Friday, September 30, 2011

How the concerns got addressed: Driver/rental ...

At Work they would reimburse for a month of cab rental but didn't use that. Funny, found it not as convenient as we thought. Called one of the rental agencies - you can book them now by called a help center with numbers 22222222 or 44444444. But, they need at least several hours of advance notice, if you call two hours in-advance, you get the standard answer that 'no taxies are available in that area, sir!'. I doubt they even check their system before giving the pre-canned response. Called another agency that does work rentals and even they needed advance booking on a daily basis, which was not convenient as well.
       
Fortunately, one of my collegue was going to work on the same area and offered ride along with him until we have the car. Bit of a walk for a common place for pick-up and bit of walk to the apartment from drop off location to home in the evening. Thanks to him, who is an R2I by himself, got lots of fundas on settling down as well, which was quite useful. Being a R2I, he could articulate the issues I would run into and possible way outs.
                               
Driver salary ranges
It was not that difficult to get a driver for the car, again thanks to the apartment setting, where you can post looking for a driver post and somebody will respond. Called few other drivers referred by my friend from another apartment - the salary ranges were high, in the range of Rs. 8000 - 9000, with extra pay for Saturday work and Sunday being off. Finally, settled for a driver, who was ok with a salary of Rs. 7,500, including Saturday work and car wash etc. He didn't know much about Bangalore roads but since I had good amount of exposure to Bangalore geography, wasn't a big concern. Google map can navigate on a Bangalore address these days does help as well!


Option of company lease: Saves on taxes
This is an option I didn't consider but could work out - if you go for car lease with company financing, the interest payments are tax deductible and that could add up. Don't think it works out lot cheaper since the interest payments are pretty high on the lease, in the range of 17%. Whatever savings you have on taxes will get paid on the interest payments. Car dealer can work out the details and can show the difference. To do this, they need a copy of company Id card and the usual other papers like the PAN card, address proof etc.


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How the concerns got addressed: Driving license ...

Thought this will be real hassle but went little bit easier than we thought. They do convert the California     driving license to Indian license - if you have expired Indian two wheeler and four wheeler license, you can produce them as well (again, expired ones are fine) and get the two wheeler added to the license. I couldn't locate my old two wheeler license - seems like I might have disposed it off when I moved to US, in favor of the car license and the IDP that I got while in India. Who knew you would need that two wheeler again!.
           
Went to the local DMV (what is called RTO here) with the usual suspect papers like Rental agreement, PAN card, multiple pictures etc. They do need the rental agreement for address proof and Class-C vehicle description print out from California DMV(easy to get on the net). Had to fill-up two forms - Form 2 and 4, which were available at the reception desk. It was pretty simple to fill-up and put the pictures on. Also, had a pay the fees, which was in the range of Rs. 1000 or so and included some penalty for expired license, getting both two and four wheeler in the same license etc. Since I didn't have old two wheeler license, they couldn't add that to my four wheeler license but didn't that is going to be big deal - I think I will dare to drive on a two wheeler in Bangalore anytime soon, with the rash of four wheelers and pollution, smoke that washes you up.
               
Got stamped envelope for delivery of cards from a stationary store down stairs. Gave the papers to one of the clerks and RTO officer showed after an hour or so. He browsed thru' the papers and asked to pay one more penalty (don't recall for what) and signed the papers - whew!!! It was time for one more pics (that they put on the smart card - yes, the licenses here are now smart card with a chip on it. Come on, California - you can do it too!!.
       
Once that was done, we were told cards would arrive in a week or so. Given the old memories of dealing with RTO, didn't believe they would come so soon but behold, the cards arrived the next week itself, 3 or 4 days from the day we went to RTO. Not bad, not bad at all !!


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How the concerns got addressed: Car ...

Fortunately, options are many here and also the suggestions you get are many as well - biggest challenge for a NRI is deciding between an Automatic versus manual. Two wheeler is out of the question, don't even think about riding a bike to work - it could save you some time and Rs, Rs but within the span of 3 months, I have seen at least 3 cases of bikes falling down, bike rider getting bruised etc. Given the amount of dust, smoke and car population (which has increased many folds, especially in routes heading to tech parks), it is not worth the savings.
           
Factors favoring an Automatic:
- It is a quick transition from US to here, at least as far as the car goes. The automatic ones are much smaller here and after few months, the cars like civic, corolla look quite big on Indian roads! These cars looked so much smaller on US roads but it is so surprising to see them looking so much bigger here, when they are put in a large pool of smaller cars.
- If you plan to drive in a short time, automatic is a good choice since you don't have multiple things to deal with - learning the stick shift, dealing with crazy, random traffic, people running across the road in unexpected places etc.
- I would say quality and finish of cars available are very much comparable to US and all of the basic things are available. I was surprised to see one of my friend's got a multi-feature car deck fitted to the car - which had navigation, rear camera, stereo with video display etc. A/C is very common these days and helps avoid good amount of pollution exposure.
- Drive fatigue: This was a surprising factor - people driving a manual are experiencing leg pain and hand pain, due to constant use of hands to change gears and the use of clutch. With the constant stop & go traffic, it is not surprising to hear that.
           
Factors favoring a manual:
- Mileage: Automatic can give anywhere from 9-15 kms/liter where as manual can consistently give above 15kms in the city. With the petrol prices at Rs. 75/liter, this can make a significant difference in petrol bills.
- Most of the cars are manual here. So, why not get used to driving one? If you have a need to use one of your friend's car, the skill of driving manual car can come in handy. If you don't get a manual, the chances are that you will not start to learn driving one.
- Some people said driving a manual has the advantage of better power when it comes to overtaking or pulling ahead in signal but I haven't seen that to be a real advantage. With so much of traffic, there is only so much space for you to pull ahead of everybody else. When it comes to driving over highways, these days things have improved and vehicles do move much faster on the highways.
           
This was the speal given by the car salesman when we bought our car, I think which made sense - if you are driving long distances often, buy an manual since the fuel cost can be a significant difference. If you are using the car for shorter office commute, buy an auto since the distance is not very large and the convenience can easily beat the cost difference.
           
