(5 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)Since childhood I never cherished any dreams of going abroad, instead always wanted to live in India. My search for a livelihood, like any other person, just out of the college, changed my perceptions on going abroad. It was in the year 2002 that the doors to a foreign nation had opened for me. My first pay made my eyes pop out (upon converting the currency, of course)
I also realized that with a white collar job in a foreign land one could earn quickly and pay off debts easily. My initial goal was just to stay for one year, amass some wealth and go back to India. As time passed, my ambitions started changing year after year and I started spreading my roots deeper into this foreign soil thus making my position much stronger.
Until you fly abroad you find life very nice and comfortable in the way you live, but once you get a taste of life abroad– you are out of that “frog in a well” situation and find it more interesting than ever.
As I introspect, I keep wondering if I will ever go back. One side pulls me towards my country of origin while the other side is so accustomed to western life style, it holds me back. A Catch-22 situation!
Returning to country indeed is a major decision, perhaps even tougher than to go abroad. There is no right or wrong here. After spending a few years abroad, we aim for “best of both worlds” which is difficult to find, in real life.
On one hand you have these factors compelling you to stay back abroad-
Value for money – Every penny earned is valuable abroad. In India a 100-rupee denomination is becoming almost worthless these days.
Free Life Style – You do not have any close relatives or neighbors pestering you with questions that are more personal in nature. Personal space is respected abroad more than in India.
Substantial Income - Similar effort put in a foreign country pays you 40x or 80x to what one gets in India. Once you get that taste of money, it’s hard to wean away from it.
Work culture – No slogging and no late hour work culture (to impress your bosses 
)
Value for Life – Life is valued far higher than anything else. The quality of life we lead is definitely better than that of India.
On the other hand there is a long list of good things back home in India that would tempt you to go home – people, relations, parents, food, cost of living, education, entertainment, advance medical treatments, growing economy, opportunities, weather, culture and of course, our roots.
I am convinced that all the Indians who are abroad are Non Returning Indians.
You may have a different opinion, but 8 out of 10 people who are abroad have firm plans to settle down there. They might not agree on the face of it, but their materialistic desires will force them to settle down. Will this ever change? May be….may be not.
Our growing economy could change this dimension and trigger a reverse brain drain. For now, we may have to just wait and watch.
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March 5th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
For NRI's to return to India the governement should offer attractive jobs/business opportunities. Further standards in India should improve. What an NRI can do from a foreign nation? He can contribute to the development of India by setting up a branch of his business here. Further he can invest his money to a worthy cause in India.These are the thoughts which come to my mind when I think of an NRI planning to settle down in a foreign country.
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March 6th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Good post Sanj, I am glad to let you know that I have successfully overcome all the hurdles and will be a Returning Indian…
Come this April, I will be no longer a NRI and am eagerly looking forward to it!
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March 6th, 2009 at 5:35 am
That's a news Sid..and all the best to you.
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March 6th, 2009 at 5:42 am
You have hit the Bull eye and perhaps several times over. I do share 10 of 10 views you shared here. However, as they say, it's all destiny and be it London New York or Delhi you will get the due you deserve.
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March 6th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Nice Post ! I agree with most of what you have expressed.
On the contrary, being in the same situation you are in , i ask myself. ” Why should i go back ? ” , I feel where i am comfortable is home. Civilizations have cherished that way.
” Destiny ” ofcourse is the buzz word.
As we get used to the quality and the standard of life in the west, guess, we expect things back home atleast try to improve for what they have been earlier.
When i analyze, i am faced with these questions..
Why doesnt anyone respect others time in a government office ?
why dont things move ahead without a hole in the pocket ?
Why doesnt the police treat you with respect ?
ofcourse the classic
Numerous other things, everyone should have similar experiences.
I have noticed some senseless things during my visit in Jan / Feb 09 to Hyderabad. Some roads have widened so much, they dont have foot paths anymore !
So me roads have widened so much, a 6 lane road becomes 2 lanes without notice and these guys, i am sure get these ideas visiting the west. They only might have grasped the idea that the roads are big, hence the traffic managed better
)
If we come to the general public, I feel they have lost common sense and respect for rules and others time . What has changed this ? Has it always been like this or am i being to critical ? I have to say, in my 4 weeks stay, i almost started to be them.
I definitely like the Indian way of life, relatives, culture etc etc. But have these things not changed ? diluted ? influenced by the west ?
I feel, eventually things will improve back home, when real fearless people start to implement standards.
Will i be a Non returning Indian… may be ?, i will leave it to destiny. The law says i belong to India as long as my passport says so.
Good luck Guys..
