The common question - when is the right time for R2I?

Guess this is one of the most common questions in the mind of prospective R2Is - when is the right time to do R2I? Most of the people don't want to discuss about this until their R2I plans are firm. With the 1+ year syndrome(if you are not familiar the 1+ year syndrome - this is where people plan for R2I during 'next year' and next year keeps getting pushed out by a year at a time!), it is always bit difficult to say for sure when you will R2I and discuss with friends circle. 


There is no one single answer to the question  - when is the best time to do R2I? but in some cases, it is very clear that you have to take the decision or forget about it. I have tried outlining few cases below:


1. Few years in US, have H1, no green card yet: It is unlikley this category of folks are reading about R2I yet!. If you have decided that you will be back in India, then your timeframe is basically on completion of H1. Path to green card and citizenship is a loooong one (trust me, this won't change that easily) and unless you have started early on, this will make the wait agonosizing. But, if you are close enough, well worth the wait to complete that process first before planning for R2I.


2. Several years in US, have green card, no citizenship: You have already stayed several years, why not complete citizenship and move once for all? Keeping the green card active while in India is a struggle (have seen several friends doing that, doing back & forth and spending their own $$ from pocket). Better to stay put while planning for R2I like booking an apartment, decide on work location, schools etc. This might get tricky if you have grown up kids since it is much more difficult for grown up kids to come back and adjust to Indian environment.


3. Several years in US, have green card, citizenship but single: Have to say you wouldn't find many people in this category, with the timeframe it takes to move from H1 to green card and citizenship. If you in this category, it is much more easier to decide - basically, whenever you want to is the time frame. Might be easier to find a partner once you are back here!


4. Several years in US, have green card, citizenship, married with smaller kids: Smaller kids here means within the age of 6-7 years. If you are satisfied with the savings and think you are ready for R2I, this is the right time. Smaller kids tend to forget things and adjust  to the newer environment quickly than older kids(see next point). They learn the new food habits, enjoy the ceremoinies and mix well with kids here. Their English gets indiginized much more quickly than older kids, without they being aware.


5. Several years in US, have green card, citizenship, married with grown-up kids: This is the case of now or never. Main points to consider in this case are - kids school, how used to US culture the kids are and how flexible they are in accomodating changes. Once kids are 10+ years, they won't forget how things are in US (serioulsy, there is no comparision!) and will always think US is better - won't argue with the logic in-terms of facilities, cleanliness, structure, discipline etc. The value of staying closer to immediate family members is not visible immediately and it takes a good amount of time to establish the bonds. Hence, if your kids are older than 12 years or so, it might be bit late. However, if they have grown up learning the mother tongue, have very good exposure to Indian environment etc, it could work out. But, try to have some discussions with the kids - they are old enough to provide their feedback. They might have good amount of negative feelings based on their short stays in India during vacations but ask them to look beyond that. 


If you are still confused, take the the  assessment and evaluate yourself here:
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.html

Appreciate your feedback and comments, please leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not!) ... 

R2I in 2012? What you should be doing now ?

Hope this helps some of you who are already in the process of doing R2I in 2012 or still debating about it :-)


By now, many of the things should have been completed. Some of the things in this list are:

• If you have school going kids, should have settled with admission of the kids - if the school needs   kids to take the tests, you should have settled on a date as well.
• Should have finalized relocation with Employer or pretty much settled on a new job.
• Shortlisted the place where you would like to stay, based on work location, school etc. Even better, have shortlisted few apartments and have initiated process on getting an apartment once you land here.
• Have shortlisted the shipping company and have worked out the logistics - when they will pick-up, how much space you need etc.
• Have started packing the items you want to ship - separating the ones you don't need immediately versus the ones you need in short term.
• Have pretty much sold of the items that you don't need. Also, have made the cars ready for sale and possibly have shortlisted buyers. It would be good to get a buyer who can wait until you leave. If not, renting option is always there.

Of course, there are lots of other things to be done. Look into my blog entry for the sample checklist of TODOs:

http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/09/sample-checklist.html 

Appreciate your feedback and comments, please leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not!) ... 

The BIG question - will India be an economic tiger? ...

This is a very relevant post for would be R2Is. Just prepared this post today and to my surprise, saw this article in one of the newspapers. Below are my thoughts which I jotted down today, followed by the link to the article that I read ...