Eventually, we ended up buying an automatic, Hyundai i10, which is a favorite NRIs car here in Bangalore. It has been working very well so far - gives a mileage of 10+kms average and is pretty smooth. Feel I can drive this baby in few days since it is easy to handle. 


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Thursday, September 22, 2011

How the concerns got addressed: House maid ...

This was needs a bit of trial and error approach, I would say. 

We thought this could be a bigger issue but has been going ok so far - again, getting into an apartment setup helped here as well. You have access to larger pool of these folks and they are looking for work all the time. Dropped a work with security and maintenance and they were able to send across few who work in other units. (later on, came to know from current maid that security collects Rs. 200 for such referral - talk about the 'system' here!!)

What we found works best was - getting them in the evening so that you are not waiting on them to finish and get to work. Needless to say, you can't expect them to be that punctual and also asking for day offs here and there. With weekends getting busy visiting relatives, friends and family, they do end up getting good amount of day offs anyway.

Other thing that is helpful is - registering with the apartmentadda.com - a site that is commonly used by most of the apartments here in Bangalore. The building secretary has to approve the registration and you get all of the postings from within the community, which includes 'cook available/looking', 'driver available/looking' type of postings.


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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

How the concerns got addressed: Water supply ...

Already covered in the previous entry about drinking water. All of the apartments have borewells and there is 24 hour water supply for other purpose. 

Water heating is thru' in-house water heaters(also called geysers here), which I wouldn't say are very efficient. But, given that weather itself is warmer in India, there isn't a lot of need of very hot water, including for baths. Fortunately, with the apartment we took, water supply was from within the complex and there was no tanker water being supplied. I have heard that many of the apartments in ITPL, whitefield area get tanker water, whose source is unknown and that makes you bit uncomfortable.

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How the concerns got addressed - Gas connection...

This one became easier than we thought - the apartment had built-in gas supply. Yes, apartments in India do have pre-wired gas connection - this is not from the gas companies but apartments have a 'Gas Bank' where a row of larger cylinders are kept and gas is piped to each unit with individual gas meters.

Not very common in all apartments but this one ended up having, which was a big convenience. Without a ration card, PAN card or electricity bill, it would have been harder to get a gas cylinder and private supply costs double. With the supply at the apartment, all we needed to do was - get a gas stove and hook it up. So far, cost seems to be minimal - we paid Rs 350 or so for a supply of 3 months.

But, eventually there is no escaping from applying for a tank and dealing with all of the headaches that come along with that! 

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Shopping ...

Since we stayed at our in-laws place for a week, we had some time to get feedback on the brand, type that works best for India etc. Also, kids school starting earlier than our work made it easier - imagine shopping for appliance in 5 shops with kids along with you!
 
Luckily, like in US, most of these stores are located next to each other and that makes it bit easier for comparision shopping.
 
Holidays are the best time to buy but with short time to setup, you may not have the luxury of waiting. Also, it is unlikley that they have the same brand/type on sale.
 
One good area to go for shopping in the Marathhalli area - there are shops like @Home, HomeTown, Pai electronics, Girias, Adishwar electronics etc in one place (at the intersection of Outer Ring Road and Old Airport road). 

Fridge: After few comparisions, we bought a LG, 30 liter one from Girias. Along with the Washing Machine, it cost us 31K, which I think wasn't bad.
           
Cooking range(Gas stove): This is an essential item but there is a good alternative in India - surprising that we don't see this much in US - the induction cooktop. Very handy and not that expensive as well. However, depends on AEH supply and if power is off and apartment is running on generator, this won't work.
           
Washing machine: We settled on a 7.5KG (yes, sizes of washing machines are measured in KGs in India), which gives 80% drying. Stores will try to sell 100% drying machines but they cost the double. Definitely, not worth the Rs. you are spending. There is a good amount of sunlight in India (but, don't assume this - your apartment may not be getting full sun light depending on how it is placed). Might be worth buying a dryer in this case, which would cost you less than the additional price you pay for the 100% drying with the washer.
           
Drinking water/Water filter: Most of the apartments have water supplier for drinking water. Some of the apartments towards JP Nagar, BTM layout, HSR layout have Kaveri water supply and have the connection to a tap in the kitchen. Kaveri water can be taken thru' basic filtering and used for drinking purpose - this water has good TDS level (which should be in the range of 30-50). More the TDS, higher the minerals (read salty water) and can't be used for drinking purpose. Most of the bore well water in Bangalore have levels in the range of 300-700 and you need a RO (Reverse osmosis) filter to make it drinkable. These filters cost a bundle and waste 2/3rds of water. There is another variation to this that if you move from a place where you get borebwell water to a place with Kaveri water, your water filter is not useful (since it does too much filtering and water is like distilled water, with no minerals, which is not good either). 



Hence, if you are not planning to stay in the same place for longer time, you can buy the drinking water and settle on a good filter once you are settled on a place. Risk here is that - the water source is from outside and you can't be 100% sure about the water quality or you can't be 100% sure about the water quality consistency.
Water bottles cost at the range of Rs. 40-50 and for a family of 4, you would need 1 to 1.5 water can per week - not too bad considering the cost of a RO filter, which can cost anywhere in the range of Rs. 8,000 to 12,000. With bottled water, you are looking at Rs. 2,500 per year. Mind that the RO filtered ones need filter change every 6 months to a year and that also costs in the range of Rs. 350-400. 



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Getting internet access, cell phone etc ...

These have become bit simpler these days, fortunately. I wanted to get the internet USB drive so that I have access to e-mails. Tried at one place and they wanted at least one proof like rental agreement and didn't have it. They were not ready to take the US passport but wait - the expired Indian passport copy was fine!!! 

Basically, for all of these connections, there is an application and that needs some proof (which is really a good thing they have done given all of these terrorist activities). However, shops do need cell these and expired copy of passport also worked! Once I had the USB card, connection was setup in few minutes - no configurtion was required except for looking for the network. Speed was pretty good - not good for full fledged work activities but was good enough for internet and check e-mails. I went with Tata Sky but these days AirTel advertises fater speed - not sure how consistently that works though...
       
