New Delhi Times

Gaurav Bhatnagar reporting from New Delhi, India

Looking back: An year of R2I

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Exactly one year back, I was preparing myself to talk to my manager about considering to leave Microsoft. I had been feeling the itch to change things in my life right from late 2003. My worry was that I was letting myself get cast into a stereotype. The “desi engineer in US of A” stereotype. This stereotype is so stereotypical that I could virtually see myself living the life depicted in all those stereotypical desi-NRI movies. My other worry was that I was in too much of a comfort zone too soon in my career. Inspite of whatever discontent you hear of from Microsofties, for a middle-class Indian 24 year old, life doesn’t get much better than what it is in 98052 (zip code for Redmond where Microsoft is situated). To top it off, work was fun and I rarely got stressed out because of work issues. Frankly, I couldn’t find an excuse to give to myself for moving on!
For Christmas and New Year’s eve of 2004, Ashish, Manish and myself went on a week long trip to LA and Las Vegas. We spent a lot of time on the road driving the rental car and eating chocolate chip cookies. I decided during that trip that by next new year’s eve I needed to change something in my life. I just wasn’t sure what that something was going to be. Around middle of 2004 I decided that “something” was going to be getting an MBA. A little bit of business education can never hurt. I quickly got down to preparing for GMAT and spent a month or so digging deep into books. I told almost nobody about it because I was thinking I will screw up the exam pretty badly. I had not written a competitive exams since IIT entrace in 1997. However, thankfully, with a little bit of luck, I managed a pretty good score on GMAT. Gleefully I started researching business school admission process. At that point, I realized I was on the verge of stepping out of one stereotype into another one – from “desi engineer in US of A” to “desi engineer + MBA in US of A”!! It became evident to me pretty quickly that Indian engineers form the biggest pool of non-white applicants to business schools in the US. I was afraid that I would spend two years and $100,000 getting an MBA and end up feeling exactly the same way as I was at that time – part of the herd. So MBA plans were dropped (or at least postponed indefinitely). That left only one option – go back to India. It was an easy escape route because there was so much uncertainty associated with it. There was nothing stereotypical about it and it would surely throw me out of my comfort zone (spend one summer in Delhi heat and you will know what I am talking about :) ). Fortunately, Ashish was also contemplating moving back and for both of us, it became much easier to take the plunge together.
October 22nd was my last day in Microsoft. October 20th was when I started this blog. October 28th was when I left for India. If there is such a thing as astrology and if stars really influence your life, then my stars were really aligned in some strange configuration in October of 2004!

Written by gaurav

October 7th, 2005 at 12:46 am

Posted in Return To India

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  • http://spaces.msn.com/members/aayushpuri Aayush Puri

    >However, thankfully, with a little bit of luck, I managed a pretty good score on GMAT.
    So typical of a “chaapu”. In case you are unaware in IITK lingo “chaapu” == bond. You can confirm it from Ashish :-)
    BTW I really admire your courage to go against the trend (rather fashion, which I usually call it) and trust yourself and start something of your own. All the very best!

  • http://spaces.msn.com/members/aayushpuri Aayush Puri

    >However, thankfully, with a little bit of luck, I managed a pretty good score on GMAT.
    So typical of a “chaapu”. In case you are unaware in IITK lingo “chaapu” == bond. You can confirm it from Ashish :-)
    BTW I really admire your courage to go against the trend (rather fashion, which I usually call it) and trust yourself and start something of your own. All the very best!

  • http://loxos.blogspot.com Sandeep

    Amazing…. I actually did something like that – coming back from Europe. But then again, I was not working in no Microsoft.
    But I did join a (then) small startup, rather than a big firm.
    But, really amazing stuff.

  • http://loxos.blogspot.com Sandeep

    Amazing…. I actually did something like that – coming back from Europe. But then again, I was not working in no Microsoft.
    But I did join a (then) small startup, rather than a big firm.
    But, really amazing stuff.

