Monday 1 December 2014

Working Women, Please Do Not Quit ! - the Story

Time to delve into one of the most talked topic in Today's times and something I can spend hours discussing if a friend of mine is planning to quit....This is the first Chapter.

Disclaimer: I am just a humanist who believes in equal opportunity for all and right to happiness for all. In the true meaning of the word, I am a feminist as well then. I have delved into the women empowerment topic before . Read through this!!


The Story of Indian Women

I am considering only women in India and that too, from educated families in cities. For my non profit connections, I am well aware about the situations in villages but that is much more serious problem to analyze and solve. I have stayed in USA for a long time and there, at least, men and women work side by side and not working is something people are forced into due to layoffs, not by family pressure. Such decisions are not forced into someone as there is a little more sense of freedom/privacy in ones life and less intrusion by the family members specially when there is no meddling requirements.

So, here we are - a society where we educate our daughters, become over protective about them when they become teenagers, track them when they go to colleges for safety, pressurize them for marriage when they reach 22-25 and manipulate them to quit their jobs. In some cases, brainwash them so much in their childhood that they will always consider the greater good of family above their own. They wont feel regret till the moment comes when their kids tell them 'who told you to be a housewife'!!!

If there are some statistics, I can bet this is the story of more than 50% working women in 2000-2010 in India. Things are improving a bit in mega cities not because of sudden change in social structures but for mostly financial reasons.

Now what is wrong with this story!!! 

Let me pour out my humble opinion (I am not very Sanaskari by nature, traveled a lot so a bit open-minded and thankfully I was not brainwashed with the patriarchal lessons in my childhood ):

1) Manipulation

" your mother-in-law is not feeling well, she needs your care!"
" your son needs you now!"
"your husband is going through a tough phase, supporting home front is very crucial. you are the Lakshmi of our home. You need to do the right thing!"
"It is so competitive out there, you need to be there at home when your kids come home to give them extra support"

The stories of manipulation in the name of family are endless. We hear them daily and without knowing, we started saying them as well. It is easy, right? Give some extra respect, compare them with Lakshmi/Saraswati etc and take away their career, manipulating their emotional being. Feels like a win-win situation!!

Emotions are not for sacrifices, emotions are to strengthen ones mind so that there is no need for sacrifices.  

2) Hypocrisy

When the EMI hits the roof, no problem when they both work. When things are financially stable, suddenly the need at the home front becomes very crucial. Also, you become very progressive when it comes to someone else s daughter but your own daughter or daughter-in-law is different, right!!

"Whenever it comes to values, a good women is the one who will right all the wrongs in family, who will take care of the breakfast-lunch-dinner, keep everything in order, take care of the man of the house and the kids. Because that is how family works, right? " - SERIOUSLY? And we talk about women empowerment and become extremely vocal when there are gender-based discriminations.

3) Shackles

The day a girl child is born in a great family, golden shackles are tied to her. As if she enters the world to be a caring sister, loving daughter, all rounder wife, wonderful daughter-in-law, fix-it-all mother and so on.

What about her dreams? her aspirations? her thoughts?

4) Giving No Choice

Taking a break from grinding corporate life is a different thing but in most parts of India, we do not give choices like ' not to marry', 'not to be a mother'. The day you (girls) are born , your parents have planned everything for you because it is good for you. Seriously, then 100% women must be happy, right?

One working woman goes through a divorce for some reason, her examples are cited to scare everyone but there are many many women at home living with tears , trying their best to make everything right in those 1-2 hrs of interaction with husband and kids end of the day may not be enough.

5) Glorifying Motherhood

Yes. Women == Mother in our culture. I am sorry but we guys are not portrayed as Fathers everywhere. We can be many other things. But for girls, after they are married and have kids, their all identities are absorbed into motherhood.

It works because it is very convenient for the rest. The husband can come back home at 10 pm , pat his 3 month old son and watch cricket, no problems!!! And of course, we mention everywhere we reached here and there because of our mothers. Without her sacrifice, we have never reached where we are now.