For cell phone, fortunately, was able to manage with temporary arragement - there was a spare phone in the family and used that. Without cell phone, pretty much impossible to do anything here. Everywhere cell phone number is required and if that is another person's number, you would miss many imporatant calls. Once we got the permanent number, we had to go thru' the exercise of erasing the temp number, which wasn't that easy as well - school uniform folks kept on calling the old number even after we changed it several times and package was merrily sent back few times!


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Friday, September 16, 2011

Search for an apartment starts ...

Next urgent item in the list was getting an apartment.
       
This one was a hassle - as I said before, we couldn't settle on one before we left US and had to do that once we reached here. Given schools were going to start in 2 weeks, we didn't have much of time buffer to look, compare and settle on one. Added to that, the availability of apartments in the area we were looking wasn't good at all (contrary to what we were told earlier). If we push the decision to all the way last minute, the time we get to settle the kids in before they start the school was going to be very small and kids won't be comfortable in the new setting. Approach we took was to - directly go to the apartment complexes in the area, approach the security and ask for agent contact details. There was a challenge here as well - the owners who wanted to rent where not available immediately and we were asked to reach back during the next week.
       
Couple of important things to note:
- If you take a look at the school's website, they would list the pick-up points and the timings. But, DON'T SETTLE BASED ON THAT INFORMATION!!!! In our case, the apartment complex which was listed as the last pick-up point with 7:45am pick-up time ended up being the first pick-up point when the school gave us the timing, with 7:15am pick-up time!!! We were indeed targeting this apartment but fortunately(!) didn't get one there. Adding extra 30 mins to kids morning time can cause significant inconvenience when every minute counts in the morning.
 
- Also, to make sure, school does have a pick-up point at the apartment that you are selecting. No kidding - crossing roads in Bangalore is not easy and for US born kids this can be hazardous. They are assumed to drivers yielding to pedestrians and not going to happen with Indian traffic anytime soon. Best thing is to have school bus pick-up the kids in-front of the gate and drop them off in-front of the apartment gate - saves you from lots of anxiety.  If kids are old enough, you can even provide a set of keys to home and they can get inside the apartment, without waiting outside.
           
Hence, we had to decide fairly quickly and I would say risk is not that high going with an apartment. Most of the basic things like water, electricity etc are taken care and that saves lots of time. Additional services like access to maids, drinking water supply, car drivers etc are much easier in the apartment setting. Go with the one which is fairly closer to school.



When I was relocating, we didn't have much idea on how the apartments in Bangalore would look. For example, there is no real need to ship dresser tables etc since most of the units have built-in wardrobes. To give an idea on how the current apartment setup looks in Bangalore, have provided some pics below ...
Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen

Bathroom #1

Bathroom #2

Bedroom with wardrobes


Apartment Gym facility


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Day after arriving ...

Took it easy the next day. Kids met their cousins and were glad to play with each other. Opened the suitcases and re-arranged things so that what we need was easily accessible.
       
Also, called the agent to apply for PAN card. Wifey had already applied when she was here few months back and card was ready. It was a simple procedure to apply for the card. Internet was pretty much disconnected. So, there was no diversion to look at e-mails.



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Reaching India ...

After the usual long journey, we reached Bangalore. Flight reached late in the night and we were out by 1:30am. Customs was a breeze without much hassle and went thru' green channel - we had good amount of electronics but guess they don't worry about those anymore. I had a projector as well and person scanning clarified what that was and that was it. Waited a bit to collect all of the 8 pieces and we were out of the airport in an hour or so.
       
I would say the atmosphere around the airport was bit unwelcoming. Our FIL was there to receive with the taxi. Whether outside was smoky and bit humid. Started thinking that if the air outside Airport (which is fairly outside of the city) is smoky, air within the city would be quite polluted and we will have to make do with that in coming days. Dogs roaming around was a surprise to kids. Fortunately, we were able to load all of the baggage on top and taxi was full by the time we got into it. Since it was late night, reached FIL's house pretty quickly.



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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Finally - the day of moving ...

This day came sooner than we thought - once the shippers came and took away most of the stuff, we wanted to get out as soon as possible. It was hard to manage with minimal items and things we were used to all along...

Flight out was at 1:30pm and we had planned to head out to airport by 10am. We had the rental van to return and then take the shuttle train to the airport, which would need some extra time. Also, there is a chance that at the airport counter, they may check closely and may ask us to reduce the weight. We had arranged to return all the keys day before to the owner so that we don't need to wait on them in the morning. All we needed was to close the garage door, pull the door and head out! It was bit tough to decide on what to throw and the garbage bins were full at the complex - previous day being Saturday, bins were not cleared and things had piled up. Another lesson here --- keep dumping what you don't need over few days. If you keep everything to last minute, you run into strange problems like this!!!
       
We were done with final packing of suite cases by 10am, loading and doing the final checks took bit more time we headed out by 10:30am. It was again a strange feeling driving over the streets on which we drove everyday - to drop kids, to work, to friend's place etc, which we may not visit again (at least in the near future). Reach to the airport, unloading and getting to shuttle everything went smoothly. We were at the counter by 11am, still a good time away from the 1:30pm flight.
       
We knew some of the the suite cases would be off balance by few pounds. Made sure to load the smaller ones first on the weigh counter - so that the counter person knows that we haven't overloaded everything and overall we are well within the limits. Did see one or two over the limit by few pounds but she didn't complain. (have seen one of the friends struggling before where the counter lady checked even the cabin bags and complained over those being over-weight once they saw that all of the suitcases were overloaded). Our cabin bags were slightly overweight but she didn't seem to mind since we were 4 of us and over all weight would have been still with the limits - but, don't count your luck here, it all depends on the counter person, I guess.
       
It didn't feel very strange when the flight took off - it felt like the regular Indian vacation where we head out and be back in a month! Now the US part was over, it was time to think about how we are going to handle things once we land in India. I should say it was hectic for last 2 months or so and there was a bit of time to sit back and relax on the flight knowing there is not much we could sitting here ...


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Day before the move ...

