A little less than two decades in the U.S did not mean that Abhijit Abhayankar, senior Development Manager of chip interface solution company Rambus had to put on a false facade. Yes no false delusions of contentment of living the American dream. He yearned to return to India. And return he did in circa 2005 in spite of having dwelled in the Silicon Valley for twelve long years.

The return was made for filial compulsions and professional enhancement with Rambus opening up a design center in India. The primary motive to shift quickly was to not to let, late shifting, to interfere with his children’s adjustment to the educational system in India. The earlier the adjustment, the more smooth was the transition with less heartburn, as his kids are very young at present. His eldest child is a girl aged six and the younger is one year old. “My six year old daughter goes to Green Wood High on Sarjapur-Hosur Road, Bangalore and her class of 23 consists majorly of Indian returnees from the U.S. Hence it was no surprise that she was adjusted by the second day at school!” joyfully voices Abhayankar. He feels that the right time for professionals with kids to move back to India would be around October – November when the schools and colleges give out admission forms and not March – April though it is the beginning of the action phase of admissions at Indian schools and colleges.

This is because the duly filled in forms have to be submitted by November of the present year for the academic year beginning in June of the next year! Many Indian returned kids have lost out on valuable months due to such oversight by their parents. This is primarily because of lack of information about India’s red tape among the Indian immigrants who do not anticipate such delays.

Ravi Annaswamy, Senior Technical Manager at Trilogy (India) moved for similar reasons but he had a clear plan. He planned to move back to India after working for five years in the US. “I in fact moved exactly after five years in the U.S, sticking to my original plan,” says Annaswamy. While others planned and waited for their opportunity, Pradeep Bhaskaran and Shahnawaz Kadavil of Supportsoft, created one. They proposed a Global Services business plan for Supportsoft India and went on to implement it in Bangalore.

“I had stayed away from home for too long for almost 6 years, and it was time for me to settle down as well,” adds Bhaskaran, Product Development Manager at Supportsoft. “Since I was single, it was an individual choice and the move was easier,” he adds. Aravind Krishnaswamy, Global Services Manager who moved to India two years ago to work for Supportsoft says, “Now is the time! Being single gives you a lot of leverage in terms of moving back, decisions can be made faster and easier.”

“We had about 30 million users of our software, and we wanted to expand. India was an obvious choice, Pradeep and I worked on it, and moved back here,” says Kadavil, who moved to Bangalore two years back as Supportsoft’s Product Delivery Manager. But this might not be the case with every returnee. They have families and children to consider. Vice-President at Rambus Samir Patel’s two boys are aged 13 and 11 had to adjust to a different ecosystem comprising of friends, studies and sports but they have adjusted remarkably well. According to Patel “Adjustment to a new world especially for young children makes them mentally and psychologically stronger thus building a balanced personality. Being in India after a stay in the U.S gives an Indian perspective of the world which is important.”

Getting information about housing is also a tedious task what with the real estate arena abounding with land sharks. “Details about rentals and land values are very disorganized in booming Bangalore and this accentuates the returnees misery. Hence I made a visit to Bangalore months in advance to check out the realty scene prior to the India shift,” says Abhayankar.
Rambus moved design and development centers to India in order to be closer to their customers; to access the huge talent pool, which is cheaper; to benefit from the English speaking crowd which makes communication easier and to address the needs of clients in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and other far eastern countries. Rambus is working on cutting edge Input-Output (IO) drivers here in India.

“The work in India is really amazing, I have worked here for seven years before moving to the US. The work culture has really changed and there are better opportunities, India is no more a back office processor,” Annaswamy adds. Trilogy’s Hemant Minocha feels the lack of technical peers. “Trilogy hires a lot of freshers and there are few mid-level to senior personnel as peers, which is difficult to adjust to initially, but if you are prepared it helps to work well among the youngsters,” says Minocha, Senior Developer.

Abhayankar’s designation in the U.S was an ‘Engineering Manager’ and now in India it is ‘Senior Development Manager’. This means taking up more responsibilities as part of the development of the new center and the transition does partly entail moving up the ladder in the amount of job enrichment that one does. In fact this is healthy job rotation. Job functions lean a bit towards the managerial work process in India compared to the U.S especially for the technical cadre.

“At Supportsoft there is a network of returnees, who give you handy tips in planning your trip and are always a huge resource. We learn from the experiences of the group,” Bhaskaran adds.
“20 percent of Supportsoft employees are returnees, this provides us a good support system to fall back on,” adds Krishnaswamy.

Before moving to India, the topmost concerns are the kind of work that the returnees would get here and the compensation for it. People who don’t want to move to India primarily do so because they don’t want to miss out on the glitzy lifestyle back in the States and the salaries being lesser in India contribute to this thinking on their part. “It would help if potential movers to India realize what they are exactly getting into (is the company in India they are relocating to credible with appropriate infrastructure?) and possess loads of patience. In India doing the same things done in America requires a longer duration and a lot of follow-up,” notes Abhayankar.

Minocha suggests a short trip to India and meeting with the company officials, “I would suggest them to visit India and the company they are considering, if possible work on a short term project which helps in understanding the work culture and the nature of work.” This is clean advice for confused ears. Kadavil says, “Children often adapt much faster, and worries should not be about them but about our attitude and ourselves.”

Abhayankar sums it up clearly: “Earlier if one wanted career one stayed back in the U.S or if one aspired for family ties one stayed back in India. But now one can have both in India. Hence the shift to India.” Moving to India is a challenge in itself and the work is also challenging especially after living ‘x’ number of years abroad. It’s a fresh start and a new way of doing things. For a good number of people such a change is exciting and the fear of the unknown remarkably acts as a catalyst to experience it all in the country of their origin. Drawing parallels to the Californian gold rush in the late 1800’s, Indians say the world is coming to India for the great ‘Indian Silicon Rush’.