say it. OP is an upper caste male. You won’t see many “India is doing great! I’m heading back there!” posts from Indian women or Indian Muslims or Indian Dalits. That’s what I meant.

I’m similar to the OP in that I’m an upper caste male as well. The difference between me and him is that I can understand and empathise with the difficulties faced by people different from me.

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