This was a 'fun' day ! If we didn't have one of our close friends working with us on that day, we wouldn't have gotten a minute of sleep. Fortunately, they agreed to come and work with us for clean-up, which was great help. There was so many items that they could take away and we didn't feel like throwing. There were last minute furniture to get dumped (we should have dumped this at least a week ago but didn't happen as I mentioned in the earlier entry).
       
The challenge after that was to pack as much as possible - we had done our home work before - did a mock run of fitting the bedsheets, sleeping bags etc in the suite cases and see how much can fit. However, only when you get the last day, you really know how much stuff is left out and you have to decide to keep versus dump based on the suite case weight. Needless to say, that takes a few tries before you get an ideal filled suite case! We ended dumping lots of food items like Jams, pickle bottles etc but not a big deal.

By 1am, we called it a day and went to bed. Since the flight out was at 1pm, we had a bit of time in the morning as well to pack up and throw the 'last minute' items like left over milk, bread etc.



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Day shippers came ...

Well, the day came finally ...

It was bit tricky to decide the shipping date - if you ship early, you will need to stay with minimum things for longer. Without mattress and kitchen stuff, it is going to be bit hard.

But, push it too late and you risk missing the shipment - what if Shipper's truck breaks down and next day is Saturday and they may not work? We were flying on Sunday and pushing the shipping date too close to our departure was risky. We decided to ship items on Thursday so that we have a buffer of another day. Anyway, items were going to show up after 6-8 weeks and pushing the ship date by a day or two didn't seem to make that much of difference.

When we started packing, expected count of boxes was 20-30 + Furniture. Close to a month before shipping, we upped it to 40. A week before shipment, was in Home Depot buying few more boxes, in-case I run short. However, day before shipping, saw that all of my boxes are used up and I was at 65 or so!!! It is hard to estimate how much stuff you really have. Many of the smaller items can't be packaged tightly and take space and the number of boxes goes up dramatically.

Time is one thing that is never enough to make things ready for shipping - we had discussed with the shipper that we need help in packing furniture and large items. However, didn't get enough time to disassemble some of the items (like digital piano) and keep those ready for packing. We did disassemble few items like computer table, computer chairs etc in-advance but given more time, we could have made everything ready to get packed and loaded.

Shippers were supposed show up at 2pm. It was 3pm and there was no sign of them. There was a bit of panic but was able to reach the shipper and they promised that our items will get picked up the same day, even if it is late in the evening. Finally, the truck arrived with packing material and helpers around 5pm and there was a bit of relief.

We wanted to get with the loading done by the time kids arrived from school but they just started by then. House was a mess by the time packing started, with boxes all over the place and we running around to tape them and putting labels with box numbers (again, could have been done the previous day).

Few tips in this area:
 - Label and tape the boxes and keep them ready. We used Home Depot medium sized boxes.
 - Disassemble what you can. Shippers charge by hour for packing and would be glad to spend few more hours packing.
 - As they pack, monitor how they are doing it. If you are paying by volume, they are not too worried about minimizing the volume For ex, in our case, a chair which can be folded was already wrapped with bubble sheet as-is by the time we saw it. A side table, which could have been dismantled was already wrapped in full size!

By the time shippers completed packing and loading our stuff, it was close to 10pm! At least good that shipper stuck to his work of getting everything picked-up on the same day. They provided an estimate of how much volume it would be, which came in the range of 650 c. feet. We were not expecting to go beyond 500 c. feet but with all of the furniture, mattress etc, we ended up going higher. They also collected the money for the labor and I did see they that they overcharged a bit more - there was only two packers to start with and another one joined an hour late. Their promise was 3 packers all the time but we were charged full for all of the labor hours spent. Didn't feel like haggling over this - our main focus was to get everything safely packed and loaded and that was achieved.
       
It was a relief and also a strange feeling once the shippers left with all of the stuff - home was now empty and it exactly felt like the days we landed in US, with few suitcases. Kids were having fun running around the empty house and house needed a good cleaning up on the exposed areas. At then end, it felt good that there was no more packing work - as long as the boxes were there, it was a never ending work of arranging and re-arranging the boxes. Now, that work was over and we could focus on really heading out! Now that all of our items were shipped out, it was sure one way street and there was no going back!

Funny, one of the person packing mentioned about one of the families who tried R2I - they shipped out stuff from US and before it reached India, they were back in US and they asked the shipping company to send the stuff back!! Story may be true or not but scared us a bit - whether we will run into the same situation once we reach in India that kids/us will find it so hard to manage, we will do a U-turn as well??? :-)


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Few days before the move - counting down !!!

With such a big move (didn't hit us so much in the beginning but was getting much more clearer as the move day approached) - when we started counting 'last' of everything like last time visiting the temple in Livermore, last time visiting the Gilroy outlet mall etc! Work is one thing which kept until the last day and frankly I think that was a mistake. We were shipping ourselves out on Sunday and I was cleaning up the hard disks of the laptop and taking back-ups on Saturday - bad choice!!
       
Let the folks at work know that you are wrapping up and need at least 2-3 days off before you head out - will save you lots of last minute sweat and tension! Most likely that means that you are using up your vacation time but it is worth it. Trust me - you will have enough to do on the last few days.
       
It is best to keep all of the last week for wrapping up things - you never know which task will take longer. Your cars might still be there. The buyer with whom you have agreed might delay things. Hence, best to keep this week reserved for last minute wrap-ups and not get distracted by other things like send-off parties etc. Also, all of those shopping trips should be done before the last week so that you are not trying to stuff more items in the last week.
       
Get rid of all of the furniture that you didn't sell and you are not taking with you - it is a real hassle in the last minute. You may end up having dinner sitting on the floor but so be it. As we learned, it was a mistake to keep those until last minute. We had booked with Salvation Army to pick up some of the items like old TV Stand, Bed frame etc but they came and refused to pick up!! since it had some dents and scratches. So, we were stuck with them without an easy way to dispose them off. Those became a real hassle as I mention in the last entry...



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All of those last minute send-off parties ...

It was time to announce our heading back news to the friend circle and it was indeed a surprise to many - not surprisingly, after 15+ years in US, they didn't expect us to announce moving back for good. Common feedback was - "why move now? We thought you are well settled here !!"