My question to you : if we love our mothers so much, why does she have to sacrifice in the first place? 

And how come, everybody is entitled to decide for a mother what is good for her kids?

6) Dependency

May be we would have got 10 marks less in math, had few more feverish weeks but she does not have to depend on us to make life happening. She does not need to wait for our updates. She may had her own work friends, her own hobbies and her own engagements if she was not a housewife.

Being a housewife creates three types of dependency - financial, emotional and success. One needs to taste success only through the promotions of their husbands and trophies of sons/daughters. Who likes 2nd-hand success?

Also, without engagement, people starts loosing confidence and slowly becomes dependent which is not good for anyone in the society.

7) Conspiracy

End of the day, I think the concept of housewife and the glorification of motherhood are tactically-thought conspiracies of patriarchal society. Even I find many women explaining why it is important or so without knowing the level of brainwash happened in their childhood.

8) Men vs Women

In the end, a society where we can not replace men in the role of women and vice versa, is not a stable one. If kids are being taken cared of, let the women work and let the men stay at home. If it is so rewarding to be the caregiver at home, men should get their share of rewards too, right? Children are brought to the world by both and the burden should be carried by both too.

9) Exploitation

Strong word right? When it comes to someone you love and care for. But we have been doing this for ages in the name of family. When 50% of society are not given chances to follow their passion, we are not in our full potential as a society to solve worlds problems.

Nobody needs the house to be cleaned every day, nobody needs the favorite dishes in your dinner table, nobody needs a mother who will give her life for betterment of yours in an infinite loop, what we need is happy sisters, happy mothers, happy daughters who are not brainwashed or held back. 

10) Suffocation

Lets not suffocate women in the society in the name of culture, family values and exploit their emotional beings. Set them Free.

That is ALL.


Next blog will be about survival strategies of working women in this world because society wont realize problems overnight. It is not a Hindi movie where the villain suddenly realizes all the fault and takes a 180 degree turn in the climax. 

Friday 14 November 2014

Spare the Rod & Spare the Child

Writing this blog on Nov 14th, the day celebrated as Happy Childrens Day because it is important to give children their dues. Just taking pics and posting their pics as proud parents or uncles or aunts are not enough.

Disclaimer: I am not a child psychologist, I am not a physical parent of kids neither I claim to be the one expert w.r.t matters of children. But I have many friends in the age group 0-18, I think about the betterment of their lives & I do respect them like I do to anyone of my age or elder.

There is an old saying "Spare the Rod & Spoil the Child". I so detest that line and the concept, hence this heading. Bear with me for next few paragraphs while I pour my heart out.


#1: Do Not Bring Them to The World, When You Have No Time to Love 

Yes. It is important no matter what your parents think, no matter if your grandparents are in death bed or you are getting too old to reproduce. Not money, not your maturity, not your social status, a child needs love more than anything. Yes, you should be able to give her/him the basic necessities of life. When you are extremely busy with your life, trying to make a marriage work somehow, a child is not your answer to that. If you want to care for kids voluntarily and love part time, we have 10-15 crores children in India who are underprivileged and your little bit of time, energy, care will bring cheer in their lives. Give it a thought.

Bottom-line : Being a parent is one of the most wonderful things in this otherwise ordinary life but resist the temptation till you have time to love and to give some stability to the life of someone you are about to introduce to the world.

#2: Never Ever Use Them To Push Your Decisions

I believe the most common example is to use the issues of well being of a child to ruin a woman's career. It is unethical to use children as a reason for that rather the husband, the family and the society should create easier ways to make sure the mother does not have to quit her job, the grandmother does not have to stress herself to bring up the child and the child gets a good share of everyone's time. Be smart in planning that out.

Bottom-line: If a mother quits a job for her child or stays in a failed marriage, one day that child will come back and tell her that it was a wrong decision. Sacrifice is not a way of life it is rather a short cut sometimes. 

