The Fifth Month Feedback

Hi there, long time no see! As I was testing couple of bootlegged DVDs that I bought for peanuts at the nearby shopping mall my wife just asked me how come I don't blog anymore. I told her that more than finding the time and motivation I don't know if anybody would care. As I moved my attention to the "source code" DVD, my wife softly said "well, I care". So, here I go.

They say that it takes an NRI 1 month for each year he/she had lived abroad to adjust to Indian conditions. According to that formula I guess it would take me roughly 10 months to settle down. But I do not honestly know if that would ever be enough. Before I move on to round up the good, bad and the ugly let me reiterate my "lighthouse" or the reasons we moved:

1. To be closer with immediate and extended family
2. Social environment for my son and wife
3. Vegetarianism
4. Finding my inner self

The good...

I would say the best thing about living in India is the temples. Having been deprived of divinity for nearly a decade, I have been busy travelling all over India. Thanks to my dear wife for giving me a "hall pass" to travel wherever, whenever, so far I have visited New Delhi, Hrishikesh, Haridwar, Tirupathi, Sringeri, Horanadu, and Kanchipuram. Living a Spartan life in holy places without a worry in the world, bathing and meditating in the river Ganges and river Tunga are experiences to behold for a life time. To my delight I had spent quite some time bonding with my childhood friends and family while travelling. One of the biggest hurdles for an NRI to move to India is the work culture. I find working in India to be a bit more fun than working in the US. I find my colleagues much more approachable and as a result I frequently hangout with them at and outside work - something I could never do with in the US owing to culture differences. It could very well be that the organization I work for could be an aberration but I am finding the work culture to be a non-issue. I find it comforting to see my wife and son socializing with numerous friends at our residential community. This fact alone makes our move seem worth it.

The bad...

The grey zone before the dense black forest of ugliness commences. I find it difficult to meet spiritually inclined people let alone enlightened pundits who would share the wisdom of Vedic knowledge. A majority of people living in India appear to me that they do not seem to care two-hoots about rituals, prayers and religious knowledge but more about amassing wealth, finding new ways to spend and worrying about sustaining those. A pundit in the US once warned me that Hinduism is dead in India and is truly alive in the US - I am starting to feel that he may be right. I am not sure if there is any place on earth where you could have so much to share and so much in common with the fellow man and yet you are consistently told how different you are from others. As someone who had been an outsider to the Indian culture for quite some time I am finding the culture to be way too much political and ego-driven. As some one who calls a spade a spade, I can honestly say that India will always be a third-world country - and I take much grief in saying so! From career standpoint I am beginning to like my new role as an individually contributing researcher as I take on challenging projects that gives me an opportunity to work with subject matter experts and cutting-edge technology. At the same time I could not help but feel that I am regressing in my career after putting a lot of effort over the past few years in honing my leadership skills and being a technical people manager. However the nature of the projects and fascinating portfolio of products in my company seem to tip the scale just enough to keep me interested. One more oh-not-so-good point that comes to my mind is that after receiving several blows to my uninformed head I am starting to understand that when it comes to family the tens of thousandths of miles between US and India is trivial compared to cracks in hearts. Some crevices are just too wide and just too deep to fill.

And yet I continue to remain optimistic!

The ugly...

We read about traffic in India, we talk about it but to witness it first hand is a flipping nightmare! And Bangalore has to be worst place in the world with horrible traffic and pollution. This brings to the next topic, health! In our family we seem to be taking turns getting sick on a monthly basis so far. It is something to celebrate if and when my son attends the entire week at his school. This brings me to the next topic - weather! Bangalore seems to be enjoying all four seasons, in a day (!) that again leads to health issues. Public hygiene or lack-of thereof is another point to crib about that is going to take quite some time getting used to. Whenever I travel long distance in Indian trains I feel like turning in to the grim-reaper character from Anniyan movie. It is almost impossible to travel to holy places with infants and women around in a civilized way. There appears to be no concept of hygienic restrooms along the way.

It’s about 5 PM on Sunday evening and I just got a word from my wife that the evening tea is ready! Its time to wind up my blog by saying that despite the negatives around I continue to look for positives and in the process, I am keeping myself optimistic. The thought of going back to the US had crossed my mind a few times when things went south but thanks to my wife for taking me out of it.

Back to the bootlegged DVD...Until later, Auf Wiedershehen!