Return to INDIA (R2I as they say) !! – Part 5
The expensive new world and the inexpensive old world
Most folks coming back to India or rather to be more specific Bangalore, would say that it has become outrageously expensive to live here. There is definitely a lot of truth in that statement.
Daily lunch in a decent restaurant such as Shanti Sagar/Sukh Sagar costs around 200-250 bucks for the two of us. A cab trip from one part of the town to another costs you close to 300-400 bucks. I have heard that a movie outing would loosen your wallet by at least 500-1000 bucks (though we haven’t had a chance to go out..too busy settling in). Baristas and Coffee day would easily throw you back by 100-200 bucks for the bare minimum. When it comes to big-ticket items, a 42+inch LCD TV costs 60K-1 lakh for good brands; LED’s cross the lakh mark. (but still if you are coming back, don’t buy a TV there, buy it here. You will help the economy here + the customs guy will slap a 15% duty anyways + LCD Tv’s are the most stolen item during shipping)
Our good old desi cars in the US – the Honda civics, city et al are the top-notch cars an urban middle-class double income family can think of buying at this time. They range from 6-7 lakhs for the Jazz model to 10-15 lakhs for the city/civic models. House prices are the killers. A good three bedroom in a good locality with good amenities would cost you at the very minimum 70 lakhs !! It’s very common to see crore plus advertisements for apartments. Here’s the icing on the cake. The supposed good pre-schools and kindergartens cost upwards of 70K/annum. My whole of engineering including tuition, mess bill, hostel fees and miscellaneous items did not cost my dad more than 2 lakhs and here they are talking about first grade for a lakh/annum !!
Now I am sure you would have heard these prices before from people here. I had heard it too. But sitting in the US you can’t help but actually feel a little bit proud that India is growing (inflation most of the times is seen as signs of growth). Also with the USD salaries there all of these would seem reachable, but trust me once you land here and put all of these things together you would see the plush INR salary that you negotiated and which you thought should hold good would no longer seem enough.The problem is that these prices are comparable with the US prices and in many cases equal in terms of absolute conversion. But in terms of cost of living index, the prices kill you.
A good mattress in the US costs $600 which for a $80K plus income turns out to be 1/8th of the monthly take home. Here the same thing costs Rs 20K which is 1/3rd of a comparable salary. These are the numbers that I am staring at in the next few months -
If you buy a house and take a loan you can change the rent above to 1/100th of the loan you take. So say you take loan for 50 lakhs, then your mortgage would be around 50K which brings your expenses close to 1 lac/month which in turn requires a salary of at least 22-25 lakhs/annum. Remember this means no saving except for your house. Did I just prove that a 22-lakh/annum salary means no saving? Welcome to the new INDIA. I hope these numbers help people in their salary negotiations depending upon their lifestyles.
Now of course, this is the expensive side of Bangalore and the lifestyle that we chose to live. Coming back from the US, you are in the NRI mode and you tend to close the gap between what you chose to leave back in the US with what you get here. In trying to close the gap you tend to lean towards the premium aspects of the Indian society and therein lies the quandary. But there is also the inexpensive side or the old Bangalore. You could very well live in Bangalore by spending half the amount mentioned above. You could rent a house for 5k, 10K, 15K or even for 50K. You could chose not to have maids or drivers. In fact, maids and drivers are a luxury in the US. You could avoid going to the malls and shop in the local market. You can avoid the cabs and take the volvo buses (fantastic buses they are by the way). You could buy your groceries from the local bania instead of going to MORE or Big Bazaar.
But I can bet you that you wouldn’t do that when you are here. We (speaking for the new generation) have moved on from the lifestyle lived by our parents most of their lives (In fact our parents have moved on too). We are no longer the penny-pinching kind. We have started living tomorrow’s life today.
I am not sure if this is good or bad. But this is what I see here. Hopefully we have a better end than what US has/is going through. 
PS: Debit cards and not credit cards are the norm here. That is in a way good right? You wouldn’t rack up huge credit card bills.
4 comments November 29, 2009
Return to INDIA (R2I as they say) !! – Part 4
State Bank Of India Zindabad !!
