Typewriter

Today I happened to go to the RTO office in Indira Nagar, Bangalore. The reason was to get an affidavit made for some thing related to our car.

It was after a long while that I went into a very typical sarkari area and first since r2i. Had been to BSNL exchange many a times but that was still an office.

It was a very standard dingy, stinky, dusty campus with small chambers around. All kinds of people around. Usual agents(i wish to use the word dalaals) trying to trap someone to use their clients' services, etc. etc. You know what I am saying.
The first thing I noticed as soon as I got off the car was a booze shop!! Can you believe it?! A booze shop within the RTO campus. Loud Kannada disco playing. about 5 men standing outside either shopping for drinks or sipping some from the transparents, flimsy plastic cups. And 2 of them were really well dressed. As if they were passing by and thought...garmi bahut hai...chalo ek pee lein.(It is quite hot...lets have a drink).

Anyways, I tried to avoid them all and went past a series of agents to reach 2 women sitting on a tables and chairs and TYPEWRITERS. To be honest. I had completely forgotten about these. The last time I had met these gentlemen was in 1997!

Dusty, antique looking typewriters are still used to type affidavits and other legal documents in the california of India-Bangalore.
I went to one of these ladies and asked her for the job. She took the template papers and started typing. First I was really amused. But soon it all lost its novelty as soon as I saw a switched off desktop computer inside. Nicely covered with an off white circular crochet cover.
All the one thousand three hundred and fifty nine flies, staring idiots, heat, smell and dust together could not keep me away from thinking why is she still typewriting. I mean why would you want to.

Anyways, with 7 spelling mistakes including misspelling my FIL's name, she finished the job in 20 minutes.

I had to ask her the big question- WHY? She said in english, " oh! that.....the computer keeeeeeeys are veeeery soft. I don't lika (like it) ita. Typewriter is gud(good)". I said "so you do not use the computer just because it is smooth. But it will save you so much energy of spelling correction, paper setting, etc., etc. and then you can even have some standard templates ready." The boy sitting inside on the STD/ PCO/ Xerox/ FAX counter said "6 ghanta to power hi nahi aata hai na madam"(the power isn't there for 6 hours during the day). Now that made some sense and it is sad too. But still, there is something known as UPS. I didn't want to argue further and left amazed at how the IT capital of the world works.

I am shocked at how all IT superminds of the world have come from India specially from the 3 southern states of India.

Truly, India is incredible!

Experience with Dell in India

You all must be wondering where I got lost for so long and why suddenly I am back to my keyboard to write about Dell. That is because, I have kind of worked out on my mind now. I have made my tolerance level very strong and do not let any thing affect me as such. Also, I have learnt to ignore many many things.
But today, dell has forced me to get back blogging. If you have a Dell or are planning to buy one before your R2I, read patiently.

We bought Dell exactly 4 years back. It has been through a regular domestic usage. Nothing harsh.
We bought this one from US. We had even bought a warranty on it a couple of years back but never got a chance to use it.

Now, we noticed that one of the corners of our lappy is popping out and has even incurred a crack at 2 places. also, the laptop base was getting heated up.

We thought of taking it to the Dell Service center in Koramangla and get it fixed.
here is the story:
March 11, 2010: Went to Dell center. Was attended to nicely. The person told me that the top cover needs replacement(obviously) and the heat sink and fan need to be replaced as well. He ran some diagnostics and found that everything was fine.
He informed that they have everything in stock except for the top cover and after checking inventory, told that the cover will positively be there on monday- Mar. 15th.
I committed a mistake. Did not take his direct no.

March 15, 2010, 9:15 am: I wanted to confirm if the cover has arrived so that I do not have to waste time, peace of mind and non-renewable natural fuel called petrol.
Could not find the service center no. anywhere so finally called up the call center. Raj was online. Took 45 minutes trying not to resolve my problem but to sell me the warranty worth Rs. 7400. The replacements were costing Rs. 5164. I refused again and again and just asked for the service center no. He told me that without the warranty the cover will take 2-3 months to come and with warranty it will be fixed within 2 business days. He than told me to talk to his supervisor Ravi Thakur after I bluntly told him that I will not buy the warranty. Ravi also tried his level best for the next 15 mnts to coax me into buying the warranty. I told him I will let him know later and asked for a case no. Over.

