Half Yearly Scorecard: Hows the India Return going

Yes, even I cannot believe its over 7 months since we got back from USApur. Time flies and sometimes leaves you behind....its been an action-packed and adventorous half a year and I'd be lying if I said its been a joyous one - its been tough, scrappy, hard-edged with a few pleasant footnotes like P.P's quick visit that got extended, our lightning trip to Chennai, our initial time in Hyd, my time in Mumbai.....lets examine how its been overall.

To start with - the reasons why we chose to come back:

• We always wanted to come back. We had gone to the US assuming a temporary time frame of two years that got extended to four and then by another year. Why then did we leave at that particular time? - read on...
• My job was getting a little monotonous (been there, done that) and I needed a change, a challenge.......
• We were sure (at least 3/4th of us..!) that we didnt want our kids to grow up in the US. The education system was good and solid in pockets (the Bay area for instance) but the society in general, we felt, was not conducive to nurture our kids the way we wanted them to be - which is even now a rather nebolous idea in our mind. In short, I think we wanted them to be brought up like we were - in the proper Indian way......no more details.
• There were other smaller reasons too - but those are either too personal to recount here or are not worth submitting an entire point to - so they will be clubbed under Misc.

Now lets examine how we've done against these parameters:

• Always wanted to come back - We never realized this was an assumption in our head till we landed in Noida (till then surrounded by support casts of two sets of parents, friends all eager to catch up after such a long time, we were blissful....). And then it HIT us - man, we left all that convenience, that life of order for this unruly mess? - unto what end?.....my dislike for Delhi, Noida is well documented, so I will not waste any more energy here. To sum it up, we felt this was an assumption we did not challenge enough or properly in the US. Perhaps we needed to come back to even understand it was an assumption.
• My job - Yes I got a new job. Its a lot of work, its periodically fun and the boss is superb - intelligent, forceful and a go-getter. But we had to wrench the wife off the world's happiest job to get her here and in that light this hasnt been a success at all - not even close. Her new job is a disaster, if only because she constantly compares it to the earlier one. Even otherwise, to work in the strategy department of an organization that doesnt have a strategy and depends on the boss to utter periodic holy words is a shame.  In my job, I often (already) have a been there-done that feeling , sometimes I feel that I'm contributing more than I;m learning, more often than not, feel a lot of unnecessary labor is involved, just because where my team earlier consisted of me, now it consists of a group of folks that need to be carried along - my boss, my peers, my subordinates......
• Kids growing up in the US - NO WAY DO I WANT MY KIDS TO GROW UP IN THIS INDIA. I cannot be any more categorical about that. Imagine this, you have three rounds of interview for your kid to get into kindergaten and to get them into a school of reasonable quality, it costs three arms and a leg (each month...!). After all this, it only ensures that are one among about 150 in the class and are forced to grow up mugging up and spitting it out in exams - not learning. As P.P often says in India - Education and Schooling dotn necessarily happen together. So on this point, I (perhaps we, but not completely sure) want to rush back - but only to selective places (like the Bay area for example).
• Misc reasons -= many of them still very valid and are perhaps the reason why I'm yet holding back judgement and want to give it atleast another 15 months.....moreover, a life changing joy/pain in equal measure will arrive in about 6 months and that will clearly change our perspectives. 

So for now, inspite of all indicators suggesting otherwise, I'm going to stand by our decision, albeit with a note of caution  - it better turn around fast or we're outta here.