I should say - until the last few months (i.e, until we had the offer from work and return tickets were booked) we had our doubts about move getting materialized as well.

It was time for all of those send-off parties and again more analysis of why stay versus why move. I should say we saw the full spectrum of comments - with folks who have made up their mind to stay saying 'US is the best place with best people', 'you can't find people whom you can trust in India' to 'In India,  'you will get cheated by everybody' etc etc. Many of the folks who were in double minds or were planning, wanted to find the 'secret sauce' that is needed for the move ! We did hear from several friends that - it becomes a topic of discussion between husband and wife with no concrete outcome at the end.

All in all, we enjoyed the parties along with the uncertainty of what the move could bring. Some of the concerns I have listed earlier were repeated in all of these parties several times, to the extent of being enough.

All of these parties stretched until the last week of the move, with we time sharing the visits to friends on the same day. We were glad to see that we have made a good set of friends during our stay in US and expected that these ties will last for longer time, even when we are not there physically. 

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Sample checklist ...

In the earlier posts, I have listed out each of the major TODO items. Now is the time to list out the whole checklist ...

Below is the checklist (of course, maintained as a spreadsheet in Excel) that we used - items kept on getting added or deleted as we progressed but this was a pretty good list....



Full spreadsheet is available here now:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar31K-X0nlyBdEU3b1lLMTQ3alNFVm5CaVlYMjR1WWc&hl=en_US#gid=0 



To give an idea, this is how the spreadsheet looked ...

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TODOs: Packing ...

Time allocation:
If you have not done it before, just keep one thing in-mind - this one takes time.
 
For several reasons:
  • You need to understand the shipping options and the way it works.
  • The boxes you get should have the items evenly distributed  - all of those books, which tend to be heavy, can't end up in a single box, which would make it too heavy to transport. In the same way, you can easily use those cloths for packing delicate items and use them as cushion.
  • You get an estimate of how much each box holds and how many you might end up with.
LCL versus FCL:
This is one thing that you must understand in-advance. By doing LCL, you are paying by the volume of the items you are shipping. y doing FCL, you have a full container that you can load. It is unlikely that you will need a full container - I have seen/heard friends buying sofa sets at Costco in the last minute since they have a container to fill! However, if your company is paying for it, go for it by all means! To note, companies might pay for the air-fare of the family and may have a cap on how much max amount they pay. If there is a cap, the amount they pay may not reimburse both air-fare and shipping and doing a LCL and ship just what you need might make sense.

Other point to consider is - the space you have in India in the apartments. Unless you go for a penthouse or a villa, the regular 3BHK (yes, BHK is the standard term you need get used to!) apartment won't hold your humongous sectional sofa that you used in US! The European style makes lots of sense for India.
 
Customs:
I need to say I didn't get much 'practical' info from the shipper we used in this area - of course, they gave us the standard documentation about 15% duty, Transfer of residence etc etc but we didn't good information about things like - is it a good idea to use original packing boxes, whether to include all the items to the level of handheld calculator (we needed to keep detailed packing list for our use so that we know where things are once we reach).

One thing you MUST NOT forget is to build the packing list as you package. With over 50 boxes, it will be a nightmare to figure out where that cutting board lies! You may not provide this detailed list to customs but it definitely helps to have it for your use - you may not name each book title in the packing list but do differentiate that Java book from Kid's piano lesson book!


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What to keep versus what to dispose ?

If you have talked to your family and friends back at home, you might have definitely heard that 'everything is available now in India' - definitely true to most extent but there are catches. For ex, your favorite shampoo, specific brand of moisturizer etc may not be available. However, in-general, it is true that all of the items are available, now even at a higher price for some of the items.
 
Below is the scanned copy of items that are available at the 'Home Depot' equivalent in India, the @Home. (scanned copy of @Home items)
 
Electronics items
If you can arrange to bring it along with you, (i.e, smaller items that can be carried along, without getting into the customs hassle), it is definitely cheaper to buy in US. You might get the same item in India at a bit higher price but at any given shop, availability of the latest model that you are looking for is going to be a challenge. They might have few of those or more of lower end models (like TVs) and you may need to order and wait. Plus, you have the option of trying out and returning if you don't like a model (in shops like Costco, Amazon), which you won't find in India. Times have changed a bit in that area as well in India as compared to before - shoppers to accept returns now but only for exchange.



Getting rid of items that you can't sell and that you don't want to ship:
This is one thing we learned - some of the items like furniture that you are not planning to ship, become a real headache at the end. We did plan to get rid of them during the last week but things didn't pan out as we planned. Issue is this - lets say you have an fairly old computer table that you don't want to ship and fairly sure you won't be able to sell. You want to keep it till the end so that you can keep using it. However, it is a real hassle to dispose larger items in US. Fortunately, we were staying in a private party rented home which had a larger garage and we knew some new renter was moving in from out of the country. We could afford to leave some of these items behind for them to use/throw but that may not work always.
 
We did plan to dispose these off but as it turned out Salvation army didn't want to pick up these items since it had few scratches! Other company which deals with this wanted us to drop them off at their place and we didn't have enough time. Best option is - even at the cost of paying them, arrange for some junk hauler to take them away during the last week. You can always manage with minimal stuff during the last week since most of your time will go packing and doing other things.


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TODOs: Cleaning up ...

Selling items:

As I mentioned before, selling off early is the key - by starting early, you can gauge how much price you can get and start at a higher price and wait a bit. If it doesn't sell, you always have the time to re-list and sell at a lower price. It was surprising to see that we were able to get a price which we thought the item wouldn't sell for. You will be surprised to hear we did sell the 27'' Sony Trinitron TV for $50 !! Forget about getting some $ for it, we thought it would be a hassle to dispose off this heavy and bulky item. Again, starting early helped..

