Amazing India

[JINSAKAI]

Any day, I would take the potlucks over cold Zomato food since the journey is always more enjoyable than the destination itself. We had potluck both for the 4th of July block party involving all races and the Diwali one with Desis only and my wife had fun organizing both of them. We also had an authentic Viajaywada meals served on banana leaves for Diwali in a friend's place. The farther the temple, the closer the god! I am also part of golf, cricket, pickle ball and "just hangout" groups.
It's the first time I am hearing there is no show-off culture in India and wonder what people do with all that money!
As you rightly said, it all depends on the person, but the variety you get abroad is unlimited. I will simply get bored seeing just Indian faces in India just like I get bored in Edison, NJ!

Good for you man, that you were able to be a part of that community. My experience however is that the Indians who go abroad, whether US or Singapore are all of a particular mentality, opportunist/high achieving/hustle type mentality people.

But in India, you get all kinds of people, from all social strata. There will be people doing absolutely nothing in the life, always free. There will be rich , there will be poor. You will always find people you can go and talk to. But abroad, you will have to take appointment to meet someone and nobody has time.

Besides, family is not just parents, it is also cousins, neighbours etc In the US or anywhere abroad as a first generation desi, we will never culturally fit in.

Anyways, I am saying this as a person on visa and you guys are a minority. The majority of the desis who go abroad now and not going to get GC/USC or any other country citizenship, even if they stay 10-15 years. So they are going to live abroad as if they are there temporarily and will be longing for the permanency in India.

You don't need to rationalize your decision to R2i. It might work great for you especially since you will no longer be working. For the others that work and if they think that they can't get GC in the US, they consider Canada, Aus/NZ and what not. India will always be a last resort for them. I met with a few neighbors on H1B after Trump win, they're all scared, and they are looking to moving to Canada and other places. The spike in the search term "Move to Canada" on google after the Trump win maybe after all, in part by the Indian citizens! Forget legal immigration, Indians are the second highest number of undocumented immigrants in the US mostly via the Dunki route.
As of the now, the population of Indian diaspora is estimated to be 35 million exceeding the total population of Malaysia and in a hundred years or so it might exceed the population of all other countries except India itself and China!

Wage rule for H1B in Trump era( though blocked by court last time) if get enacted again, things would turn bad even for FAANG employees as base would go way higher up
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartande ... b-spouses/

[SAPPORO]

Wage rule for H1B in Trump era( though blocked by court last time) if get enacted again, things would turn bad even for FAANG employees as base would go way higher up
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartande ... b-spouses/

This is a huge risk for me since more than 30% of the 300+ homes in the community are owned by H1B visa holders and stringent H1 rules might cause a mini foreclosure crisis here. A couple of them lost their jobs recently and they moved to visitor visas that I did not even know was possible.
https://www.reddit.com/r/h1b/comments/1 ... er_layoff/

[r2somewhere]

Back in 2017, people could be forgiven for being taken by surprise. But Trump's position on H1B and H4EAD are well known. People have had adequate time to prepare. Anyone panicking now has to be a real ostrich with their head in the sand last 7 years.

[Returning_Indian]

Indians are the most class and status conscious people in the world. Most Indians I know in India stick to their own social class to hang out with. I know people from my college who are in some high managerial positions, some own startups. They only hang out with each other. They even look down upon me because I have openly expressed my views about work life balance and I am a mere IC. Its funny because my NW is likely 2x of theirs. But they value hustle and designation more than NW in India.

I dont know what kind of friend circle you have maintained in India, but you might be in for a shock. The hustlers will look down on you and the regular folk will envy you when they realize (and they will realize) that you are FIREd with a big corpus in 40s.

This is how most of India is. My college folks are from all over India and a good representation of this mentality. There are some pockets of cultures that are more egalitarian and chill. But those are niche - like Goans, North East, Western suburbs of Mumbai, Kolkata elites, etc.

You have to stay away from hustlers. I have had my share of run ins with them and couple of them have become good friends as well. But they are cursed to not enjoy life. They feel proud working till 4am while I value my sleep. I could care less for any monetary or status benefits associated with such mindset.