#3: Never Abuse Them in the Name of Controlling Them

Yes. Your son became hyper and started running towards Grand Canyon, to save him, you went overboard..... understood. But at your home, at friend's party, at the teaching desk, if you are comfortable with hitting your child, I am really sorry to say but it is CHILD ABUSE and you are a CHILD-ABUSING PARENT. Just because parents bring their child to the world, they do not get a free pass to hit them. Do not dump your frustration from failures and inefficiencies onto them.

There are different ways of child management and if you are incompetent enough to control them without hitting them, take a course of child management then. It is beyond unfair when you bring a guest home and then beat her/him in the name of imparting principles on to them. 

Bottom-Line : Learn to communicate without Violence. Do not  ever teach them violence as the way of controlling someone from such tender age. Driven by old habits, if you ever touch them in a negative fashion, apologize to your kid immediately and promise to yourself not to do this ever again. 

#4: Respect Them

Yes. You heard it right. Just because they are so young do not take their existence for granted. Love them, Teach them, Take care of them but beyond that, Respect them. They are blessings to your lives and their minds hold keys to the magic boxes of future to make things better.

Treat them like you treat any grown ups. If you think a bit more, we are actually all immature and clueless about the vast knowledge and immeasurable forces that guide the world. So we are actually on the same page.

Do not blackmail them, explain them with logic. No false promises, maintain the same principles you follow with any adults.

Bottom-Line: Kids have the power to make us smile, to hope for a better world and to find a good reason to live in the darkest moments of our lives. Respect them for that.

#5:  Befriend Them

This is my ultimate suggestion that may help any parent to connect when they reach adolescence. Understand that being a mother or a father just represent few bonds you share with your daughter or son. They are many more bonds you can nurture by the friendship. When they grow up and reach 7-8 yrs of age, they need a friend more than a protective mother or father.

Grow as a person with them. Follow the same principles in life that you wish to see in them. Be the friend, philosopher and guide when they need, learn to accept it when they become totally independent & LEARN from them too. 

Bottom-Line: Kids are sometimes our best friends. They give you a pure perspective of life and no matter how much your ignore that, you need that kind of friendship to live a better life. 


Happy Children's Day & Three Cheers for the Child in Us.

Best moments of my lives are given by the children around me with their smiles and by the children who are away by distance but they are close to my heart and their eyes are my motivation to do something beyond I can easily do. Want to add this picture just to remember some of those smiling faces :P


Saturday 1 November 2014

Why Do I run for Asha?

For you all who know me for some time, is aware of my attachment to "Asha for Education" for last 8+ years. It has been a memorable time with like-minded friends, fun events, lots of coordination, wonderful memories during project visits and above all, I believe my thought process has changed quite a bit in these years.

I was never the athletic type since childhood nor bitten by adventure bugs...It is true I want to go as close to possible to nature and like to travel but never thought I can run 21K or so!! Still today I am a very moody runner so do not take notes of my running schedule. One day I feel like running one day I feel like dragging one day I am full with spirits next day I am sleep walking. But the thing that helped me run with a good reason in mind is Team Asha.

Team Asha

I started manning waterstops for Team Asha Atlanta in 2007 and started running in 2008. You will be surprised to know before I ran any official 5K race, I ran an official 21K race (half marathon) in Atlanta Marathon 2008. It was such a memorable time with a good mix of new and old runners and a wonderful coach. We struggled with the distances but in the end, had a strong finish. This picture is the proof :-)



I kept running and fund-raise for Asha in 2009 and 2010 for ING Marathon Atlanta but taken cared of more coordination part. When I moved to Irvine, I used to miss our Team Asha runs quite a bit. 

After a short struggle with PFPS, I started running again this march and thanks to our great training group "Runners High" in Bangalore, become fit enough to run two half marathons in last six months and plan to finish 25K next Sunday in BANGALORE ULTRA. This time too, fundraising for Asha was one of my greatest motivation to wake up at 5 ams (which is super tough for a night owl like me). 

You can support my efforts at (I am still INR 1 Lakh shy of my goal for Bangalore Ultra)


And this is me....Very happy while running




Why Run?