10:30: Reached the service center again. This time another guy called Shubu George was there and I explained him the problem. The previous guy was attending to another customer. Mr. George told me the cover will be a special order and is not coming in the next many shipments unless they placed an order. he even showed me the inventory list and the top cover was no where to be seen. I asked him why this other guy told me or rather fooled me by telling this. He shrugged his shoulders and again started selling me warranty and the quote was Rs. 7950 this time. I told him about the quote the call center guy had given me. He told me to go ahead and buy it at my own risk since he did not know of any policy of Rs.7400.
I called up the call center and spent 1:45 hours (not in queue)with agent Ali and with Agent Mandeep only to get convinced that I should rather go for a 2 years warranty as I will save a lot of money. Also, without running any physical or diagnostic test on my laptop, they concluded that my mother board was burnt and I needed a new one which was beyong this warranty. So the warranty which covers MB will be Rs. !4,000!!!
I told him to just give me a simple warranty of Rs.7400. still more convincing and I told him rudely not to try to act smart with me and get to business. He told me some Mr. jalpesh will be calling up to process transaction.
I informed Mr. George in the mean time about the ongoings. he said, "Gine me the INSO no. I will see to it. I can track everyone who gave you this quote. I will make sure that this is taken care of. It is not fair".
My interpretaion of it: My commission is gone. I will F*** up their livelihood.

Jalpesh called me after a few minutes for another 35 minutes just to process my credit card. Please note that the policy description given by all these agents was different from each other.

My daughter's school got over at 12 PM and here I was stuck dealing with not a computer company but a bunch of sales people just trying to suck more money out of you. I reached school very late to find poor 3 yrs old sitting alone in a corner, hungry and tired.

March 16th, 2010: got a call from Pramod from dell to schedule an appointment for today, March 18th for 11 am.

It is 3 now and Mr. pramod or anyone else is not here yet. Jaafer called me at 11:50 to inform me that he has not been able to resolve the previous case and will take another hour. And that he will call me up when he starts from there. The place is hardly 10 minutes distance from our place.
I called him up again at 2 pm. He banged down the phone after saying that he will call me when he starts.

For those of you who own a dell, please get everything fixed before you board your one way flight for our dear motherland.
For those who are planning to buy Dell. Please think again.

But, looking at the bigger picture, it's not dell. It is everycompany in India. Ready to put hand inside your mouth and bank account and pull out as much cash as they can but when it comes to providing for the service or product. ZILCH!! ZERO!! SHOONYA!!

It is going to be airtel next....the target of my wrath.

Schooling in Bangalore-Part I

I do not think I fully qualify to write about schooling in Bangalore yet but I really wanted to share the experiences that I have gained so far. As I said earlier, I wanted to cool down before writing about this so that I do not make a biased opinion .
Finally, we decided to try next year for A's Big school so that we get more time to know about schools in Bangalore and might also buy a property by that time to know our final location.

Except for NPS and a handful of few other schools, there are mixed reviews about all schools. So much so, that making a choice gets extremely difficult.

Experience #1: NPS Indiranagar: Last Year A was underage for Montessori. After standing in a long queue of aspirant NPS-ite parents, I discovered that she is over age for Montessori and under age for LKG. So, the receptionist offered that I must buy form for the 2011 session. I was surprised and asked her what if they decide to change the form format or even change policies, etc. She said vaguely, "Oh no no, you can buy it now and I do not think they will change the format. If they do you can take another one........". I knew this was just a technique to get Rs. 250 out of my purse. I thanked and started to leave. Frustrated and disappointed as I was, I started to walk towards the gate when a man came to me and asked me if I got the form. I saw him standing about 8 people ahead of me in the queue and thought why was he waiting for me here and why he was asking me this. I told him that my daughter is underage and moved on. He started walking with me and told me how he can help me. He asked me to bring the original birth certificate the next day and that he will take me to Raghu, the politician who lives in Thippasandra and another politician with the birth cert. And tried to assure me that A can get admission there.
First, I will never go to a politician for admission that too in a new city. Second, I will never show an American Birth cert. to a politician or anyone else.
I knew where he was getting to. So thanked him and asked if he knew me. He told me that his child is in A's class at the play school and he has seen me a lot of times. I was wondering why I had never seen him. But I was really scared as to what if he meets me again and asks me to come to the 2 politicians, etc. But Thankfully, that did not happen.