Some of the items we sold early on...
        - Car seats (left with just one car seat until the move), booster seat
        - Unused shoes, snow booths
        - Mixer
        - The additional recliner/sofa
        - Dining table
        - Glass showcase (too fragile to transport)
        - Unused text books (donated)
        - Old computer (donated)
        - Cloths cabinets (moved all the cloths in them to suitcases or existing selves)
        - Sorted cloths - donated the ones which we can't use)
        - Treadmill
        - Carpets
        - HD TV receivers, antenna
        - Outdoor swing
        - Ladder
        - Iron box (can't be used in India due to voltage diff and this is s high wattage item)
        - Old TV (big, trinitron type)
       
Which we could have sold but didn't:
- TV (flat screen): This was a 42'' plasma TV for which we paid $2500 when it came on market few years ago. Didn't make sense to sell it now for $250 (How do I know it would gotten $250 - listed on Craigslist to test the market and got offers in that range). Thought this could be a good second TV for kids(all those videos and as a Wii console) if it doesn't work well with PAL in India.
- Lamps
One of our friends said you can get converts for hooking the Indian type bulbs - mind you, it is not just the voltage with these things, US type bulbs are screwed where as Indian types have 2 hooks. However, as you might already know, compared to US apartment and homes, there is a good amount of pre-fixed light fixtures on the walls and you don't need lots of additional lighting. Might be better off buying new lamps once you are here.

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TODOs: Funds transfer to India ...

You need to estimate how much money you will need once you land in India. Note that your first pay check could be a month away and wouldn't cover all of the initial expenses like school fees, home/apartment deposit etc. Below are some of the things to keep in mind..
  • School fees: Up to 4 lakhs (including admission, donation etc)
  •  Apartment deposit: Can run upto 2.5 lakhs to 3 lakhs (norm is 10 months rent as deposit)
  •  Car (assuming you will start with one and will pay fully, i.e, not on loan): 5-10 lakhs
  • Appliance and furniture - possibly up to a lakh
     - Fridge : 25-30K
     - Washing machine: 25-30K
     - Mattress : 25K (assuming you need 
         at least 2)
     - Furniture (sofa, dining table etc):
         Can run up to 50K
  • Misc items like curtains, bathroom accessories, bedsheets etc: 1 lakh
A bit of financial planning helps a lot - to decide how much to keep in US versus how much to transfer. This is a decision that an indiviual has to make, based on their comfort level - leaving most of the funds in US in $s leaves you exposed to currency fluctuations and the converted value of your money may have an significant impact. On the other hand, transferring everthing to India would make it difficult to get the funds back in US in $s, in-case you decide to return back to US. We settled on a balanced approach - leave some here and take some there, with the future plan of balancing out evenly in both countries. Again, this is another of those things that needs a 'time will tell' type of approach!

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

TODOs: Home sale ...

This topic needs an entry of it's own - this can easily make or break the decision of returning. 

If you are stuck with a home, one of the option is rental but that depends on where you live - Getting the right buyer who likes your home, can afford a loan and pay the price that you are willing to take is a time consuming process. If you want to sell the home, you should be out of the home a year in-advance. This also makes it easier to go for a one year lease with a rental before you pack off.
 
You might be debating about the merits of the sale a year in-advance and the hassle of another move which is just for a year. But, think of this move as a prep - you get to know how much stuff you have and use this move as an opportunity to box off all those stuff that you don't need for daily use - the items in showcase collecting dust can be safely packed off for a year! The items cloths you don't need can be bunched out and donated. This is a chance to sort out the items that you don't need and keep them aside for sale. At then end of the move, if nothing, you know how much stuff you have collected over the years and how much of those can be disposed off. That way, this move for a year is worth every penny and minute that you spend.
       
If you push the sale to last minute, thinking about the hassle of another move for a year, think about the last minute tension of getting a deal on the home, which is a time consuming process by itself and you want to do that when you are not distracted with move details like getting an apartment back at home, schools for the kids etc. 


If you can't sell the home in-time, another option is renting out but that depends on the location and availability of renters. If you know a good agent, it might be worth it but remember that item will be in your back of the mind always - with no quick access, you will possibly need to rely on an agent to do the renting business. Unless you own a home on which you don't own lot of mortgage, this could be a very unpredictable business, depending on whether you get a renter or not. If you have lots of mortgage and can dispose off the home without loosing a lot, it might make sense to return with clean hands. If you know for sure that you want to keep that home for future with the certainty that you will be back in few years, it might make sense to keep it - however, who knows for certain how conditions are going to be down the line in several years and also you are 'going back for good', right??

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TODOs: Looking for an apartment in India ...

Frankly, this was bit painful and don't think there is an ideal solution for this issue. 

Since we were both working, there were multiple things that were to be taken care of - reasonable work distance for both of us (here reasonable means 30-45 minutes of driving distance from home), 30-45 minutes of distance to school for kids, a decent location etc. On the top of that, we got feedback about water supply issues in some areas and that was a consideration as well. Our initial choice was Marathhalli area, which had tons of apartment complexes and seemed closer to work and school. However, water consideration kicked in and this area has only borewell and tanker water supply. May be borewell water supply was ok - at least it is a controlled supply within the apartment complex but we just couldn't settle on Tanker water supply, whose source is unknown.
       
Did bunch of research on the internet and registered with several sites, few of those I have listed below:
        -- 99acres
        -- magicbricks
        -- sulekha


All of these required an Indian contact number (I am surprised that they are not setup to directly handle relocation folks). e-mail can be provided but the rate of response of very poor. Didn't seem like most of the agents who have listings on these sites are setup to handle e-mails and deal with outside folks (have to note, once I got here, same thing turns around - with a Indian contact number, it was much easier to reach to these agents and get responses). One or two of the owners for whom I got the contact info wanted us to move within few weeks and that was not workable (one of the friend's suggested paying the advance and booking the apartment but without looking at the apartment, it becomes quite difficult to proceed- your family or friends may look at the place but their choice may not work for you).
           
In summary, without visiting India to rent an apartment/home, it was definitely difficult to settle on a place. However, to keep in mind, you need a place for initial settle down - so, even at the cost of a higher rent, go for a place that is closer to work/school. You won't be worrying too much about work and school commute etc and you can always change after a year (it is best to sign the lease agreement for a year, which is common in Bangalore). The initial comfort of you and family can make or break the decision to stay and having more overhear will get you frustrated, commute to work being a major frustration and overhead.
       