Does this mean you should reconsider your R2I decision? Absolutely not!. These are things which you can't control and R2I decision is the one on which you have control. Hope for the best and make the move if you are inclined to do it. Take the assessment that I provided earlier, if you are confused about which way to go ...
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.html

--------------------------------------------- 
My thoughts:

This is a multi-trillion dollar question to which I think anybody has a clear answer but looking at the trends, you can try to make some guesses. Based on what I have seen so far after being out of India for several years, it is a possibility but not a strong one. Why - the mentality for common growth(which moves the country towards common prosperity) and the longer term vision is missing in general, all over the place. The growth that is happening is random and is not structured. For example, you would see a nice flyovers being built but in all the wrong places. It seems like the decision of putting a flyover there came out of not just congestion reason but due to other factors like a contractor's influence, possibly bribes etc. When beautiful lakes, which feed the ground water resources on which cities are heavily dependent, are laying in shambles and getting encroached, you think what is wrong in people's mind - isn't that obvious that you are harming yourself slowly in the process? Definitely people know that but why worry about the long term when you can make some profits in the near term? Country is spending lots of money on infrastructure development but if not done right, that is just tax payers money wasted, with no real development taking place. 

Not to say there aren't any bright spots, Anna Hazare's movement being one example and there are several others. The educated youth want a change but their number is still small. These will be like drops in a bucket - unless there is a strong government that supports such changes, things won't change anytime soon. Private industries are coming (the saying you might have heard - 'everything is available now in India', which is very much true) and changing the scenario but the common theme of rich getting richer and poor staying there or becoming even poorer continues. 

Other thing is about the opening up of doors to private and international players - does that help? Not quite sure. For example, we have started seeing MacDonalds every other corner these days. But the price of a veg burger - Rs. 55. Price of a 6'' sandwich in Subway - Rs. 170. When the techies double think about going to these places, you can imagine about common man. Bottom line - the international players are here to make money and how they would help the country's growth is questionable. Of course, they are creating jobs but that won't have a large impact and there is only so much they can do about infrastructure development.
---------------------------------------------
Link to the article that talks about a similar study ...
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/232677/india-superpower-unlikely-says-lse.html
---------------------------------------------

What grandma said ...

It is great that our kids great grandma is around and our kids and we get to meet her - she was wisdom of several decades! It was interesting to hear a comment about families now and made me think a bit. She said 'parents and kids now are not as close as they used to be before'. She said - you can do whatever for your kids but at the end of the day, they won't be around you. I think there is lots of truth to it - not a fault of kids or parents. Compared to old times, now kids spend more time in-front of TV, with other kids, doing homework etc and are more independent. Plus, the job markets have expanded and it is unlikely that kids will stay around parents when they grow up.

How does this relate to R2I? Well, one of the main reason for R2I for most of the folks is spending more time with parents and family. I think the social environment in India promotes that and kids get exposed to that. Compare this with Western world, where kids are expected to get out of home by the time they are 18, we still have the environment here where bonds between kids and parents lasts longer. Sure, it is changing, as grandma observed but fortunately not all gone.

for a change ...

During school break in December, got a chance to visit Vizag and Orissa. Knew about the Konark Temple all the time but wasn't aware of the rich heritage and beautiful temples in Orissa. Some pictures below ...

Always heard bad things about Indian Archeology department  but looking at these places, I do think these places are well maintained and entry fees are kept so low. In Bhuvaneswar caves, I did see them scrubbing the cave walls to remove graffiti. One thing they could do better is - restrict access to all of the areas like cave walls so that visitors won't mess up things ...

Is life rosy here 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 turning 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 surroundings, who could be uncivilized, don't have the concept of public hygene, finicky 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 disappear some day but we are ok with that in case that happens. 

Does this go against 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 especially when it comes to things you can't control like pollution etc but just neglecting and focusing 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!!

Buying a home/apartment in Bangalore ...

Given the current real estate scenario in Bangalore, this is easier said than done. If you try to do this in very advance, you might save some cash. However, risk and reward go hand-in-hand, right?