Exp. #2: NPS Koramangala: The lesser told the better.
They Ran out of forms on day 2 of form distribution at 10 AM!!
After spending 1.5 hrs in traffic we were standing outside NPS Kormangala to find this out. No one was there to provide info or help. No Notice. I had never felt more aimless and clueless in life ever before. We, along with about 70 other parents were standing outside the school gate waiting for someone to come out to tell us something. All other parents were shooting in the dark.
So that one was also ruled out because of the madness, shortage of forms, etc. etc.

Exp. #3: Presidency School East: When I got the form of this school after my 2 experiences at NPSs, I felt I if I had won an award. I kept staring and smiling at the form for a few seconds. Well, all was well and we submitted the form. This time they were short of brochures. We got a call for interview and a follow-up SMS also.
On the day of interview, we got the brochure and were asked to update the new application form. That means, the form they distributed about 5 days back was an old format and this was the new one!!! I felt like screaming but it was for A's future so I kept my cool. After filling up the tedious form again, we sat in the lobby waiting for our turn and I observed other kids and parents.
Call me snob or whatever, I did not find more then 2 parents who looked 'like us' types. It was not very encouraging. It felt as if anyone and everyone can come to this school. Children were dressed in funny dresses, as if they have come to a fancy dress party or a park. Don't even talk about some mothers. Atrociously dressed! Heavily embroidered jeans, jazzy magents/ parrot green/ flurocent tops!!
Many kids wore a lot of jewellery, bangles and anklets making noise, ash or sticker bindis/ bindas.
I was busy observing when we got a call for "observation". To my surprise, A performed and behaved excellently. They took copies of our documents and original birth certificate for verification and asked us to move to another lobby.
We waited there for about 1.5 hrs again observing colorfully dressed people and kids. A's name was called out and H came back running to declare that they have lost our original birth certificate!! Actually the place was nothing more then chaos!It was completely badly organized mayhem. Nobody had any procedure or protocol. H ran around like crazy to find the documents. Just then a senior teacher came to announce, " Please do not give us your originals. We are NOT asking for originals. Copies is what we need." This was testing our patience and limit of endurance now.
After about 15-20 mnts, H came with the BC. The teacher who took it had kept it in one of the document baskets with her "just like that".
After more then 2 hours, we were finally called in the principal's room where the only question was how A will commute and the only info was the fees and that we have to deposit Rs. 43K to comfirm our admission. We were confused. So I said, " We are not carrying our checkbook right now." The answer was- "we do not take DD or checks, only cash." Oh so this is your black money pool or something???-we thought. We told them that we will think and come back.
Also, the school fees was about 70K p.a. plus bus, books, uniform, etc. It seemed like ANYONE in bangalore can afford that kind of expenses.

We left and came home with A having 103 degrees fever.

We have given up on admissions for this year now and will try next year. Till then, good luck if you are in Bangalore and trying for admissions!
I will write soon about the variety of schools in bangalore.

The Color of Our Skin

One gentleman/ lady made a very interesting comment on my blog "What is Quality of Life?". And it has made me wonder how different things could be just if the color of our skin was different.

The comment states: "it was a simple question of someone overtaking me wrongly, and me honking - but we both stopped side by side at the next traffic signal, and he made a gesture to cut off my head. This was in the heart of Sunnyvale, CA. Would he do it if my skin had a different color - I doubt it."

The last italicized part is what caught my attention.
This is a very valid point that he has made.

Now picture the same situation in India. Lets assume any city in India. I have seen a lot of people giving stares/ looks and also showing middle finger and shouting abuses while someone honks at them while they wrongly overtake. Million dollar question is- would he have shown me the finger if the color of my skin was white? - Probably not.