Also, apartment is the best choice for an initial move 

  • With a decent apartment, security of the place is taken care and that is a one major thing not to worry about - you can afford to stay at your relative's or friend's place over a week-end or afford to leave town, until you get to know about the safety situation in your place. 

  • On the top of that, apartments provide many of the comforts that you are used to in US - like swimming pool, gym, party hall, tennis court, kids play area, friends for kids, possibility of a gas connection, 24 hr water and electricity, easy access to house maids, driver for your car - the basic needs are taken care immediately on the move. Compared this to a independent home, where all of these needs won't be met or will take time to establish. Needless to say, service industry in India is not very well established and everything takes time and repeated tries to get established - with an independent home, most likely you will be spending good amount of time to establish these basic amenities. Also, to note, independent homes are easier to get, your agent will show you a bunch but may not be ideal unless you are staying in a closed compound like a villa.
       
We were pretty much settled on Marathhalli area but suggestions on availability of Kaveri water made us to change the location to HSR layout, the farthest south of Bangalore where Kaveri water has reached and reasonable distance from work/school (however, as we found out later on, Kaveri water availability at apartment was a myth). Contrary to what we knew about availability of apartments, it was fairly difficult to get one in this area during this time - availability during this time wasn't good, the one available were in a smaller complex etc.


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TODOs: Booking tickets ...

Unlike in the 'normal circumstances', this is a different case - you are booking a one way ticket!! This reminded me of the time when I moved to US with a one way ticket - somewhere it has to compensate and this was the time. One way tickets don't add up so much as return trip included tickets but this is still a significant expense of the move. 

Another issue is the luggage that can be carried over - with the single bag rule, it is definitely a significant inconvenience for a person getting relocated - mind that you have to live with your suitecases once the shipment is done (which can be a week in-advance) until your shipment arrives (which can be good two months of time once you arrive in India). Hence, the amount of items you can take with you makes a significant difference. 

Most of the carries as of this writing have reduce to single bag but carriers like Cathy pacific and Singapore still allow two bags - be sure to mention this to the travel agent or you will be surprised at the end - you can always dispose off items before you fly out and buy new things in India. However, you will enough things to dispose off when you leave and enough things to do once you land - having the cloths, sleeping bags etc ready which can be used as soon as you land is a big relief.

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TODOs: Getting the cars ready for sell: services (tyre change etc) ...

Remember these are big ticket items - I think we worried more about getting those car seats, tables, lamps etc sold which sold for few hundred dollars. However, with cars, you are better off with a car in good shape. However, the tricky part is - you can't sell them off early. How do you live without a car in US?! But, if you start off early, you always have time to list and re-list, based on the demand. There is no rule saying you have to sell once you list in Craiglist! If you have 2 cars, may be sell one of them. Look for a buyer for the second one and have an arrangement that you will hand over the car during the last few days before you leave - worked for us! Don't forget to collect some advance from the buyer - if he/she drops out at the last minute, you are in a big mess and will need to look for a dealer who would buy the same car for 2/3rds of the price you would get from a third party.
       
Hence, good idea to get the cars ready 2-3 months in-advance. Cars need smog check before you sell, have services completed (BTW, I kept all of the service receipts in a file for each car and showed the file to the potential buyer - makes a good impression that you have taken care of the car and done all services and are meticulous about it). Normally, the small things give you a better price - you can get new tires installed for $400 to $500 but with bad t
ires, you might loose $1000 and don't have that selling point of 'new tires' in your ad for sale on Craigslist! (guess you got the idea - sell those babies on carigslist, free and you do get buyers)
       
Rented a van for last 3 days - that was convenient since we had 6 suitcases - rented the van from airport, loaded the suitcases, drove off to Airport, dropped the van and went directly to fly out. 


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TODOs: Buying items we need: iPAD, Home theater, NTSC to PAL converter, Good Camera etc etc ...

This of course is a never ending list since these items are invariably cheaper in US. However, mind the voltage dependency as well. You can get a good step-down transformer (1000Watts) for Rs 2000 to 2,500 in India and normally you can continue using these. However, you need to make sure your kid doesn't plug one of these items directly into the wall - with a mix of 110 and 220 volts items, it does become bit messy and you need to keep reminding yourself about where to plug-in what. Items like camera, laptop etc are not a big issue since most of these handle dual voltage well. Cost is definitely a factor - a good 55'' LCD/LED TV can cost you 1/3 more in India than buying in US. Also, shops don't have too many models in big sizes and finding the model that you need could be a challenge.
       
Shopping and buying early makes lot of sense here as well - you need enough time to decide on a good model (you are buying these for the long haul). Also, things like Home theater take time to setup and figure out (going by my personal experience). If you think the model is not good, you need to time to return and get a new one as well. So, deciding, shopping and buying these things early on makes lot of sense.


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TODOs: Giving notices ...

Giving notices: Piano, School, Rent notice, Safe deposit locker
 
Most of these are straight forward but you realize how many ties you have once you start giving these notices! For some of these, like the piano lessons etc, you might have paid for the full session and you won't be there for scheduled classes. But, if done early enough, you can book few extra classes for all those you are going to miss and schools usually let you know when these extra classes become available. Again, goes back to the same theme of 'if done early enough'!

You need to have buffer before the move date for some of the things - for ex, we got our internet thru' cable. If we stop the cable few days earlier, we would loose the internet as well, which is essential until the last day. Also, our phone was linked to Internet as well(read Vonage). Fortunately, we were flying back on Sunday and comcast was open until 6pm on Saturday. Essentially, we lost all connections except the cell phones only for half-a-day. If you don't even have cell on the last day, you need to know folks in-advance so that there are no last minute glitches (like somebody dropping you off at the airport trying to reach you on the cell!) 

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TODOs: Close out airline miles ..

Many of these airlines miles these days are 'hogwash' - the best thing is to use them for domestic travel and normally you don't have enough miles for international travel. (BTW, never forget to register for miles when you fly in US - if you can't use them for flying, there are always other perks like magazines etc. I got several magazines in US, like Time, without spending on subscriptions).