  • Because it does not need much planning. Just a pair of shoes, some water/electral and some mental strength to go the distance.
  • The team spirit is as good as any other game. We want to make sure everyone in our group finish strong
  • Gives me a break from the laptops and I can spend time in nice trails or roads listening to my favorite music
  • Increased my perseverance and made me overall more energetic in life 
  • being fortunate with some great athletes who has ran 42K, 100K, 24 hr runs, 48 hrs runs etc. (super crazies)
  • And the obvious, to raise funds as a group that can provide education and hope to the underprivileged children in Asha projects. 

That is all I want to say. It is good to have a great sleep in weekends, to stay home and watch TV, but it is definitely better to go out in the morning, to run as a group rain or shine, to see things different ways after the 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K marks, to remind how water is important in our lives after a long run, to see 10000 people running together,

Now, check out this photo and start running for yourself or a good cause today :-)


Sunday 20 July 2014

Nurturing the Second Thoughts - Childhood vs Competition

Continuing my controversial series.....

Childhood is the best time of our lives if we are lucky to have caring parents, a family that can meet basic needs & sadly, IFF parents are not crazy for competition.

Now we all know, most parents want to fulfill their dreams through their children & sometimes became so obsessed about their so-called great future prospects that it kills the joy of being a child.

Irrespective of that, I have seen varied types of normal childhoods

a) Protective parents & children are unaware of the world around us. They focus on education & all kind of extra curricular activities (mostly in middle-class/upper middle class Indian families)
> The children get sudden shocks in teens or in college. Toughest to deal with given they are extremely pampered sometimes. In future, pampered children tend to struggle more in their marriage since they expect similar treatment from their wife/husband.

b) Over-progressive parents & children being too exposed (some households in India + many households in US -  a quite enjoyable one unless they live in the poverty-stricken pockets of America)

> If these children can avoid some critical mistakes in teens/colleges, they do just fine sometimes better than the (a) types.

c) The Middle Path - where knowingly and unknowingly, children get some bad exposure too & learn from their experiences, so it a mix of joy, sorrow and getting matured.

> I am in this section. I think the expectations from the world are properly set.

Now about the competition part, I am not a parent so you can shout at me. That does not stop me to send this simple message to parents (or prospective parents):

1. You bring them to these lives, but you do not own them. And you may not be right about everything. So learn to study a bit  about child psychology and learn to respect them. If you can respect your children apart from giving them your love and affection, they will learn to respect too. Please realize, you children give your more joy than you give them.


2. Your immaturity and insecurity should not affect their childhood. Usually the weaknesses of parents have great impact on the lives of their children. Try to self-analyze a bit and do not let your vices pass into newer generation. Yes, it is difficult but you can do that.


3. Love is not the answer to all questions. There are several instances where parents ruin the lives of their children even after loving them a lot. Love is a strong emotion and sometimes may force you to react in the most impractical way. So you think you are doing good to them but end up affecting them beyond repair. Mix a good amount of practicality and respect in your pool of affection minus the insecurity and lack of trust - you are in the right position.


4. It is a competitive world but rather build a character in your kids to fight that. She/he does not have to be the first in class and if we revisit lives, a good percentage of kids in the class shine in lives not only the first boy/girl. Help them to to get the best out of them, not to beat his/her classmate who is the first in class.


5. Stop the COMPARISON with their classmates. Period. If you compared them with others in class or try to compete with other parents, you are in the completely wrong path & ruining your happiness and your child's too.


6. Making them a superstar may be your priority, not the child's. Yes, I know after school,  you may want a swimming class, dancing class, karate class, piano class, painting class & what not. But when will she/he play then? May be it is not bad idea to give them different options of extra curricular and see what they are interested in. Another request : No typecasting for Gender. You may have all wished her to be a dancing maestro but if she loves cricket (or painting), let her enjoy that. Similarly, if a boy loves dancing more than soccer, do not get angry as you have always dreamt of playing soccer with your soon.