That means, if I were white in US or in India, I would have been treated quite differently in any given traffic situation. For different reasons at both places though. In US because I would have been one of them and in India because I would have been superior (as most Indians treat White skin as a sign of supreme creed and race) to them and not one of them.

So is it the color of our skin that is the problem?? Or is it that we just make it a problem and see it as racism because we assume too much??

Indian Culture and Halloween

Do the two make any sense to you? If your answer is "No" then I am not the only conservative Indian around.

In the last 2 weeks, we saw some posters mentioning Halloween parties within apartment complexes organized by children, more organized Halloween nights well sponsored and arranged at some hotels in Bangalore. It did not hit me so hard until last Friday, Oct., 30th.
There was a knock at our door and I said to A, "Its Papa". Opened the door to get the biggest shock of my life. A group of about 15-20 kids, age range was 6-15 years, dressed as witch, ghosts, Dracula, etc. were standing at our door step shouting "trick or treat, trick or treat" in the utmost desi way. A started crying thinking her worst fears of Mummy calling Bhoots (ghosts) if she does not eat has finally come true. I gave them all candies I had in the house and told them how nice they looked and bid adieu. But before leaving, some of them demonstrated their characters/ costumes. Like the witch pretended to fly on her phool jhaadu (broom), a girl wearing a tiny white shoulder-less dress (like that of a hot bride) and a veil, lifted up her veil to show her bruised face, tomato red lipstick and blackened eyes and not to be missed- blonde wig!

I am not exaggerating. I wanted to take pictures but A was completely out of wits and I just wanted to shoo the ghosts away.

I was not at all excited or pleased about the entire thing. Not because they scared A or took all the candies but because this is not I was looking forward to while we moved back. This is not the culture we wanted A to have at the cost of being eve-teased (pun intended).

It actually left me with a bad taste for the next few days. As far as I remember, celebrating ghosts was not a part of Indian Cultural Curriculum.

How western can we get?! Or is it that we have lost track of time and it is year 2050 or has cultural globalization has badly hit India? But this was the last thing that I expected out of my very own Indian culture.

I do not think any of these kids knew the significance or rationale behind Halloween. They were just too happy to act American.

And yes, there were a few Page 3 parties in Bangalore to celebrate Oktober Fest also last week!!
I am looking forward to Thanks giving feast(turkey), Easter egg hunt, St. patrick's Day or may be even, Mardi Gras! You never know.

What is Quality of Life?

We often talk about Quality of Life (QOL). It has special significance while we make a decision about R2I or not-R2I or may be R2A. We always compare and attribute our decisions on QOL. But what the hell is QOL??

Is quality of life tangible or intangible? Is it Physical or Metaphysical? Is it real? All these thoughts sometimes storm my mind especially when I am in some pain or when the thoughts of rushing back to US resurface (resurface coz it keeps surfacing often).

H and I are very often stuck in this QOL web while discussing life in India Vs. Life in US.

Here is my analysis of QOL. It might help people when comparing their lives in US or post R2I.

What is QOL?

“QOL reflects the difference, the gap, between the hopes and expectations of a person and their present experience.”- I read somewhere and I think it is very well put.

As for me, QOL is a subjective mix of physical well-being, mental bell-being, achievement of ones goals and leading a comfortable life. It may also be called a sum of happiness and satisfaction.

Components of QOL?

Physical Health, Mental Health, Financial stability, Education, Professional satisfaction (work and colleagues), General happiness with Family (you spouse and kids- time spent, things done, etc.), Relatives, Friends, house and Neighborhood you live in, General environment( Food, Shopping, Roads, Cleanliness, public facilities, people around, etc.), Belongingness, Security (Security from robbers, kidnappers, eve-teasers, muggers, etc.) etc. etc. Add to it the ease of achieving all these.

I will not get into how to achieve QOL, etc. We all are smart enough and have our own ways to achieve it.

But the calculation of QOL is what we were struggling to get to. And now, I have devised this method. I would be grateful if someone can give me a better mathematical formula.

For everything not achieved or lost in transition: -1

For Indifference: 0

For everything achieved: 1

For everything that can be achieved far better/ easily: 2

(My assumptions are based on my experience of staying in CA and in Bangalore. The financial equation changes if CA is changed to may be IL, TX, or FL, etc.)

