Its been raining non-stop today. Cribbing about the weather was always a favorite pastime here. One summer in Delhi will make me realize how good I had it here ;-) Off to the airport now. Next post will be from India!
October 2004 Archives
At this time tomorrow I will be at the airport. For the last few days I have been so busy packing that I haven't had any time to sit down and reflect. I called Redmond home for 3 years and leaving this place, I feel as sad as i had felt leaving Delhi. It is a beautiful little town, almost like a hill station. There are so many Indians here that it almost seems like an addendum to India. A city plucked from somewhere in India and dropped into America. Redmond is prettiest at this time of the year. Fall colors make the occasional clear days (like today) especially beautiful. Having grown up in the mad rush of Delhi I enjoyed the quite small town life. I especially enjoyed the small commute (3 mins) to work. It is amazing how habits form and how easily you can slip into a comfort zone. When I came here, I never thought I could get so used to the American life like I did.
But for now, I feel the cheese has moved. And so must I!
Only 48 hours left and my packing is not even half done. It turns out it is fairly cheap to ship stuff to India via USPS. Shipping books costs about 1$/pound. It takes 4-6 weeks for the package to arrive in India. However, there are limitations on how large a box you can ship. I had boxed some clothes for shipping but I was told it was too big. Apparently, the maximum size allowed is length + width + height = 79 inches. Still, this is much cheaper than paying for additional baggage (Cathay Pacific charges $121 for an extra suitcase)
Slashdot is discussing How cheap can PC be. Rajesh Jain might have the right answer to that.
I have been researching different options for transferring money to India. Here is what I found (disclaimer: this is just what I have been told, please use any information here at your own risk and definitely don't blame me for any screw ups!:) )
1. ICICI Money2India ACH (http://www.icicibank.com): This is by far the most convenient and cheapest option especially if you have an ICICI bank a/c. Everything can be done online and it takes about a week for the money to transfer. The service is free. Only limitation is that you can only transfer upto $5k in one transaction.
2. Wire transfer: Wire transfers don't have any upper limits. If you use ICICI Money2India wire transfer then you only have to pay domestic wire transfer fee. It supposedly takes upto 3 days for the the money to reach India.
3. Bank drafts/checks: My bank manager in India suggested this option. However, as I understand it takes significant time (a few weeks) for the checks or drafts to clear.
4. Travellers checks: Sombody on the R2IClub suggested this option. You can get a much higher exchange rate if you sell to private agents. I have been told it is legal. The only issue I can see is that you will have to carry that much cash back to your bank.
Apparenty it is possible to negotiate the exchange rate with the banks in India. If you are bringing in a large amount of foreign currency, you can negotiate for a higher rate. I was not aware of that.
Google will open an office in Kirkland
"Google said yesterday it will open an office in Kirkland next month, giving rise to speculation that it may be stepping up efforts to poach talent from Microsoft."
Looks like the Microsoft v/s Google battle is going to be an epic one. Too bad I am no longer inside Microsoft to be able to participate :) But the view from the sidelines won't be bad too!
Yesterday was my last day at Microsoft. It was a mixed feeling. I felt truly sad leaving a great work place but excited too to face a new future. Each Microsoft full time employee (FTEs as they are called) gets a blue ID badge. That blue badge is your identity in Microsoft. When it was time to return the blue badge yesterday, I finally realized that things are really changing. My team mates and myself climbed over one of the famous Microsoft signs on the campus and took a pic.
Apart from the "why are you coming back" questions, I have also been asked the "how can you leave Microsoft" question a lot. It is a testament to Microsoft's reputation as an employer here and especially in India that people find it hard to believe I am leaving. No matter how much ridicule the geeks lays onto Microsoft, for the average computer user Microsoft is the mecca of software engineering. Inspite of all the jokes about blue screens, hangs and bugs, it is still a company greatly admired across the world. Microsoft was my dream company fresh out of college and it mostly lived upto my expectations. The work culture, people, benefits all are a topic in themselves. But for now, it suffices to say, I will miss Microsoft!
There are a few resources available for those who are planning to return back to India:
1. The R2IClub at http://groups.msn.com/R2IClub is the single most useful resource. I really wish I had found this group before. The forum is very active and there are several people in this group who made well planned and well executed move to India. People are very open to sharing their experiences and helping out others. If you are even thinking of moving to India, you have to join this group.
2.http://www.nriol.com/resources/return2india/ is also a good resource of information
3. http://www.statebankofindia.com/nribanking/returnindian.asp
has information on banking services provided by SBI to returning Indians
4. RRK's R2I website at http://rrkind.tripod.com/ has tons of useful information for financial planning.
I will add more here as I find more. If you know of any more resources, please leave a comment.
I am sorry to say I did no financial planning for my R2I move. For one thing, I had very little time. Second, i figured transferring money to India should be no problem. Well it is. A cursory research tells me that there is an "RFC" account that can be used by returning Indians to keep money in foreign currency. This account allows transferring foreign currency abroad without need of an RBI approval. So I will need to open an RFC account once I am in India. But before then, I will probably also need an FCNR account to be able to wire money from here to India. I am still researching this and will post my findings when I know more.
Apart from the money transfer, there is the whole 401k issue that needs to be taken care of. Withdrawing money from 401k account needs to be carefully planned to avoid penalties and extraneous taxes. The financial jargon is pretty overwhelming. I think I will talk to a tax consultant tomorrow.
Note to self: need to take time to understand financial matters more.
Note to prospective returnees: Plan plan plan your finances!