7. Keep some time to educate them truly beyond textbooks. Build good qualities in them. Volunteer with them for a non-profit and nurture a culture of giving. Treat them as your friends. Give them responsibility when needed. TRUST them. Seniority in relation or age should not be focus in making decision. Bring a leader in them, not a follower. (India, for one, needs leaders than followers more than anything)


8. May sound rude, but do not bring a child to this world, if you are not ready for it. Be a little less selfish in this respect and forget society rules, it is important to realize once you bring a child to this world, she/he becomes a good involvement and your character & time plays a good role in bringing them up.


Now, what I enjoyed in my childhood - I enjoyed the games of cricket and soccer played in local club, the freedom of having spare time, the peace in mind being shielded from the complexity of world, chit chat with school friends, Aunt/Uncle's house visits, the wonderful tiffins my mom used to make during school days & the unexpected gifts I used to get from near & dear ones in birthdays; last but not the least, the epic fights I used to have with my Ma for being an adamant person from childhood.

I have seen enough sorrow and bad sides of life in my childhood and I do not regret a single day for that because they made me a mentally stronger person. That does not mean every child should be exposed to the bad parts of life but it is OK to have some exposure when it is around.

I turned out OK in my academics because I was practical enough to start studying well at critical junctions say Class 8/9. Realized when to focus on studies and when to refrain from cricket/movies etc & during those times, got enough support from people close to me. That was important.

I still remember the teacher who told I have no brain to do math and the teacher who told me I am very good at math. They both encouraged me in different ways. I still remember the punishment I got in class for something I did not do and how affected I was when some classmates conspired to suppress me in order to beat me in the meaningless competition.

Every day, I want to teach students and young kids that succeed with your classmates and friends, do not try to snatch the glory by leaving them behind.  Every day, I want to tell people that meritocracy at young age is not fair before the path is curved. You can not compare kids of class V and say one is better than others, they have a long way to go & some may hop, some may run & some may walk.
If you love competition, Compete with yourself, not your friends or classmates.

So everyone must realize education is not competition and childhood is not the time for the competition. It is a time to create memories, it is a time to build character, it is a time to help a new addition to the world how important her/his role is & it is a time to Enjoy Life in the purest way. A mother/father must never forget what you could have enjoyed more in your childhood and have those dreams fulfilled for your kids, not your practical success-driven wishes.

NOTE: I am not a parent. I am not a child psychologist. I am not trying to consider my childhood as a baseline. However, I respect kids like I do respect elderly and that is why I am writing this post.

Monday 7 July 2014

Nurturing the Second Thoughts - The Cycle of Life

I know I am slowly moving into controversial domain where people have difference of opinions. But I am tired of saying the same things to everyone and sometimes writing them out helps :-)

As we over-think everything, we definitely have second thoughts more often than we know. However, in some critical decision making process, these thoughts represent the doubts we have on a well-proven and accepted concept. Alas! we can not nurture them for 1001 reasons. In a series of posts, I will bother you with some second thoughts (suppressed ones) for the cycle of life.

What is Cycle of Life for a normal individual?

Before you know, you start learning things, you start playing and you start caring for things important to you. Then before you realize, books become more important than everything else. You definitely love your parents and your siblings. Life was fine till 10-11. Then you start feeling the pressure of competition. They reach a peak around 18-19 yrs of age. When you have maximum tendency to deviate, then your career path is decided by your intelligence, available guidance, opportunities and sheer luck (YES, ask any first generation learner how luck plays).

Fine, so then you take the path of engineers, doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, laborers or struggling ones. You try to reach stability and before you become stable or matured enough, you fall in love or intend/being forced to get married (depending on your background, these two may come in this order or in the reverse). So you settle down, right?

Now your friends start having babies, your parents or grandparents start giving signals & sometimes, you want to jump to the next phase just being bored in the current one. Having kids is a wonderful thing and you definitely need them more than you need you. They add that purity in your heart, you started missing in the grinding life style to survive.