Issue with smaller miles is - they can't be used for flying international and they will most likely expire by the time you get back to US the next time. Best thing you could do is - use them for merchandise (those miles can get you few iShuffles and digital cameras  that you can always gift to the 'close relative in India!). Some of the programs provide cash vouchers which can be used in places like Amazon - you always need some electronics gadgets when you are heading back, no why not use these pesky miles?. Since shipping and delivery of these items takes good amount of time, better to clean up those miles few months in-advance. 


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TODOs: Closing unwanted accounts ...

When you are in US, you never worry too much about this dormant accounts but it is better to get rid of them if you are not using them. At least, you will not need to worry about somebody misusing those accounts or some delinquent fees getting added without your knowledge. Some of them, like bank accounts - surprise, surprise -  are easier to close with a visit to the branch even in this e-age. They would like hand over that remaining balance, which is done quicker with the visit than them sending it over mail - and that check has to be a physical check I believe.
 

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TODOs: Switching to paperless bills ...

This is something that you need to setup early on and make sure it works - even after you have changed your preferences, have you seen it working reliably? There will always be few which will keep coming. If you switch all of the bills to e-bills in-advance, at least you will know which once's are still arriving by snail mail and have a bit of time to reset those again or call one of those dear customer support agents.

Did I say you still need a forwarding address in US? Sure, you need one - some of the mails like last Electricity bill check for refund has to be a paper bill! God knows for what reason - you paid by credit card or automatic payment all the time but last check needs to be a physical check. There will be more things like your kids school completion certificate, other last bills, magazines etc which will still keep coming for some time. Your US tax reporting information might be a snail mail as well. In summary, have a US forwarding address, say, a friend's address, who can open all of your mails in confidentiality and let you know if there is something important ASAP.
 

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TODOs: Shipping...

This is where most of the help came from r2iClubForum - thanks R2I. R2I folks like us have shared a great deal of details there and every bit helped. We called several shippers - Universal, sky2c, air7seas being the few. The documents they sent across which had details on the process helped quite a bit - when you don't know the difference between FCL and LCL, you have to start from somewhere! Needless to say, our initial estimate and what we finally shipped were miles apart but getting idea on how much approximately we would pay helped in deciding what to keep versus what to dispose off.
 
Like everybody else, we thought FCL would work very well, if we can share with somebody. However, plans change and making it work all the way is a challenge. Unless you know for sure that your partner is going to stay with you all the way, don't plan to share. 

2 challenges here:
1) You don't know the exact volume until the last few days. With FCL, you need to stick to roughly 500 c. feet. With LCL, you go buy your individual volume and there is no limit on how much you can ship. What if your volume is more than 500 c. feet or your partner's volume is more than 500 c. feet. You always have the option of doing LCL on remaining volume but you will need to work closely with your partner to make sure you split evenly.
 
2) With LCL, you know that you paying for what volume you are using. Hence, you try to cut down as much as possible and ship only what you need. Trust me - you want to keep everything you have and it is not easy to let go, especially when you know that selling won't get you much and you are already used to those items.


Finally, we picked sky2c. For several reasons - several of my friends had used them and had good feedback, they had a office close to where I lived, when I called them, I did prompt responses and they were communicating etc. Initially, we went for FCL since one of our friend's were planning to move as well but they had to drop out and sky2c was able to move us to LCL.

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TODOs: Schools ...

We explored a lot on this topic. Having two kids getting into school, we knew that if kids are not comfortable and get used to the school system quickly, it will be a nightmare. Also, we wanted to send them to a school which has clean premises, less pollution as possible. We used this site a lot, which turns up on the top when we search for Bangalore schools:
http://www.bangaloreschools.net/
We read parents comments but needless to stay we found all variations - from worst school to the best school comment on the same school. We had our parents and brother, who were back in Bangalore, take a look at the schools. Having visited US before and comparing the US setup with Indian setup, it was bit easier for them to make the call. They sent across the pictures, talked to school folks , which helped us greatly in making the call. Finally, after all the search, we settled on Greenwood High on Sarjapur road - it had good facilities, was bit away from the main city, had good bus connections and seem to have a resonably good NRI community. Of course, price was on the higher side as well but this was something we need to pay as an initial setup opportunity cost! Having kids come home depressed and complaining everyday has a much higher cost than the fees we pay at school !

Last but not the least, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we did complete the formalities for admission in US schools for kids (these were public schools) - who knows, the plans may change and you may push the move down the line. With a lost opportunity for move and lost admission to school is the last thing you want. If you do happen to move, you can always drop a note to the school with the update that you are giving up the seat. If your school area is a good one and gets crowded (like in Bay area), having that back-up option always helps !

If you are like me, you will move before kids school starts in India, which is usually the first week of June. And.... US schools close towards end of June. This means that your kids will miss a month of school. This is not a issue but you need to have a chat with school principal in US so that kid's teacher can plan for an early departure. This helps in getting a letter from school teacher which you will need in India, in the absence of class completion letter.

[Update on GW High (05/02/2014): At this time, would like to add a note of caution for R2I parents seeking admission to GWH - since the post above might seem like a green signal for R2I parents to pursue GWH. With the year to year fee increases, I personally think this school is at a stage where paying the level of fees is questionable. They do have good facilities etc but at a certain point, level of fees outweighs the advantages and I think they have reached that point. I would strongly recommend R2I parents to consider other school options as well. Recently, the focus seems to be shifting more towards the new IGSC campus that is being built and various ways of funding that seem to be the priority. Unfortunately, this is the trend with most of the schools here - fees increases are steep, especially as the school gets more and more established.]


TODOs: Work relocation ...

Variations here can be many, depending on the employer. Some can push the date all the way to the end so that you don't have that bargaining power (trust me, I am not kidding, employers do this). You should start at least 6-8 months in-advance, planning to have the offer letter at least two months in-advance. Lots of people say it is better to have another offer in-hand so that you can negotiate with the current employer but in-practice, with the all of the things going on at the same time, do you have time/patience to do a job search, interview and get an offer? Might work, just to have an offer in-hand but definitely will take some time and your energy away.
 
When it comes to current employer relocation, you should note that it is like a new employment - you need to bargain for salary, position etc. When it comes to tech positions, there is always shortage of experienced hands and your Indian employer knows that (at least in the current situation).

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