Risk with buying early is safeguarding the property in Bangalore. If this is a site, you need to make sure it is secured and nobody is going to occupy it. With Bangalore commute scenario, it becomes a challenge for friends/family to do that on a regular basis. If you buy an apartment, either you have to leave it vacant or rent it out. If you leave it vacant, you are not generating any returns for the money invested + paying the maintenance fee etc. Leaving it vacant is safe in most of the good apartment complexes. If you going to rent it out, make sure you pick somebody whom you know well or have some connection(thru' friends etc). Have heard nightmare stories where tenant is not paying the rent, refuses to vacate and the renter is even scared of going and doing something since the tenant is not 'easy' to deal with.


Best option is - look for a new construction from a reputed builder. Once booked, they take at least 2 to 2.5 years to complete and if you plan in advance, you will have a place to settle down once you R2I. Make a trip, study the location, have a chat with the builder and decide where you want to buy. You would need at least 2 weeks of time to do this, provided you have done some homework before you arrive (i.e, short-list the area where you want to move based on work and school preferences, short-list couple of projects that you want to visit, check with family/friends etc).


Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Go with a reputed builder like Prestige, Sobha, Mantri or Salarpuria (I am giving free advertisement for these folks :-)). You can trust their quality to some extent, which can be a big challenge with other builders. You don't have much choice when it comes to apartments for controlling construction quality but reputed builders want to keep their name.
• Bigger projects(i.e.., multiple blocks with good amount of open space in plan) tend to have much more open space allocated and are likely to have super marker etc within the complex.
• All of the apartments are dependent on borewell water or water supplied by tankers. If you are buying a already constructed flat, check to see whether they are entirely dependent on tanker water. Source of such water is unknown and also there is dependency on water mafia(yes, there is one like that!) - in some of the apartment complexes, they need tanker water only during summer but they end up buying all the time anyway since water mafia refuses to supply only when the apartments need the water and insist on constant supply! The water bill can add up to Rs. 5000+ and this is happening in many places - give a BIG thanks to our city planners and developers, these things are not taken into account when building permits for high-rises are given :-( As long as their pockets are filled-up, nothing else matters around here...

Buying a flat which is already built:

• You are paying a premium for this but it could be worth it. New flats normally sell in the range of 45 lakhs to 65 lakhs(for 3 bedroom, with 1500 to 1800 sq. ft area), based on the location. When you are buying second hand, you would end up paying 80-90 lakhs. However, for that premium, you are getting few things in return - the home owners association is already established, most of the things like water supply, gym, vendors(for milk, water, newspaper etc) and if there are major challenges in construction, builder would have possibly already addressed it. 
• In this case, check about the occupancy rate. If there are very few owners staying, likely that many things are not already established and will take some time to get established. 
• Check to see if there are friends staying in the complex that you need. There will be internal postings (in places like apartment adda or common floor) where owners directly post for sale/rent. This will save you agent commission, which is normally 1% of the transaction. For rental, it is one month of rent, which can be negotiated a bit down.

Some of the areas where large projects are ongoing in Bangalore:
Sarjapur area
Mysore road area
JP Nagar, BTM Layout
Whitefield, ITPL area
Hebbal/New airport area


18/02/2012:
One update on this topic - don't buy a property from any of the builders (even the reputed one), without consulting a good lawyer. Here is what I heard from a lawyer - even builders like Prestige do a 'shoddy' work when it comes to having proper paper work. Once the builder is done and hands over the property, it is not their headache to deal with legal issues that can crop up. These properties are taken from farmers and multiple owners and any legal action/claim from them can put the whole property into a legal mess. So, buyer be aware and make sure property has clean title.


Updated, 16/05/2012: 
If you are reading this post, you might be interested in my latest post from yesterday, which further expands this topic, with specific details of paper work...
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2012/05/buying-property-in-bangalore-expanded.html

Looking back - what I would have done differently before R2I ?

This is one interesting thought, actually multiple thoughts. As they say, hindsight is always 20x20 but sitting in India after close to a year of R2I, I am able to visualize how we would have done things differently while we were at US and feel good about some of the things we did while we were there. Hope this helps some of you who are procrastinating about R2I and have difficult time doing things or simply postponing things while debating about R2I. I will try to expand further on each of these points in future postings ...

• If you are certain about R2I, look for an home/apartment back in India in-advance.
• If you have school going kids, study about the schools - Decide about ICSE/CBSE, decide about international versus non-international, school location etc
• Decide about relocation with current job versus looking for a new job - If your current company doesn't have an India office, new job is the default choice. If so, shortlist possible companies and find out where they are located. With the current traffic chaos in Bangalore (which won't improve a lot any time soon), your home choice and school choice depends lot on the work location.

