Blog Series
Twelve pieces about moving back to India, written across ten weeks. Each one takes a single part of the decision and thinks it through properly.
They were written to be read in order, though each one stands on its own, and every essay ends with a question rather than an answer. The last piece is where the series lands.
If you are early in this and want somewhere to start, the first essay is the right place. If you are already deciding, start with the one that describes your situation most closely.
Home Is Not Waiting for You
A weekend outside Mumbai, a room full of people who came here from somewhere else, and one question: which city does your heart belong to? The closing essay of the ten-week series on moving back to India, and what it takes to build a home in a place you are already from.
What would it actually mean, for you, to come back home?
He Goes Where We Go
Moving back to India with a dog: one family's honest story of bringing Rolo from the US to India, the paperwork, the flight, and whether it was the right call.
What does putting your dog first actually ask of you, once you take your own wishes out of it?
Was It Worth It?
Nine years after moving back to India: what I still miss, what I did not expect, and what I would tell you before you decide.
What is the life you are actually trying to build, and does it need to be built here?
The Decision You Made Without Noticing
Green card, OCI or citizenship? The trade-offs of moving back to India, and why most people decide by accident before they decide on purpose.
Which decision have you already made without admitting it?
Knowing Who to Call
Indian healthcare has a world-class ceiling and a frightening floor. How returnees actually find the right doctor, and what it costs if you cannot.
Who would you call here, tonight, if something went wrong?
Your Old Patterns Will Clear Customs
Moving back to India? The habits you are trying to change will move with you. Why a relocation is the best chance you will get to break one, and how it closes.
Which of your patterns has followed you across every move?
There Is an Agent for Everything. Find Yours.
Why returnees exhaust themselves on Indian bureaucracy, and what actually works. On banks, paperwork, domestic help, and finding the people who know the way.
What are you still trying to do alone?
The Village You Came Back For Will Not Arrive Pre-Assembled
Feeling out of place after moving back to India? On the loneliness and frustration nobody admits to, and how returnees actually rebuild their people.
Who here knows the person you became while you were away?
Nothing Prepares You for the Real Thing
Choosing a school when moving back to India: what actually matters beyond the curriculum, from someone who was once the new kid who didn’t know the rules.
What are you choosing that your child will live?
The Family That Welcomed You at the Airport Is Not the Family You Will Live Alongside
Moving back to India means two families: the one at the airport and the one you live alongside. On the conversations returnees never have before landing.
Who is expecting you back, and who is actually coming?
The Salary That Felt Like a Verdict
Taking a pay cut to move back to India? What the lower salary actually means, and what it buys, from a returnee who took a 65 percent cut himself.
If no one you knew would ever see the number, would it still sting?
Your International Experience Is Worth Less Than You Think, and More Than You Realise
Returning to India after years abroad? An honest look at what transfers, what doesn't, and why the right skills may now be worth more in India.
Which of your assumptions about how you will be received have you actually tested?
Why I Came Back, and Why I Built This
An essay about returning to India after 21 years abroad, and why I built Way Back Home — a coaching practice for people considering the same journey.
Where to go from here
The ten tools are free, and each takes between five and twenty minutes. Start with the Readiness Compass. The India Life Blueprint is the full version: nine modules of the detail an essay has to leave out. If you would rather think it through with somebody, a discovery call costs nothing.