Today I got a pleasant surprise from none other than the behemoth State Bank Of India. In this day and age of privatized banks, with their doorstep service and “customer is king” motto, I had expected smooth sailing with the likes of ICICI and HDFC banks. I was proven wrong. It’s been close to 10 days since we have arrived here, but I still haven’t been able to see the light of ICICI or HDFC accounts. All the while I was staying away (actually dreading) from the shanty SBI branch close to my home.
Let me first go over the hassles I faced with ICICI. First thing, these guys coaxed me into the 3-in-1 account (Demat, trading, savings account). I thought why not. If these guys can take care of all the hassles behind the scene, then I might as well get all of them. But the point that these guys didn’t tell me and which was the most important thing for me was that a 3-in-1 account takes 15 day to process. If they had told me that I would have certainly asked them to prioritize the savings account and later thought about a 3-in-1. I do agree that they did make my life easier for me for something that I would have required a month later. But they certainly missed the point of what the customer came to them in the first place.
With HDFC, the problem was with the NRE account check that I gave them to open the account. Apparently their back operations came back with a query as to why an NRI is opening a savings account in India. Well it is a genuine question, but then what would you expect an NRI to do if he doesn’t have a bank account (and an address proof, a PAN card, a voter’s ID card, a telephone bill, a credit card statement, a bank statement !!). Anyway the guy helping me said that a letter to that effect from me should suffice. I said **** it….just take cash and get me the account! So I guess I should get the account early next week.
Now listen to this. It’s been 10 days and my dad must have told me at least 10 times to go to SBI and open an account. He said they will do it in a day. I said if ICICI and HDFC can’t give me an account in 10 days, SBI can never do it. Lo behold…I was in a for a big surprise. I went to the SBI branch. (It’s still looking a bit like the old SBI, but I don’t care). The inquiry guy gave me a form to fill up. The only hassle there was an introductory form (as part of their Know Your Customer policy, they need a referral). I came back home, got a signature from my mom, went back, submitted the form. They immediately processed it and gave me an account number. I deposited Rs 1000/- (no Rs 10K, 5K minimum requirements like HDFC, ICICI) and that was it. The entire thing took me 1 hour elapsed. Of course, you can still see the inquiry guy disappearing for lunch and the guy whom you need next is not sitting at his desk when you go to him. But all that was momentary. I had an open account into which I could deposit money in one hour period. Something that ICICI and HDFC could not do. Period.
So for all NRI’s out there planning to settle back – Please go to the nearest SBI branch the second day you land and get an account opened. You should have your ATM card and cheque book in 4 days from the day of opening.
Another thing – Please be consistent with your signatures. Indian banks are very very very particular about signatures unlike the US ones. Because people forge signatures more often, banks take extra precautions to protect the interests of the customers. Unfortunately, customers like me, who have bad handwriting added with signature consciousness (I get conscious when I sign a document which makes my signature inconsistent each time), have a hard time because of this. They even refuse to give you money unless you can prove that you are really you.
1 comment November 26, 2009
Return to INDIA (R2I as they say) !! – Part 3
Indian Standard Time
“I will be there in 5 minutes sir” – The guy turns up 45 minutes later.
“Your PAN card will be delivered first thing tomorrow morning sir” – My PAN card came after 3 days.
Hmm… some things have not changed folks. The good old “Indian Standard Time” of delivering has not changed. People still don’t value time as much as you would like them to.
Maids come to work anywhere from 5 minutes to 60 minutes late. I see my mom scrambling in the morning to adjust around the maid’s arrival time.
Realty brokers think that their time is more valuable than yours. At least the ones we have interacted with seem to think so. “Madam, turn left at ABC, then take a right at XYZ and stand in front of the XYZ temple and give me a call“. Arre…if you know we are going to be there in 5 minutes, why can’t you leave in advance and reach there at the same time as we? Why would you want us to give you a call and then have us wait for you? Are you trying to second-guess the traffic? Maybe you think these guys are going to be stuck in traffic for 10 minutes, so why waste my time? But the truth is that we (the ones who get the service) end up waiting more often than not. 
The bank guy who had come to my house the first couple of days took my PAN card to have it photo-copied. Just photo-copy right? Should have taken 5 minutes, 30 minutes.. or 1 day at the max? !! How much time does that take? Every time I called him asking about the whereabouts of my PAN card, I was pacified with promises of doorstep delivery on the same day evening or the next day morning. I still can’t understand why it took them 3 full days to get me the PAN card. I was not happy would be an understatement.