But in India for every hustler, there are 10 chilled out folks. Most of them doing well in professional lives but chilled out. You get Americans also who are lovely to hang out with, great people. I had formed such circle in US also. But being raised in different environments tend to make it less fun. I could never enjoy watching American football like cricket. Their cultural references were different than mine. In any case great people to hang out with and genuinely very helpful.
Desis in general in US I found to be very opportunistic. Always talking about houses to buy either in US or India, what car, what school/college/tuition etc etc. For some reason conversation is always about money/career/kids. I think this crowd is like hustlers in India who are cursed to not enjoy life either. In addition, Desis living in US move around a lot for better job opportunities so that doesn't help either. I formed a good Desi group as well after marriage but it only lasted a couple of years as people just moved.

In either country, it's important to form a circle that suits one mindset and help enjoy life. It's very important to have social life that helps you enjoy life. I found people interested in playing sports are generally easy going.

[wd40]

Indians are the most class and status conscious people in the world. Most Indians I know in India stick to their own social class to hang out with. I know people from my college who are in some high managerial positions, some own startups. They only hang out with each other. They even look down upon me because I have openly expressed my views about work life balance and I am a mere IC. Its funny because my NW is likely 2x of theirs. But they value hustle and designation more than NW in India.

I dont know what kind of friend circle you have maintained in India, but you might be in for a shock. The hustlers will look down on you and the regular folk will envy you when they realize (and they will realize) that you are FIREd with a big corpus in 40s.

This is how most of India is. My college folks are from all over India and a good representation of this mentality. There are some pockets of cultures that are more egalitarian and chill. But those are niche - like Goans, North East, Western suburbs of Mumbai, Kolkata elites, etc.

You have to stay away from hustlers. I have had my share of run ins with them and couple of them have become good friends as well. But they are cursed to not enjoy life. They feel proud working till 4am while I value my sleep. I could care less for any monetary or status benefits associated with such mindset.

But in India for every hustler, there are 10 chilled out folks. Most of them doing well in professional lives but chilled out. You get Americans also who are lovely to hang out with, great people. I had formed such circle in US also. But being raised in different environments tend to make it less fun. I could never enjoy watching American football like cricket. Their cultural references were different than mine. In any case great people to hang out with and genuinely very helpful.
Desis in general in US I found to be very opportunistic. Always talking about houses to buy either in US or India, what car, what school/college/tuition etc etc. For some reason conversation is always about money/career/kids. I think this crowd is like hustlers in India who are cursed to not enjoy life either. In addition, Desis living in US move around a lot for better job opportunities so that doesn't help either. I formed a good Desi group as well after marriage but it only lasted a couple of years as people just moved.

In either country, it's important to form a circle that suits one mindset and help enjoy life. It's very important to have social life that helps you enjoy life. I found people interested in playing sports are generally easy going.

Thanks! This is exactly my point. I am actually pretty mediocre/average person and I cant relate with high acheivers. I dont have many friends, but I do have cousins in India, my parents are there and some colleagues from my previous companies.

What I like about India is that there are people from all walks of life and you can easily strike a conversation with people.

My main draw, for going to India ofcourse is FIRE and the fact that I dont need to work.

I look at myself like those Americans who move to lower cost countries to retire early and make their dollars go further. Like they go to places like Mexico, Portugal etc. I spend most of my time following financial news. I like automobiles. I will spend my time in India ferrying my daughter and wife and my parents whereever they want to go. So lots of driving. I will also buy a motorcycle.

I want to try and see if I can find a wfh job which is relaxed. SAPPORO says that is impossible, so I dont have much hopes and I am not counting on it.

The main rationalization of my move is that I have already lived this life in Singapore for 16 years. The days are very monotonous, because every day is the same. This place is so perfect, everything works like clockwork. This also makes it boring. I can spend another 16 years over here and I wont even feel like I have "lived" here. That is because being a foreigner, I am not really doing all the things which I would do in India. There are no events or milestones as such. It is like the same day, day in and day out and the days just pass by.

I would rather go to India and try to "live" there. I dont have any illusions about the issues there. But, atleast I am FI and dont have to work, so I am better off than most people who are hustling there to make ends meet.

[r2somewhere]

One good thing I have noticed about India recently is that people are finally complaining. After latest election, the cult seems to have eroded. At least online, I see erstwhile bhakts questioning govt (at least the FM if not the big man).