• If you have few years left (not the +1 year syndrome :-) but have some serious plan for relocation) before you do R2I, consider doing these things:
• Complete higher studies - do a MS or MBA(even better for techies). If you already have a MS, go for MBA - speaking by experience, it was a life changing experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the course and the perspective it brought. Doing study  abroad is a worth-having experience and you really see how it should be. It does take some effort but having that degree does make a difference when it comes to job searching in India(and is US as well).
• Invite your parents to visit you and make it happen, it is worth it.
• Cover major points in US: Like Niagara, Yellow Stone, Grand Canyon etc.
• Visit neighboring countries like Canada/Mexico/Europe: Even though you would be thinking that you will visit from India, it becomes harder than you think with kids school, work and school summer vacation mismatch between countries.
• Take a cruise to places like Alaska (highly recommended).
• Enjoy the snow: Take kids to snow. Once you are in India, it is is not easy to get these places.
• Enjoy the international varieties of food that is easily available in US.
• If you really have some time (like 5-10 years), buy a home and enjoy your stay: With the current real estate scenario, this would be a scary thought but note that home prices are really low and a home in good school location can sell as well (even though you wouldn't make much profit, you could at least enjoy your stay).

Will add some more as they come across to my mind ...

Kids settling down in India after R2I ...

I am sure this is a topic of great interest to many of the folks doing R2I or thinking/planning R2I. I have seen good amount of debate on this in other forums as well and will try to cover a bit. As you can expect, everyone's experience in this area is going to be different for the simple reason that every kids is different. However, one easy classification is - 'reserved/shy kids/accept what parents(may not be fully but are open to trying out)' type versus 'outgoing/question everything' type of kids, which does make a difference in this department.

On the positive side of R2I, a simple example - my kid was trying to get a paper towel and as you may expect the paper towel quality isn't that great here. It wouldn't simply cut at the marked line. Coming from US, he expects everything to work perfectly but unfortunately things aren't perfect anywhere. You would see them working mostly perfectly in US but it is the other way around here in many cases. He was getting real frustrated and started cursing. Had to step in give a bit of wisdom on how to make it work and do not expect everything to be perfect. Bit of a lecture and he understood what we mean and hopefully next time we wouldn't hear so much. Bottom line is - atmosphere here exposes kids to these type of challenges and learn how to handle situations when things don't go the way it is expected, which I think has value in itself. 

Coming to the topic itself, so far it has been fairly smooth, as far as their adjustment is concerned. Couple of things which can be listed out:

School: This part has been fine due to some choices we made. First of all, an international school - I have heard cases where kids were put into a normal schools and families returning back after a year. The issue is the school environment. You would mostly see local kids and kids from US won't have that wavelength to adjust or won't have much in common like pokeman cards or baseball etc. International schools tend to have more of returnee kids and kids make friends easily, which is a great part of adjustment. Second factor is language: Language is compulsory and NRI kids have the choice of selecting languages other than Hindi or Kannada, like French. If the kid is smaller, it is a good idea to start with Hindhi or Indian languages but if the kid is grown up (like 5th or 6th grade), it is going to be difficult for the kid to ram-up to that language at the 5th or 6th grade level and do well (for ex, in Hindi, at 6th grade level, kids will be doing poetries or stories. How can you expect a kid who is learning alphabets to do understand and analyze stories?). Check with school to make sure language like French(since alphabet is English, it makes it easier to handle) is offered and take Hindi or local language is the 3rd language(which is not a 'counted' language until 8th standard). This will make a whole lot of difference and kids can spend time on other subjects like Math or science rather than getting bogged down/depressed by language trouble(especially when they are going thru' whole lots of adjustments like people, environment, family, friends etc). I am really thankful that school offered that suggestion of French when we selected Hindi as the second language and we changed our mind. Again, not sure all schools (especially non international schools) offer this choice. Check with the school before you decide on the school.