But they grow up so fast and before you know it, you forget to live independently without them like earlier times. Then happiness or sadness of your world would depend on happenings of their lives. You will slowly look for the next phase. But that next phase depends on them now. Their success, decisions, physical locations and "cycle of life" guide your "cycle of life". Towards the end, you may limit yourself to less activities, mostly motivate yourself from emotional happenings and one day, leave this place & all the belongings you cared so much. That is about it.

So why should you have any second thoughts here???? Life is so simple, predictable, painful yet a wonderful mixed bag. Why should there be any other path. Right?

Trust me, YOU are the LUCKIEST PERSON on EARTH if you are never bothered with the thoughts below...

The troubling thoughts that comes with a suggestion SUPPRESS ME PLEASE!!

There are three main phase-changing events in life and there are bunch of questions associated with it. Career and other things change the path of life slightly but that do not influence us so much as these three.

1) An enjoyable childhood to a competitive student life: 

Do we ever ask ourselves/our parents/teachers if studying pages and pages of books will do any good to the world or not?

Why does certain aptitude/skill-set become so decisive? (take example of IIT exams, which test some of your skills but decides your engineering future)


Why parents can not think beyond the so called story of success? (World is tough for aspiring painters, writers or actors/actresses any day)


What is true education? (If the education system is so mature, why the world is suffering so much?)



2) The Marriage/ Commitments of Love :

Can I think of alternative life beyond love, marriage and kids?

At an age of 25, the world can open so many doors, but why my parents,family members and friends are so worried about my marriage? Can't they think any other path to happiness?


Why marriage should be driven by glorification of simple laws of attraction, hormones or insecurity?


Why it is considered as an achievement and not a choice of life that can be ignored too?


3) Having own Kids and making them the center of life :

What is so special about ones gene that it should be continued?

When you are bringing up a child, she/he gives you more happiness than you offer to her/him. You owe them. Should not you think about that in later years while trying to control everything in their lives?


Why with millions of little kids being malnourished and denied good education & upbringing, the world needs one more child?


Why everyone should not think about investing own energy to bring smiles to the underprivileged kids before bringing in a new one? Should not we invest our energy to solve existing problems?


Why everyone should have the same happiness and same cycle of life ?


I will delve into more details and boring analysis in my future related posts but it is unfortunate that most people do not have time for such thoughts. Even after being self-aware, people do not want to miss out the known happy moments and scared to delve into new ways of living life. Children are brought up that way so that they can not to think outside the box.

It is true some people are family people; for them being a successful student, marrying early and having kids are the right steps to be happy and in turn, their duty as a good citizen. Agreed!

But what about the rest? What about suppressing own dreams to listen to parents? What about over-committing in a relation and ending up in marriages full of lies and pretensions? What about bringing a kid to a conflicting world? Why make a new addition to the world crazy with competition and take up the role of parents who want to fulfill their own dreams in the name of good parenting?

That is why I think we should pay more heed to the suppressed second thoughts. What do you think???

Please Note: This is no way related to any challenges in my personal life. I am lucky to have a progressive family background where marriage etc are optional. Also, many folks in USA may not connect to this as they are away from the push and pressure. But today's youth in India are still ready to take risks in professional lives but can not own their choice in personal lives. Just want to prove myself wrong here.....

Thursday 17 April 2014

First Year in India after moving back... Settled Huh???

It has been a year since I said bye-bye to US. So time to write down some thoughts.

When you tell your friends after staying in US for 10 years that their favorite friend is moving back to India, the variance of responses you get is overwhelming. Some say, I wont be able to adjust, some say my career will take a beating, some say they will miss me badly and some say they are happy for me as I am coming back for good.  Of course there are over enthusiastic (we are so so happy for you, wish we had the guts) and extra pessimistic responses (e.g. I am taking the worst decision of life). Hmm...interesting and funny. 

Somehow I always tend to believe that our motherland is our default location. When you are in a different country, it is temporary. So, coming back to my country of birth should not look like a huge adjustment or a out-of-the-box decision. Also, in today's world, there are few one-way roads.

