We moved to India after staying in US for 6 years and I wanted to document my experiences so it can benefit others and will also be a memory for me in future.
Our biggest motivator to decide to move back was that my father in law got really sick and my husband wanted to be close to him and take care of him. Since parents do so many sacrifices for us, it was a sacrifice we made for them. We moved to Hyderabad in July and so we escaped hot weather mostly. I would advise around this time of the year if you are planning to move back so it's not too hard on you.
We identified some school while in the US by looking up on the internet in December timeframe as that's when all admissions happen. We closed out on one based on the proximity to our house and by the term "International" attached to it and the affordability factor and sent parents to block seat. So as soon as we moved here, my son had to start with UKG (PP - II) and that's when we checked out the school and it is nowhere close to international standards. But it was too late by then to research and find some other school. So, we decided to go with the same school this year. Sad part was the pre-primary kids have pink uniform, even boys and we had a tough time convincing my son to wear that uniform and get used to it. And the sudden transition from a day care / pre-school kind of environment to UKG in India is taking a toll on my son. They have so much homework and very little time for any fun stuff. I can say 90% books and 10% activities while it was vice versa there in US for kids this age. So, it's a long way to go for my son to get used to this education system. That's about the school
Our biggest motivator to decide to move back was that my father in law got really sick and my husband wanted to be close to him and take care of him. Since parents do so many sacrifices for us, it was a sacrifice we made for them. We moved to Hyderabad in July and so we escaped hot weather mostly. I would advise around this time of the year if you are planning to move back so it's not too hard on you.
We identified some school while in the US by looking up on the internet in December timeframe as that's when all admissions happen. We closed out on one based on the proximity to our house and by the term "International" attached to it and the affordability factor and sent parents to block seat. So as soon as we moved here, my son had to start with UKG (PP - II) and that's when we checked out the school and it is nowhere close to international standards. But it was too late by then to research and find some other school. So, we decided to go with the same school this year. Sad part was the pre-primary kids have pink uniform, even boys and we had a tough time convincing my son to wear that uniform and get used to it. And the sudden transition from a day care / pre-school kind of environment to UKG in India is taking a toll on my son. They have so much homework and very little time for any fun stuff. I can say 90% books and 10% activities while it was vice versa there in US for kids this age. So, it's a long way to go for my son to get used to this education system. That's about the school
We purchased a villa in Bachupally, Hyderbad couple of years before moving to India as our research indicated that this area had lot of potential for future growth. But unfortunately things changed and some of the ventures that were supposed to happen in the area didn't. One learning from this process was that, we should not buy a house without actually seeing it. We relied on the internet and our families and took a decision just based on that. But it makes a lot of difference when you see it yourself and take a decision. Luckily we had some good schools around that area and kids didn't have to spend lot of time in school bus. But it was a bit far for other extra curricular activities. So try to look for all the current and future needs and take a decision about buying home.
One good thing for kids living in a small gated community was that they were free to roam around the community, make a lot of friends and have lots of fun. Since we meet with all our neighbors regularly for some events or kitty parties and get to trust them, we can leave the kids to play around without having to follow or monitor them all the time and we don't have to worry about their security as the security guards won't let them go out of the community. If your kids are very young, they will most likely lose the American accent and they will also easily pick up Telugu.
One good thing for kids living in a small gated community was that they were free to roam around the community, make a lot of friends and have lots of fun. Since we meet with all our neighbors regularly for some events or kitty parties and get to trust them, we can leave the kids to play around without having to follow or monitor them all the time and we don't have to worry about their security as the security guards won't let them go out of the community. If your kids are very young, they will most likely lose the American accent and they will also easily pick up Telugu.
If you like to be around people, relatives etc. and want your kids to grow in such an environment, India is the place to be. There are so many gatherings, functions, festivals etc. and if you are a people person, you'll definitely like it. You'll get to know all latest fashion trends and might end up doing a lot more shopping than in US. If you have a decent income, you can have all the luxuries that you cannot get in US. If you are in IT, the hours are kind of crazy. Offices expect you to work late to support US timings. They don't mind if we go late to work but they do mind if we leave office early. Leaving office at 5 pm was like a dream. It used by around 8.30 pm or 9 pm by the time I go home and kids would have finished dinner and would be ready to go to bed by then. So I hardly used to spend time with kids on week days. We definitely need parents or in-laws support in India as we don't want to leave the kids in day cares or after school care facilities in India. They are not as great as they are in US. So have a back up for your kids at home if your work hours are crazy.
I'm expecting my second one and had to go for multiple scan & doctor appointments and found the wait times to be very frustrating and the commute is always so tiring due to heavy traffic no matter what time of the day it is. When it rains, the roads are even more pathetic, and you'll be struck in the car for hours sometimes if you have to visit some busy areas.
Recently I had been to a famous diagnostic center for a scan, they charged me quite a bit, made me wait for 2.5 hrs in the lounge, finally let me in for the scan which was done in a matter of 5-10 mins and then made me wait for another hour to type the report and give it to me. It was so irritating. Inspite of all this effort, the report came out to be totally wrong. My doctor was surprised to note the drastic differences in the report from the scan I had a week back and asked to get another scan done by some referring doctorand when we did that, the numbers looked more realistic and comparable to my previous week scan. This shows how some big centers are taking lot of money and giving wrong results and affecting people's lives. If the same thing happened in US, we could even sue them, but we left it here as we had lot of other things to deal with.
Recently I had been to a famous diagnostic center for a scan, they charged me quite a bit, made me wait for 2.5 hrs in the lounge, finally let me in for the scan which was done in a matter of 5-10 mins and then made me wait for another hour to type the report and give it to me. It was so irritating. Inspite of all this effort, the report came out to be totally wrong. My doctor was surprised to note the drastic differences in the report from the scan I had a week back and asked to get another scan done by some referring doctorand when we did that, the numbers looked more realistic and comparable to my previous week scan. This shows how some big centers are taking lot of money and giving wrong results and affecting people's lives. If the same thing happened in US, we could even sue them, but we left it here as we had lot of other things to deal with.
will be continued in the upcoming blogs ....