================================
Sid !! Are you going home in April for good ? That is news..
Vivek
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March 6th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Hey Vivek that's a view point thanks for sharing…
Yes, I am..
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January 21st, 2010 at 5:00 am
I have been outside the country 5 years now. It has been the opposite way with me.
When I left India, I mostly believed that I would settle down in the West permanently. As days passed, I became more and more unhappy. As a PhD student, I made a pittance and spent my days trudging through the cold as middle class Americans went along with their smug lives with barely a bachelor’s degree to boot. Sometime in 2007, I realized with a shock that my living standard had fallen to below anything I had ever known in India. I led a wretched, hand to mouth existence, worked longs hours at my work and was disrespected and belittled by ordinary middle class Americans every day. I must mention here that this had NOTHING whatsoever to do with me being a foreigner, it is just that Americans actively despise and look down on learning. The word “student” is an insult in America. The word is a synonym for “lazy, stupid and worthless”.
Time flew by and I had my phd. Now, as junior faculty, I make a wage no software coolie would even spit on. But, even my humble salary means I can afford some of the things …like a car maybe and a house to rent. But, I have realized something. I don’t want to be like the American clerks who spat on me while I was a phd student. If I just spend every penny I have, I can probably afford a better lifestyle. But that would be IMITATION; it would validate the thinking of the American middle class. It would mean that the American middle class was right all along, i.e., a PhD student is really low… a clerk with a diploma is above.
So, I have excused myself from American consumerism. I live in a house I share with 5 others; I have my mattress on the floor and I am happy to cook my cheap ramen everyday and walk to work in the snow. I don’t care. I am not going to copy some illiterate clerk and prove to him that as a PhD student, I was really aspiring for his lifestyle.
My faculty salary is a pittance too, just not poverty level. Most of you guys on this board must be software wallahs or bankers! Good luck to you. You are the GODS of this age. Your brilliant moves and ideas have brought us the economic crisis of 2008. I hope you are happy. Science sucks.. I know….it is sick and disgusting. All worship the IT professionals, the MBAs and the investment bankers. As for me, I now have a firm mind to return to India. I am holding out for a couple of years before I am worthy enough to be picked at TIFR (FYI, TIFR is a place where they produce world class science… I know ..I know…how could science be world class? … I mean none of the profs at TIFR has an MBA!!!… and surely anything that does not require an MBA nor an IT degree must be completely worthless) I know I will be poor …I had much rather be poor in India than in America.
You software and MBA wallahs should not make such stupid decisions. You are earning millions. Keep making them.
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January 21st, 2010 at 5:30 am
Oh… and please do not call a Desi living in India a frog in a well. The world is not divided into two parts.. India and “abroad”. How much of the world have you seen? How many languages do you speak? The world is more than just India and America. The one perk of my job is that I get to travel to each continent and believe me, the world is much bigger than either India or America. And you sir, having flown to one country outside India are sitting on a high horse and telling Indians that they are frogs in the well! You are the real frog in the well; the Desis living in India at least understand that there is a huge world out there; you are smugly claiming that there is nothing worthwhile to see outside your particular corner of America.
The best part of your article is the sweeping generalizations you make. Indians are “frogs in the well”; Americans have a great work culture; once an NRI “tastes” the wealth in the West, there is no way he could ever get back. In short, you know and understand everything in the world.
Really… could this article be any more smug? The tone of your essay goes: “Look at me, I am the rich NRI and I would go back and help you poor natives, but your perspective and knowledge of the world is so small that you cannot even understand my greatness… you are frogs in the well.”
This is the main reason I believe the Prime Minister should stop offering sops to “Indian origin” folks abroad. The Prime Minister belongs to a different generation, he doesn’t fully understand how greedy and superficial people can be…or maybe he is also a “frog in well”. That is why PIO and OCI schemes should be annulled immediately and the “Overseas Indian Ministry” closed down. The insulting and callous manner in which NRIs like you talk of our people, the resident Indians.. is proof on its own.
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May 2nd, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Looks like pks is jealous.
This is another issue we Indians have to deal with.
We can’t look at others who are living happily without thinking bad about them.
If you want to earn property or do business…..invest in emerging markets like India, Vienna, South Africa etc.
Since in developed countries the value of the property won’t increase over time and you will end up paying huge amounts as property taxes.
But if you just want to do 9-5 job for your whole life, USA is much much better.
I don’t even attend interviews if there are Indians on the interview panel. Majority of them are ego maniacs trying to belittle others.
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January 3rd, 2011 at 4:09 am
The truth is that we all like abroad and no one wants to be in India..
that is the real truth………………………
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