Home: This area is not as comfortable as it used be for them in US(in terms of the surroundings) but staying in an apartment made a lots of difference. There is the tennis court, swimming pool, place to bike etc and most of all. place is neat and clean with greenery, which the kids expect as a basic norm. Having a car in the beginning itself isolates them a bit from the hustle and bustle of Indian cities and gives a bit of comfort and likeliness. Idea is not to try to isolate the kids from reality but provide a shock absorber environment and gradually expose them to the realities. 


Health: There is a bit of negative side here for sure. There is no way kids can be isolated from the exposure to smoke(I hate people burning plastic, paper etc), pollution etc. Water can be main source of health hazard and so far with the bottled water, it has been ok. We make sure kids don't drink water outside and carry water all along. Kids being allergic to dust etc makes it bit more challenging - they will run into eye irritations, cough etc. As one of the doctors said, it will take at least few seasons of exposure for kids to get resistance. Hope that is the case.


Family/friends: This is one of the main reasons for R2I and we have definitely seen changes in kids due to that. They do try to understand more about who is who and how they are related. They have built a good friend circle at school and cousins. As expected, they do miss their US friends, mostly due to the reason of new electronic gadgets etc. 


In additon, this is where the kid type I described earlier plays a part as well - if your kid is the questioning type and has opinion on everything and is quite independent, he/she might run into some trouble. This is simply due to the reason that there are things that go on in the surroundings which can't be easily explained. It might be about why people throw trash on the roads, why teacher expects them to theory for a computer subject or why roads have so many pot holes and why they are not getting repaired quickly.

Overall, I would say it has been positive so far. We do hear kids wanting back to be in US, especially when things don't go the way they want them to go. There is a bit of complain about more home work, longer commute etc but hope this will subside as they get used to the system here more and more. Having grown up in India, it is hard to see thru' their eyes but having seen the US system, we can at least understand/appreciate what they are going thru' better.

Bangalore commute timings ...

This one is a key thing - Bangalore traffic is as bad as you can assume. I didn't believe a 12 kms commute would take 45 minutes to an hour but that is true. AND, on the top of that, this is not a route where construction is in progress. It takes me anywhere from 30 minutes on a normal day and upto 1 hour on some days, depending on when I leave. Same route takes 20 mins while getting back home. How? I don't do the mistake of leaving work after 5pm!! 

To give an idea how long the commute could take to IT areas, here is some timing info. Again, this is assuming semi-peak hours, not early morning (defined as 7-8am). Also, assuming you are driving a 4 wheeler, not taking Bike or public/company transporation. These timings to any point can change at any point of the day, for no specific reason but should give you a ballpark idea.
- JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Jayanagar to Sarjapur road area: 1 hour+ (via outer ring road)
- JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Jayanagar to Marathhalli Area: 1 hours 30 mins (due to the                
multiple flyover constructions on outer ring road,  after Sarjapur fly-over)
- Koramangala, HSR layout to Marathhalli area: 45-60 minutes
- Koramangala, HSR layout to Dommalur: 30-45 mins
- Koramangala, HSR layout to ITPL, Whitefield: 1:30 mins+
- JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Jayanagar to ITPL, Whitefield area: 1 hours 30 mins - 2 hrs
- Koramangala, HSR layout to Hebbal area(Manyata): 1:30 mins to 1:45 mins
- Marathhalli area to Hebbal area:45 mins to 1:30 mins( via outer ring road)
- Marathhalli to ITPL, Whitefield: 30 - 45 mins
- JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Jayanagar to Electronic City: 45- 60 mins
- Marathhalli to Electronic City:1 hour to 1:30 mins (via ORR)
- Electronic city to ITPL, Whitefield area: 1:30 mins +
- Marathhalli to Dommlur area: 45 mins to 1:15 mins

Air travel experience in India ...

For work, had to travel to Mumbai for 2 days. It was an interesting trip, this being the first trip outside of Bangalore after R2I. So, got a chance to do first hand comparison of Bangalore and other metros and also get a feel for how travel has changed.