  • http://www.twentyonwards.blogs.com Jatin

    Chale gaye mujhe yaha chorke

  • http://www.twentyonwards.blogs.com Jatin

    Chale gaye mujhe yaha chorke

  • http://blog.360.yahoo.com/versesane Ankur Gupta

    neat write-up Mr Gaurav

  • http://blog.360.yahoo.com/versesane Ankur Gupta

    neat write-up Mr Gaurav

  • http://www.rit.edu/~sgd9494 Santosh

    You’ve probably heard this comment before… “Starting your own company can be a *lot* more rewarding than getting a MBA”. How true is that? Personally, I would attach a lot more importance to what your doing now. Especially since you’ve decided to contribute directly to India’s economic and intellectual wealth (hmm, I enthusiastically :-) attach the word ‘wealth’ here since India is entering the information age ahead of every other developing nation).
    To emphasize on the issue with stereotypes – I was very passionate as I started out with my M.S. I quickly realised that I was definitely not the first “desi grad student”, and certainly by far not the last. Of the desi’s I knew in my area, everyone was committed, hard-working, … you know the rest. That did somewhat dampen my enthusiasm to continue, but I couldn’t stop once I had started.
    I guess many have the innate desire to be successful, and of course to be unique inventors/discoverers. That by itself isn’t unique.
    It’s fantastic that you blog your R2I.
    - Santosh

  • http://www.rit.edu/~sgd9494 Santosh

    You’ve probably heard this comment before… “Starting your own company can be a *lot* more rewarding than getting a MBA”. How true is that? Personally, I would attach a lot more importance to what your doing now. Especially since you’ve decided to contribute directly to India’s economic and intellectual wealth (hmm, I enthusiastically :-) attach the word ‘wealth’ here since India is entering the information age ahead of every other developing nation).
    To emphasize on the issue with stereotypes – I was very passionate as I started out with my M.S. I quickly realised that I was definitely not the first “desi grad student”, and certainly by far not the last. Of the desi’s I knew in my area, everyone was committed, hard-working, … you know the rest. That did somewhat dampen my enthusiasm to continue, but I couldn’t stop once I had started.
    I guess many have the innate desire to be successful, and of course to be unique inventors/discoverers. That by itself isn’t unique.
    It’s fantastic that you blog your R2I.
    - Santosh

  • http://www.newdelhitimes.org Gaurav

    Aayush: Not sure I can take being called “chaapu” as a compliment ;-) Actually, statistically, Indians score very high on GMAT so it is really not that big a deal.
    Sandeep/Ankur – Thanks! Since I have returned back, I have come to know many others who did the same thing. In a few years, there will be a whole new stereotype of R2I-ing Indians :)
    Santosh – I think starting my own company was definitely a better choice than going for an MBA at that point of time. But I still think an MBA from a good school can be really valuable especially if you want to switch tracks (move from tech to consulting or finance etc). But I wanted to continue on in tech. so it didn’t make that much sense for me.
    And Jatin, bhai anyway you are almost done with Seattle, mein bhi waha reh ke kya karta…

  • http://www.newdelhitimes.org Gaurav

    Aayush: Not sure I can take being called “chaapu” as a compliment ;-) Actually, statistically, Indians score very high on GMAT so it is really not that big a deal.
    Sandeep/Ankur – Thanks! Since I have returned back, I have come to know many others who did the same thing. In a few years, there will be a whole new stereotype of R2I-ing Indians :)
    Santosh – I think starting my own company was definitely a better choice than going for an MBA at that point of time. But I still think an MBA from a good school can be really valuable especially if you want to switch tracks (move from tech to consulting or finance etc). But I wanted to continue on in tech. so it didn’t make that much sense for me.
    And Jatin, bhai anyway you are almost done with Seattle, mein bhi waha reh ke kya karta…

