There was a question from one of the readers - "do you regret your R2I decision, now having made the R2I?". Thought this will be a very relevant question for many of the folks thinking about R2I. So, some thoughts on this ...
One of my friend's said while I was in US - "if you are 95% sure that you want to be back in India, don't come back"! That's very true - you need to be 99% sure that you want to be here to make the R2I. Reasons being several - there are somethings that you can't simply get here and those are out of your control. Examples being, nice parks, footpaths, nice roads where you don't need to worry about commute, discipline and order in things etc. There is no way these things can change in the near term, read, in your lifetime :-).
From my personal point of view, do I regret the R2I decision? Absolutely not, from my point of view. However, your 'mileage' may vary, as I mention below.
However, as I mentioned in my initial blog entries, R2I is a very personal decision. I was 100% sure that this is something I want to do and something that would be good for the kids. In that light, I enjoy things which were not available earlier like frequent visits to parents, kids mingling with cousins and family, Indian food, "feel of at home" etc. Fortunately, kids have adjusted to the Indian climate and don't fall sick as often. We do take precautions like avoiding road side food, not drinking water outside except bottled water etc. Also, the US style malls are abundant in Bangalore there days, which give access to latest movies, bowling, pizza, berger etc - to keep the kids connected to US.
However, same thing may not be true for lots of families or even for your family members. Dealing with the chaos here may seem like a headache for lots of people and knowing the problems will persist, may become a ongoing pain.
In summary, one person's enjoyment of R2I may not be true for another person - it all depends on your perspective and what you want out of R2I. If staying in India is the strong reason, it is very likely that you will enjoy the R2I and make it work for you.
So, no regrets? No - there are but more of irritants and I will cover those in my next post.
If you are still in-doubt, take this assessment I posted a while back and access yourself to see what factors drive your R2I decision. These are the factors that drive your R2I stay here in India as well once you are here...
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.htm
One of my friend's said while I was in US - "if you are 95% sure that you want to be back in India, don't come back"! That's very true - you need to be 99% sure that you want to be here to make the R2I. Reasons being several - there are somethings that you can't simply get here and those are out of your control. Examples being, nice parks, footpaths, nice roads where you don't need to worry about commute, discipline and order in things etc. There is no way these things can change in the near term, read, in your lifetime :-).
From my personal point of view, do I regret the R2I decision? Absolutely not, from my point of view. However, your 'mileage' may vary, as I mention below.
However, as I mentioned in my initial blog entries, R2I is a very personal decision. I was 100% sure that this is something I want to do and something that would be good for the kids. In that light, I enjoy things which were not available earlier like frequent visits to parents, kids mingling with cousins and family, Indian food, "feel of at home" etc. Fortunately, kids have adjusted to the Indian climate and don't fall sick as often. We do take precautions like avoiding road side food, not drinking water outside except bottled water etc. Also, the US style malls are abundant in Bangalore there days, which give access to latest movies, bowling, pizza, berger etc - to keep the kids connected to US.
However, same thing may not be true for lots of families or even for your family members. Dealing with the chaos here may seem like a headache for lots of people and knowing the problems will persist, may become a ongoing pain.
In summary, one person's enjoyment of R2I may not be true for another person - it all depends on your perspective and what you want out of R2I. If staying in India is the strong reason, it is very likely that you will enjoy the R2I and make it work for you.
So, no regrets? No - there are but more of irritants and I will cover those in my next post.
If you are still in-doubt, take this assessment I posted a while back and access yourself to see what factors drive your R2I decision. These are the factors that drive your R2I stay here in India as well once you are here...
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.htm
