Life in India after R2I


Before R2I, I had talked to one of my friend's who had R2Ied two years ago, to get get a general feedback about life after R2I. He said one thing, which I think was very realistic, he said 'life here is not all that rosy as projected'. After close to a year of R2I, I fully agree with him. However, this depends on the expectations you had as well. Don't think that I am tuning pessimistic after few months now - I had my expectations along the same lines as what life would be here.

Summary answer for the question of 'is life rosy'? - NO. Many reasons for that. You might think you are financially well off and buy the comforts you need. That's true to a large extent but somethings have to give. For example, you can afford to buy a nice, large car but you only have so much space to roam around! Alternatively, buy a smaller car and you have much more flexibility - in terms of parking, driving around in congested traffic etc. You can only do so much about people in the surrondings, who could be uncivilized, don't have the concept of public hygene, finikcy when it comes to commitment and delivery etc. And the worst thing of all - don't expect these things to change in your lifetime(which could be disappointing but is the reality)!! So, you will have to learn to live with these things.

Another wisdom we got before R2I was - you can't trust people in India. It might be true to some extent but didn't you have instances of those back in US as well? Only difference I see is - it was done in a methodical way in US, where you wouldn't know that you have been taken for a ride unless you 'read between the lines' or read the fine print. If you build safeguards when you do the dealings, it has been turning ok most of the time. Case in point - we have been trusting our driver but do know how to drive if he doesn't show up on a fine day. Have lent him some money, with the knowledge that he might disapper some day but we are ok with that in case that happens. 

Does this goes agains R2I? Absolutely not. If you have right expectations, you will have peace of mind and will be able to adjust. Every interaction we and kids have with the family is something we never got while in US and that in itself is valuable. It is not easy especilly when it comes to things you can't control like pollution etc but just neglecting and focussing on things we wanted to do after R2I has helped.

Bottom line, one thing to keep in mind - DON'T R2I with the only reason of having a 'rosy' life!!


5 comments:

  1. Great, helped me calm down...

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  2. keep posting, it helps other in r2i planning..

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  3. As we are in early 2016, what's your take on this since you did R2I?

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  4. Re: last anonymous.
    Pls see my latest post on this topic:
    http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2016/01/r2i-thoughts-in-2016.html

    ReplyDelete