As far as airline travel is concerned, there is a definitely an ocean of change, compared to the so called 'flights' of Indian airlines!. I remember flying on Air India flight several years ago, which had bunch of mosquitoes within the flight! We even asked the flight hostess why that is the case, only to get a curt nod. Compared to that, current private airlines come very close to US airline companies - they are clean, neat, air hostess look professional. Tried Spice Jet on the way to Mumbai and IndiGo for return. Of course, just like the US counterparts, leg space is getting tighter and tighter, there is no free food/snacks anymore - not even a glass of juice or soda, which was very surprising. A soda can costs Rs. 50 and Juice bottle at Rs. 60! But, all of these guys say their motto is to keep flying costs down, which they do - one way ticket cost was Rs, 5000+(one day advance booking). However, the Indian bureaucratic system shows it's ugly face here as well - these airlines want to keep their timing and schedules but take off was delayed by an hour since runway was backed up in Mumbai, again proving the government run system can't keep up with the private sector, dragging them down along with them. 


Since all of the airlines can't come to the gate, passengers are ferried by buses to the Tarmac. There are so many busses running on the runway, some of which wait for a jet to pass, I am surprised that a bus hasn't run into a flight yet!. I did see the bus driver even honking while driving to the flight! While we reached Bangalore, we waited 30 mins to get our luggage on the carousel, again, departure of one of the flight on the runway was blocking the luggage cart reaching the terminal! After bit of angry bursting from passengers, cart driver was asked to take an alternative, longer route.

Worth the read - anything they would do differently?

This is something I came across recently. Very good feedback on what people wish they would have done differently when they are living an active life - goes well with the R2I theme :-)


Definitely worth the read ...


Author: Bronnie Ware
http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html

Wishing you all a very happy new year 2012 ...

WISHING A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 TO ALL THE READERS OF MY BLOG !

Hope R2I during 2012 (or in the coming years) is one of your new year resolutions and wish you all the best for completing that successfully.

R2I or NR2I (No R2I) dilemma? - Take this assessment and evaluate yourself ...

If you are like me or any other POI (Person of Indian origin), it is very likely that you are in the R2I dilemma and assessing yourself to do R2I or stay back where you are. 


Unfortunately, we are 'neither here not there' types since we are born in India and also have seen the Western parts, which are much more developed than countries like India. Based on my thinking before R2I and experience after R2I, I have tried to put together a simple spreadsheet that can help you decide whether you should heed to that 'internal pull' towards the home country or stay back where you are.


As I said in my earlier posts, R2I is a very individualistic experience and something that is a major factor might be a very small factor for somebody else. I have assigned weights based on my situation and have tried to come up with a fair set of 'For R2I' and 'For NR2I' factors. Add and subtract weights and factors as you see fit. Assign your priority numbers and see what you come up with. If your PRO R2I factors weight more than Pro NR2I, you should strongly consider R2I before it is too late. But, be aware - by no means, this is not a scientific approach. So, use as you see fit.  Good luck :-)


As always, appreciate your feedback in the comments area.


Here is the link to the spreadsheet. Feel free to plug in your Weight and Agree/Disagree ratings for each factor and spreadsheet will compute the final totals which you can compare:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar31K-X0nlyBdFliSzRZUE1FRXM2LTVvc2xmRmJwQmc&hl=en_GB#gid=0

Below is how the spreadsheet looks:


For R2I factors:

For NR2I (No R2I) factors:

Some of the websites that you will find useful for R2I ...

Below is the collection of some websites that you will need to know and will find quite useful during R2I.

General R2I info:
Of course, my blog with step by step guidelines has to be useful!: http://r2idiaries.blogspot.com/


The godzilla site for R2I: http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/forum.php


Some of the blogs/sites run by folks who have already R2Ied:
http://www.chitra-aiyer.com/
http://r2i.saroscorner.com/

Schools: 
Comparison of schools, parent comments etc

http://www.bangaloreschools.net


You may find this ICSE versus CBSE comparison very useful:
http://r2blore.chitra-aiyer.com/2008/04/cbse-and-icse-2-obvious-syllabus-choices.html

Real estate/apartments in Bangalore
http://www.sulekha.com
http://www.magicbricks.com
http://www.99acres.com/

To get an idea on what is available in India/Bangalore:
http://www.futurebazaar.com/
http://www.homeshop18.com/
http://www.flipcart.com
http://www.cromaretail.com/  (electronics, appliances)
http://www.adishwarestore.com/  (electronics, appliances)

Electronics items from US(especially 220 volts, transformer etc)
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.220-electronics.com/

Travel booking in India(if you need to travel within India for R2I)
http://www.cleartrip.com/

Cell phone/internet/cable in India:
http://www.airtel.com
http://www.tatasky.com