Here is our result based on various parameters listed here:

Parameters	India	US
Physical Health	-1	1
Mental Health	2	1
Domestic Help	1	-1
Financial Stability	2	1
Family Life	0	1
Relatives	2	1
Friends	1	1
House	1	1
Neighborhood	1	1
Professional Satisfaction- Career	1	1
Professional Satisfaction- Colleagues	0	1
Education- Quality	2	1
Education-Convenience	-1	1
Belongingness	1	1
Security/ Safety	-1	2
General Environment-Food	1	1
Gen. Env.- People	0	1
Gen. Env. - Roads	-1 (-10 may be)	2
Gen. Env.- Hygiene	-1	1
Gen. Env.- Cleanliness	-1	2
Gen. Env.- Public Facilities(Libraries, Toilets, Water, Power, security, etc.)	-1	2
Ease of Achieving	0	1
Climate/ Weather	1	1
Total Score	9	25

(Again, these are my calculations based on our factors.)

Isn’t that a huge difference?!

It is not a surprise and it is definitely not something we did not know before R2I. But never gave numbers to anything. Even if we did, would that have changed the decision? Perhaps not. But it is not a bad idea to do maintain a PNL account of our lives. Isn’t it?



Some interesting Links:
http://www.gdrc.org/uem/qol-define.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5003150_measure-quality-life.html
http://www.calresco.org/lucas/qol.htm

An Eve was Teased

I know many of you have concerns on this issue and have also asked about it.
So Far, I had nothing major to tell about. But in the last 1 week....I have been eve teased twice!! (OMG.....poor me!)

I do not count ogling as a part of eve-teasing. It is a way of life now. And in south India, I have heard this from a southy, that if you are a female and have any complexion lighter then dark brown, you deserve attention.

Well, the first incident happened when we went to Cubbon park last weekend. A group of 3 young boys (16-17 years olds) were standing in the opposite corner of the park. We had planned a picnic for A and were having food. These boys came to our bench for no apparent reason. H, had closed his eyes may be trying to sleep under a big,old tree shade. So these guys dissected me nicely and then started commenting and giggling in kannada. I didn't understand a word of it but it was not respectful for sure. I gave them a good stare and they kept staring back not only in my eyes, but everywhere else too.

Second incident took place outside A's school. I walked out of the school holding A's hand. I had to take an auto as our driver was down with Viral fever.An Adam (man)....about 32-34 years of age, wearing a helmet, white shirt, came on a bike and slowed down his bike and indicated me to get onto his bike.
As he passed by, I turned around to take down his bike no. and also to make sure that it is what I was thinking it to be but he was still staring at me turning his head and again gestured the same thing.

So the conclusion is, yes eve-teasing happens. But you know what? It doesn't bother me much. It does upset me for sometime. It doesn't bother me much because I know I can handle this and he can do no harm to me apart from a mental harrassment and insult.
I have traveled in Delhi buses extensively for 6 years and have been through these incidents for almost 2 decades now. All ladies out there have.

What I wonder is will A be able to handle these Adam's or does she necessarily have to go through this when I know it is going to be worse with time?? Is this a part of the ultra necessary Indian culture course that we want to give her?


I am going through yet another patch of bad health coupled with school admission season. I will soon be writing about Bangalore schools after I am more at peace. Right now, my info about schools may be biased- influenced by frustrations.
But for anyone, who is moving to Bangalore early next year, the forms are out for the admission mania and it may be worth it making an emergency trip to collect forms and attend interviews this month. Good Luck!

10 Months- Me-Then and Now

Its been almost 10 months since we r2i-ed and I often go back 2-3 years into memory lanes and think how I have changed or things have changed specially in the last 10 months.
As I have said before, I was not keen on moving back. It was 99% H's decision.1% was my coaxing him to make a decision either ways.