  • http://www.openlaszlonaut.de Raju

    Nice blog and nice story. Read about your company in Marc’s blog. We have a small startup company in Berlin using OpenLazlo to create new web experiences. In 2006 we are planning to build web-media portals in Germany and I’d love to work on a project with Tekriti.
    Good luck with your business.
    Best, Raju

  • http://www.openlaszlonaut.de Raju

    Nice blog and nice story. Read about your company in Marc’s blog. We have a small startup company in Berlin using OpenLazlo to create new web experiences. In 2006 we are planning to build web-media portals in Germany and I’d love to work on a project with Tekriti.
    Good luck with your business.
    Best, Raju

  • http://noncreativefiction.blogspot.com Saad Akhtar

    October 10th was the day I joined Microsoft research in China.. in a few weeks I discovered your blog and have been following the progress. :) Congratulations..
    I’m back in Delhi too.. working as a User Experience Designer in Gurgaon.

  • http://noncreativefiction.blogspot.com Saad Akhtar

    October 10th was the day I joined Microsoft research in China.. in a few weeks I discovered your blog and have been following the progress. :) Congratulations..
    I’m back in Delhi too.. working as a User Experience Designer in Gurgaon.

  • http://www.newdelhitimes.org Gaurav

    Raju – we are also jazzed up about Laszlo! Please do email me at gaurav at tekritisoftware dot com and lets talk more.
    Saad – I have been following your (photo)blog for the past year too! Lets DEFINITELY meet up since we are both working in Gurgaon.

  • http://www.newdelhitimes.org Gaurav

    Raju – we are also jazzed up about Laszlo! Please do email me at gaurav at tekritisoftware dot com and lets talk more.
    Saad – I have been following your (photo)blog for the past year too! Lets DEFINITELY meet up since we are both working in Gurgaon.

  • xyz

    Hello Gaurav,
    Your blog was very interesting. You know what? I’m currently doing my M.S. in the US and I feel like a stereotype too! I could totally relate to some of the things you said, and even felt a relief that there’s at least one other person who thinks this way.
    I’ve been wanting to come back to India, but you know how it is na? I have this fear that if I come straight back to India, I might miss out on some ‘great opportunities’ in the US because of which everyone else who I know seems to want to stay back here. I’ve been trying to fight this fear for months, and sometimes I wonder what is it thats making me feel afraid of coming back to my own country (where I’ve definitely been happier, have my own identity and will have a better social life)? Do you suppose there are other people who actually finish their masters and head straight back? Not that I want to base my decision on that, but it might be more re-assuring…

  • xyz

    Hello Gaurav,
    Your blog was very interesting. You know what? I’m currently doing my M.S. in the US and I feel like a stereotype too! I could totally relate to some of the things you said, and even felt a relief that there’s at least one other person who thinks this way.
    I’ve been wanting to come back to India, but you know how it is na? I have this fear that if I come straight back to India, I might miss out on some ‘great opportunities’ in the US because of which everyone else who I know seems to want to stay back here. I’ve been trying to fight this fear for months, and sometimes I wonder what is it thats making me feel afraid of coming back to my own country (where I’ve definitely been happier, have my own identity and will have a better social life)? Do you suppose there are other people who actually finish their masters and head straight back? Not that I want to base my decision on that, but it might be more re-assuring…

  • http://www.newdelhitimes.org Gaurav

    xyz – thanks for your comment. Yes, I have heard of a few who came back to India immediately after finishing off their MS. I know a few who are contemplating of doing that after completing their Phd! I would say do what you really feel is right for you. This is not a one way street. If you don’t like it here, just go back to US. There is nothing wrong with that too! Likewise you can spend a few years there and then make a choice.

  • http://www.newdelhitimes.org Gaurav

    xyz – thanks for your comment. Yes, I have heard of a few who came back to India immediately after finishing off their MS. I know a few who are contemplating of doing that after completing their Phd! I would say do what you really feel is right for you. This is not a one way street. If you don’t like it here, just go back to US. There is nothing wrong with that too! Likewise you can spend a few years there and then make a choice.

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