And to answer any pertinent question here or there " why did you move back" I always answered - I do not need a reason to move back to India, my Motherland but always needed reasons to stay in a foreign country (US) be it my career, my learning, my PhD or my love of US national parks.

Yes, most people who never intend to settle in US, find it difficult to come back. That is not only because of the difference between India and US lifestyles or our happiness parameters but it is our state of inertia that tells us not to move too much after reaching an age (that varies person to person). 

Now lets see how I am settled in India. I visited some 20+ national parks in US between April 2012 to April 2013. I continued that streak of travelling as you can see in the map below :-) 

And I so love to travel be it new cities, tourist spots or lonely hills. India has wonderful mountains, lush-green jungles, serene beaches and above all, online information to make your travel easy. Please note, I am yet to travel to Himalayans. I guess Himalayans will make it very difficult to concentrate on anything after I come back :P




Now lets see what are the top 3 challenges in the last 12 months I faced -

a) Paper work - Get your Driving license, open your account, get you Aadhar card, get your voter card etc etc. I get spot fevers from paper-works but thanks to technologies, I got all the necessary things done by now - DL, Bank Accounts, Debit Cards, Aadhar Card and Voter Card (I just voted this week).

b) Road conditions  and driving - Yes, Indian are screw-gauge drivers compared to US driver who measure in feet. I use to wonder how people see the bumps & potholes in the dark or drive with few cm margins from other cars or pedestrians. Now I drive like that after 8 months of driving. I believe all Indian drivers develop sixth senses.

c) Difficult to resist restaurants and eating places specially for someone who love fried foods. Yummy things to eat everywhere. Thank god I am not in Kolkata, then my sugar intake would have surpassed that of a Godzilla.

[Note : Being in Bangalore, the weather was not a challenge at all. I love the weather here]

Top 3 great things that I strongly felt after coming back

1) The positive energy in me has increased multi-fold after coming back as I have so many things to do now (given my non-profit attachments and extra-curricular agenda)

Also, I can spend more time with some of the 150 million under-privileged kids I feel attached to and their education aspects. So wanted to do it since 2006, after I joined Asha for Education!! Finally getting that opportunity.

2) The people - when it is your country you feel more connected to people around you. In US, I used to interact most with a selected group of Indian friends (given my coordinates in big cities). Now, I can talk to anyone and everyone without being too formal.

3) Closer to family -  Of course, you can do more to your closer ones in India. For example, after I moved back,my ma can finally stay with me (and travel a bit) for more than 2 months after almost 14 years!! Even though I left a part of my family (my very close friends) in USA, my friend circle is growing each day. So my family is growing a lot here. Friends are always family!!

Did I mention, rains? I love rains...I love monsoon....I love everything about the rainy seasons that last 3-4 months/more.

So, to conclude, from my perspective, moving to India is not that tough just do not expect your same lifestyle in US. It will be different and your day will pass differently. I see lot of NRIs moving back to Bangalore and they are trying desperately to have same big car, same house, same accents etc. There is nothing wrong in that, just that I find it a bit stupid.

But after being away from India for 10 yrs of USA, I seriously do not want to lead my life in USA here in India. Life is good here with friends, family, children with wonderful smiles, the energy of youth and beautiful nature a little way from congested cities.

Of course, there are many problems in this developing country. But I received my education not only to earn money & solve technical problems but to solve the socio-economic problems as well. So we will solve it as a group in this country of youth, it may take time but we will make it happen :-)

Finally it is your state of mind. I was happy there in USA with my 5-10 close friends, my beloved non-profits and the wonderful national parks. I am happy here with a lot of  friends/family, travels and energy to learn new things.  This picture below describes my state of mind (most of the time) perfectly. India helps you to extend your limits and jump higher. I feel quite lucky to be an Indian!! Of course, you can learn so many things in life and technology outside India too. but India teaches you so many things quietly, you would take all those feelings and learning for granted until you step outside!!