Having lived here for 10 months, here are the things that have made me change or re-iterate my opinions-
1. Proximity to parents- our parents live in North. It takes a minimum of 10-12 hrs to reach them from Bangalore as compared to 26 hrs from US. I have been to my parents place twice already and going again next month for my brother's wedding but I think this is more like a novelty trips then required ones and will not be as frequent in the years to come
2. Domestic Help- Yes it is a headache till you find the maid of your dreams. My friend who R2i-ed about 4 years back is still struggling and is the witch of her complex for the maids. In a way, it depends on your attitude also. I have leant to ignore and tolerate and do things on my own as well. also, we treat all our helpers with utmost respect and compassion, so they respect us from heart.
I am in a horrible state of health for the last 5 days due to allergies and sinus. One of my maids is making all sorts of soups and Kaadhas(medicinal soups) for me everyday as per my taste. also, she is doing many other household chores which she can without asking for a penny for this. She is an angel in disguise for me. Not only b'coz she is helping me but for the kind of person she has been during the last 9 months.
Our driver is checking on me thrice a day to ensure that everything I might need is attended to.
Do you think you can get this in US?? NO.
Touchwood!(God please save my luck from evil eyes!-nazar mat lagana)
3. Health- getting worse. I am unable to stand in the kitchen for even 10 mnts at a stretch. Allergies are kiing me. They are more frequent and worse. I have spent about Rs. 10K on docs and medicines during the last 10 months. The illnesses included allergies, sinus and stomach infections only!
It is one of the 2 reasons which still makes me fell like running back. But I have still not given up. I am trying Homeopathy and will start jalneti soon.
4. A- Thats my little one who has recently turned 3. It has been the easiest for her. No issues except for colds and upset tummy(twice). But we have been extremely careful with toilets and food with her. I do not step out of home without water and some home made or packaged snack for her. She is happy with school and is quite popular amongst teachers as well as kids.
Poor thing has become proficient in cooling down her ever exploding parents by saying- "Its ok Papa/ mummy, theek ho jayega....koi baat nahi"(it will all be fine)....I really do not know where she learnt this from.
5. Things around- I am still not used to the inefficiencies, corruption, unprofessional ism, etc., etc., etc. BUT, I have learnt to live with it and work around it.
Ex- I know how long it takes to get things done in the bank. So, I take some water and food for A along, take a 2 hours time slot(as compared to 10 mnts in US) and a book to read to pass time and maintain my cool. I am cool as cucumber now and do not scream so often. Actually, it is H who is screaming these days on everything. I am the smiling like Buddha spectator.
Ex2-If I have a courier delivery expected, or an electrician visit, or cable guy visit, etc., I do not keep any other plans for that day. That solves majority of the problems. Because I do not have other things to be taken care of and hence, no anger.
6. I don't mind it- I would not say now that I am not happy or at peace( except for the health). Trade offs are everywhere. It depends on what price you are paying to get what.
I was happy in US and now, I am happy here also. Things might change when I start working because professional angle will also come in the picture.
7. Schools- This is reason no.2 to run back. Bangalore school scene is horrible. Last year A was under age for NPS and now she is under age for LKG but over age for montessori. Plz beget your child before june and after Jan in case you have any plans to live in B'lore. I have not yet filled up even 1 form but I am completely exhausted and in a state of giving up.
8. Social Life- Our social life in US was equally busy and happy. It is still the same. We are lucky to have a very nice bunch of friends and cousins in US and in BLR.

Diwali is around the corner and I am enjoying the festivities and prepaprations.In India, there is deifinitely much more hustle and bustle but it is not the same as I had expected or as it is in North India. I do see roadside Diya vendors, chinese lights in markets, etc. but not as festive as I expected it to be.

But, on the whole, it is nice to be back home.

See, I told you there is a twist in the tale.

What's your salary?

I think this one deserves a mention. To let you prepae yourself before you r2i.

In case you are moving to India with a container or with some shipment from US.....be very ready for one question- Whats your salary?

I have written about how your life is so public and everyone owns the right to comment, advise, criticize you. When you come back with a truck load of stuff or in fact any % of truck load, you come under the radar of inquisitive relatives and friends. They did not ask my hubby directly but whenever they could find me alone, or may be they deliberately take me to a corner, they ask shamelessly how much H is making. Do they ever feel hesitant about asking such a question?perhaps not.