"I cling to India like a child to its mother's breast, because I feel she gives me the spiritual noursihment I need. She has the environment that responds to my highest aspiration. When that faith is gone I shall feel like an orphan withut hope of ever finding a guardian." -Mahatma Gandhi
I have been asked repeatedly in the last few days what prompted me to return to India. It caused me to think about what really made me make that choice. My first reaction was that Of course the decision is based on logic. India is a growing fast. There are lot of new opportunities now. The software sector is going through a boom. India is truly shining in many ways. Yet, the difference between life here and India is starkly contrasting. Common sense tells me that in the most material terms, quality of life is far better in US. There are no power cuts, no water shortage, no beggars on the streets, no filth on the roads. So, I find it hard to defend my decision purely by reasoning. I have also tried justifying to myself that today there are far more NRIs going back to India. But statistics show that most who go back have a definite reason to go back - lost a job or got terribly homesick or simply made enough money to retire. I can't honestly say I fit in any of these categories. The thoughts of patriotic duty crossed my mind too. But those quickly vanished. I have no illusions that India needs me or that my working in India would make it a better place. The reason couldn't be so noble.
This lack of a definite answer was a bit unnerving. I suddenly felt that perhaps my decision to go back was not well thought out. Perhaps I had made a choice based on emotions. And yet strangely I was feeling a quite confidence in my decision. Even though I could not justify it, I knew it was time to go back. I couldn't see myself anywhere else but in India. Funnily, it seemed obvious to me that I needed to be India even though I couldn't think of many rational reasons for that. There was almost an urge to go back, an invisible force pulling me back. So I think my decision to go back is based on faith. A faith that I can fulfil my ambitions and aspirations in India. A faith that a brighter future awaits me there. Clearly this is blind faith because I don't have any solid reaasoning to back it. But I am not scared, not even apprehensive. I have never felt so confident of my choice.
Reading the above two paras, I realize I am making a rather bold statement. And I am making the statement even while I am still in US. I am not in India yet. The reality hasn't hit me yet. I haven't yet sweated it out in the Delhi summer. I haven't yet walked the filthy roads. I am reminded of a dialogue from the movie Kaante: "Duniya jeetne chalein the. Lag gayi apni" (Had set to conquer the world. Got screwed bad.) So it will be a while before I know if it was a wise decision. But till then, I will follow my instinct.
Moving is always hard but moving oversees makes thing especially difficult. My return to India wasn't very well planned and there was just about a month between my final decision to move back and the day I actually fly out. I looked at shipping options. Shipping is done by weight and volume and it turned out that for most of my stuff, the cost of shipping was higher than the actual value of the item. So I decided to leave behind anything that wont fit in my 2 suitcases. Apart from shipping, there are many other things that need to be taken care of. Here is my checklist:
1. Cancel credit card. Check if account needs to be closed. -- DONE
I found out that you can provide an international address on your credit card and bank accounts. So I didn't need to close my accounts.
2. Ship books -- DONE
I had a lot of books and I shipped them via UPS. It costs about a dollar a pound. So it is fairly inexpensive. However it will take upto 6 weeks for the books to arrive in Delhi.
3. Sell car -- DONE
Selling car was my biggest worry. Fortunately I had a fairly popular car (Nissan Altima) so I got a lot of queries once I put out a classified. I got a fair price for it. I might have stuck out for a few hundred dollars more if I had the time. Selling a car is painless here and all the paperwork took less than 20 mins.
4. Transfer money to India
This isn't done yet and I need to research it more. I am not sure if money is repatriable or not once I transfer it. If not, then probably I will kep half in India and half in US. I found out that government bonds give 6.5% interests (tax free). So that is a good investment option.
5. Cancel phone and internet -- DONE
Cancel phone and internet. Verizon customer service isn't the best in the world. I am just hoping that they did actually cancel the service.
6. Cancel cell phone
Yet to be done.
7. Set forwarding address in post office
International forwarding address cannot be set. So I will have to give the address of a friend for forwarding my mail.
8. buy cable modem/wireless router
This one I added on suggestion from somebody who R2Ied recently. I hear that the cable modems are very expensive in India (apparently the ISPs sell them or rent them at out). So i was considering buying a modem from here. But given the space constraints this might actually drop out.
9. Transfer lease -- DONE
I had to transfer my apartment lease to avoid paying 1.5 month rent as penalty. This was my biggest worry
10. Company store visit
The Microsoft company store sells Microsoft software at huge discounts to employees. I will probably pick up a copy or two of XP and office for use in India. This is a huge perk of being a Microsoft employee! I will dearly miss the company store!
11. Gifts?
I would love to take gifts for friends and family. But I am really short on time and space, and hence the question mark.
Hello! My name is Gaurav Bhatnagar. After working for 3 years in Microsoft here in Redmond, WA, I am moving back to India at the end of this month. Many people have asked me about the experience and how hard or easy it is for an NRI to go back to India. That prompted me to start this blog. I will be using this blog for documenting my R2I (return to India) experiences.
I will write more about what made me decide to move back later. I will start with the facts. I have been in US for around 3 years now - all of it in Microsoft as a software design engineer in the Windows division. The coming Friday is my last day at Microsoft and I fly out on 28th. My days are going frantically trying to sell my stuff, pack my bags and say goodbye to my friends and colleagues. My American colleagues feel going back to India is the natural thing to do since that is where I came from. My Indian friends feel its a bold move. I am feeling both excited and apprehensive. However I always knew I wanted to go come back to India so I am positive this is the right decision for me.
I will write more on why coming back to India is so hard tomorrow.
