Hello INDIA

Namita Gupta finds out what's luring immigrant Indians back home

Hello INDIA

Namita Gupta finds out what's luring immigrant Indians back home

Gone are the days when India's best and brightest looked to greener pastures in the US and in other countries abroad after university. For now, the brain drain is in reverse gear.u00a0

Ask any techie or investment banker now, and you are sure to hear of how times have changed. The gloomy vibe on Wall Street, the still-steady pulse of the Indian economy, the need to teach their kids Indian culture and tradition...just about any reason was good enough for those who packed their bags and returned home.

Family comes first

Nitish Manocha, who had a great life as senior software programmer with a leading firm in Texas, chose to return to Bangalore a year ago. "Being an only son, I missed my parents very much. Meeting my parents and sister just once a year was just not enough. I wanted to give my three-year-old son strong roots. I'm also into spirituality and my guru had told me, a year ago, that the US economy would see a downslide. As a professional, I could also see it happening. So for career reasons as well, I decided that my future lay in India," he explains.

Having lived in Texas for nine years, the decision to move wasn't easy for Nitin and his wife Meghna, a pediatrician from the University of Louisiana. "We knew that if we didn't take the decision then, it would be too late since with every passing year adjustment would become a problem," Meghna says.

In the aftermath of the carnage on Wall Street, the Manochas can only smile at the decision they made. "We made our move at the right time. Many of our friends are desperately trying to return now but they are unable to land good jobs in the current cirsumstances," says Nitish, who is a team leader with Nokia-Siemens.

Kabhie khushi, kabhie gham

Sanjay Prakash, director, Cisco, and his wife Rashmi, enterprise architect with Dell, returned to Bangalore from California.

"We wanted to reconnect with India, introduce our two young children to our extended families and to our culture," says Sanjay. Though he's happy that his children interact with family and friends and get to visit many parts of India, he doesn't sugarcoat the irritants.

"The tendency in India is to conform to mediocrity and the lowest acceptable common denominator. The lack of respect that people have for each other, the economic caste system and the crumbling infrastructure makes me feel frustrated at times," he admits.

Home is where the heart is

Vishwanathan and Jayshree Ramaiyer, who were in Fremont, San Francisco for over 20 years, choose to come back to Bangalore because their daughters were growing up.u00a0

Vishwanathan, a senior management professional with RSA, says, "Things were going well for us in the US, but we wanted our daughters to grow up with certain cultural and social values. Our parents live in Chennai, which is close to Bangalore, so we decided to relocate to Bangalore. We were financially well settled and could explore such options. Considering the terrible state that the US economy is in currently, we are happy to be home."

What India's work/ business culture can learn from the West
>>To value time, on a professional and personal level
>>Strike a balance between work and life; weekends should be off
>>If a task can wait till Monday, let it wait; everything can't be an emergency
>>Show up when you are called for an interview, oru00a0 inform the employer you cannot make it

'9/11 was the decisive moment'
Anand Kumar Vittal, who recently resigned as vice-president of Wipro's BPO business and joined consultancy firm Heidrick & Struggles, relocated from Texas to Bangalore in 2007.

"My wife and I were clear that we would enjoy life in the US from our late 20s till our early 40s. My wife wanted to enjoy Indian festivals and we wanted to bond with the friends we had grown up with. It can sometimes get very lonely when you stay in the US, sealed from the rest of humanity, in a posh villa or apartment. There, you meet friends only over the weekends and that too after a lot of planning and scheduling," confesses Anand.

"After 9/11, we began to feel like outsiders in the US. At airports and in malls, people began to give us weird looks. We were always picked for random checks at the airport. That's when we decided to head back home."

It happens only in India
Satheesh Babu, senior manager, Sterling Commerce (an AT&T enterprise), moved from Arlington, Virginia to Bangalore to be with his parents.

"My wife and I wanted to be close to our parents so that our child would bask in the love of his grandparents.

Though we are from Kerala, we chose to relocate to Bangalore for professional reasons," he says.

This is one couple that is ready to brave traffic jams and pollution because "life is never monotonous in India!"u00a0

Amazed at the resilient spirit of his fellow Indians, Satheesh observes, "People in any city in India do not simply wait for good things to happen to them. They work to make good things happen. The private service sector has worked wonders in somesectors. People are extremely tech-savvy."

Same routine, different cities

A senior telecom executive, who moved from Boston to Bangalore, confesses that he still leads an insulated lifeu00a0

There are two kinds of Indians who have returned from the USu2014the first kind does so because they genuinely miss India, while the second kind comes back, complains about the infrastructure and behaves as if they are doing India a great favour by returning to their homeland.u00a0

And then there are people who are exceptions to both rules. Anand, a senior telecom executive, is one such person. He had lived abroad from the end of 1999 to 2002, after which he came back to India.u00a0

Was it awe-inspiring when he stepped off the plane at Boston? "Even before moving to the US, I was travelling abroad a lot and been to Ireland in 1998. So, it was nothing new," he replies.u00a0

While admitting that the infrastructure in the US is a lot better than it is in any Indian city, he says that typically he commuted from home to office, so things are not very different, at a personal level, in either country.u00a0

"In India, I lead a bottled life, similar to the one I led in the US. I am insulated from reality," he adds.u00a0u00a0

What of travel within India? Doesn't that bring him face to face with a different reality? Anand confesses that he travels largely by flights for official purposes, and to visit Kumbakonam, his hometown, he prefers to drive down in his car.u00a0

"Obama may change things, we are hopeful"

Indian student at the University of Southern California, LA tells us

Kinnari Mathrawala has been working part-time at an entertainment company, while studying takes up the rest of the day. The 25 year-old, who moved from Mumbai to Los Angeles two years ago, is apprehensive about what she will find at the end of six months when she completes her masters degree in Communication Management.

Nobody expected a recession this mammoth, though the economy had been sluggish. The situation here can be described as nothing but dreary, she says. "Up until a few years ago, international students were worried about finding a 'good' job. Now, they aren't sure if they will get one at all." But, with Obama winning theu00a0 elections, they are hoping he'll make a change. "But the situation is definitely going to get worse, before it gets better," she sighs.

India's economy has been growing by about 7% every year for the last 10 years; faster than any country in the world except China

The current financial hit in India is only temporary, predict analysts

The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) has grown drastically

Salaries have doubled since 2005

New law allows Indian immigrants to visit India for longer periods

Since the Constitution of India doesn't support dual citizenship, the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) law was introduced in December 2005 for Persons of Indian Origin (PIO), except for those who migrated to Bangladesh and Pakistan. Though, this may not allow the same perks as a dual citizenship (in terms of real estate investments, for instance), it grants the following benefits:

>>Multiple entry, multi-purpose life long visa to visit India.
>>Exemption from reporting to police authorities for any length of stay in India.
>>An OCI holder is permitted to apply for an Indian citizenship, after he/she is a registered OCI holder for five years.

Since its inception in 2005, over 3 lakh immigrants have applied for and become registered holders ofu00a0 OCI, an employee at the OCI Cell of the Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi told iTALK