Most of our family lives in North India in towns. And nobody hesitates in asking your rent. So telling them that we pay 25K as rent is insane for them. They imagine a huge bungalow with 2-3 big cars parked outside, a gardner watering the plants, aayas playing with baby, etc. But reality is that for 25K, we live in a very good APARTMENT. I do not blame them because the people I am talking about may be having 25K as the monthly family income. They cannnot imagine the living expenses of metros.

If they happen to visit you, they will have peering eyes into every nuk and corner of your house. "Is this also from US, and this and how about that?", they ask about each and every thing. Even a simple corelle plate - is it US corelle or Indian?
I feel bad but sometimes I think twice before taking out a US crockery piece because it might catch eyes even if it costed me $3!
Sometimes I feel sorry for bringing the shipment.

Also, not only this, their expectations are also very high because you have moved back from US. As per them(speaking generally, exceptions are their but very rare) you can move only for 3 reasons-
1. You have been laid off and did not find a job
2. The US immigration did not find you good enough to retain you in US and kicked your butt
3. You have an extremely lucrative pay package waiting for you in India.

And God help you if you decide to move back to India without a job in hand!!

Your lifestyle, car you own, number of servants, school your child goes to, shop you do your groceries from, everything determines your extravagance and big pockets.

My advise to R2I-ers is- become thick skinned before you move back and design a disaster recovery plan for the salary question.
The way I handle the question is- "I dont know H's salary". It sounds absurd but that is the best I have come up with so far. Any suggestions are welcome.

Dirty, Sexy, Wealthy India

Are you upset that I am always saying bad things about India? Ok. Readd the second adjective in the heading. hehe!

I am using these adjectives because the India I grew up in, or the times when we all grew up in India as changed. If you want to really R2I successfully, stop expecting to come home to the country you left 10-15 years ago.

Why I am using dirty, I don't think needs any elaboration. A termed things as dirty naturally just after we R2I-ed. The little lake close to Papa's office was Dirty Lake. The road was- Dirty road. The children on road side were Dirty Boys(she did not know the boy and girl thing back then). It was amazing to see India from a US born 2 Year old's eyes.What has changed in 9 months is that as soon as she sees something good or lets say clean and uncrowded, she says "Wow!"

Now comes the interesting one- Sexy!
Not only because women wear much more revealing and body hugging clothes then 1999, but the usual glamor quotient on the streets of Bangalore has increased. Thanks to the fashion awareness and big labels. It is a very obvious reflection of the amount of money people are making, the amount they are spending and the amount they are willing to spend. Name a brand that is not here. Tommy is present in every A class malls.
Tommy has an out let on the airport as well. Levis has come up with an EMI scheme on jeans. So, don't be surprised if your maid comes wearing an authentic Levi's. You might want to consider visiting Tommy in that case.
Their is a positive thing about unsafe cities (read north India). Girls are unsafe and hence the fashion a little subtler. But, women in Delhi have even proved that wrong. Gosh! What fashion sense they have. Excellent figures, dresses and confidence! And I am not being sarcastic. Visiting a good mall in Delhi is like visiting a fashion show greenroom.

Now the more serious part- Wealth. Ofcourse you would like to come back to India with X+1 Salary. X being the highest salary you have heard about for someone who R2I-ed recently. 1 being any amount higher then X.
But even if you come at 0.3Y, you are fine. 0.5Y is good, anything above that is very good. Y being your current US salary in dollars. This is to maintain the same lifestyle as US. India is expensive. And people have money to splurge here. That is a very good thing because the living standard has increased. But, there may be times, when you might want to feel a little special then the rest of them around you. Then comes in the Y factor. Because actually anyone can afford everything and every place now. You might be surprised(read shocked) to see your co-diners at a moderately posh restaurants.

I really miss those days when growing up in a relatively smaller town (as compared to metros), fashion was anything other then Saree and salwar kameez, every one(upper middle class to elite) went to the same few restaurants in town, and things and people were much simpler.

But, on the whole, it feels good to be a part of it all sometimes. Because we are still not so out of the league. I wonder how we could have felt if we R2I-ed 10 years from now. A misfit may be.

Images- Thanks to images.google.com