Another time, I booked an Easy Cab for us to go to Koramangala (the other side of Bangalore). The guys comes 15 minutes late and he informs me that only when I tried calling him. What if I had to catch a flight? Why wouldn’t they call me and update me that they are running late?
It is ironical that in a country which believes in service at doorstep, you also get to see people following it up with hollow promises. That is the state of affairs here.
But this also gives me hope. All these guys need to do is be on time and deliver what they promise. It also gives me some perspective about what a customer expects in India and what you need to do wow him. Hoping to capitalize on it some day.
1 comment November 23, 2009
Return to INDIA (R2I as they say) !! – Part 2
Service at your doorstep. That seems to be the motto these days in India.
One full business week has passed since we arrived. I had planned to chill out in the first weekend and slowly press the accelerator in the second. But guess what… you don’t actually have to do a lot to move certain things here. Of course it’s another thing that if you try to do things on your own you might get no where.
I have an NRE account with ICICI and I decided to “convert” it into a normal savings account. Friends, Indian regulations are not as simple or straightforward as you may think. I learnt that there is no way to “convert” an NRE account to a normal account. In fact, even if you have an NRE account, to open a savings account, you need to produce an address proof and a million consistent signatures. So as luck would have it, I inadvertently went into this so called “ICICI Direct” office instead of going to the normal ICICI bank. Now these guys are pretty smart. Not only are they working on helping me with the savings account, they also had me sign up for their trading and demat accounts. (something called a 3-in-1 account). Of course these were not on my priority list, but these guys were at it non-stop. To catch me, the “supposed” big fish, they sent their entire team to my house, got all the details, ran around to get all the xerox copies and are now working through the process to have me setup.
Did you know guys that every trading/demat account needs to be approved by SEBI in India? Can you imagine every trading account in the US being approved via paper-work by SEC. Well Indian government has placed a lot of controls and procedures and nothing is easy to obtain. But if you dig into the reasons, you will realize how when the global economy was down with a flu, Indian economy had just sneezed. That’s because Indian regulations make it impossible to be trading in fancy derivatives. In the US, money laundering has to be actively monitored since setting up accounts is pretty easy. But here, setting up accounts is such a painful process that money laundering via legal means is virtually impossible. (of course there is always the black market). This automatically prevents terrorists’ bringing in money into the Indian boundaries.
Anyways, the ICICI guy scratched the back of a fellow HDFC guy and he in turn was home with his own papers to set me up with a HDFC account. In all these, I don’t care, since these guys are taking care of all of this for free and I don’t need to do the running around. In the process, we are getting our PAN card fixed through them.
Talking about service, this would top it all. I am looking for a car. Contemplating between a Maruti SX4 and a Honda city. Guess what, the dealer is going to be sending cars to my home for a test drive !! Can you believe that? I am going to be sitting at home and cars would be driven to my place and I get to pick and chose and drive them. I love this country !! So I have a Maruti Dzire, a honda city, a maruti Sx4 and a Indigo Manzaa coming home tomorrow. It should be fun.
Be ready to be served if you are coming here. At times it gets a bit overwhelming. But who is complaining?
Add comment November 20, 2009
Return to INDIA (R2I as they say) !! – Part I
So my wife and I finally decided to jump onto the R2I bandwagon. And before we know we are in Bangalore (oops Bengaluru). Well it was a long process winding down things back in the US, but I think I should get to the more exciting part which is my experiences in the first few days of landing here. So here’s the first part.
To begin with try and avoid a stopover at Mumbai if you can. Especially if you have a lot of luggage. These guys have a tendency to scan and check you and your luggage even after getting onto the plane. OK that’s an exaggeration…but ya we were checked and rechecked at least 3 times before we could board the domestic flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru. Bengaluru airport was pretty cool and fast. Oh I almost forgot. Customs at Mumbai was a breeze. The officials were gentle and warm. Way to go guys.
By the way all that you heard about B’lore airport is true that it being in Hyderabad..err.. I mean miles away from the city. Luckily my parents for once decided to settle in the right part of the city. So it was not that bad for us.
A day of rest and we decided to get things started with our driver’s license and bank accounts.
One place which has not seen the light of development is the RTO building. But surprisingly not so in the case of corruption. Looks like people are adhering to the rules more than before. Something did change for sure. I was dreading those long lines and “khadoos” babu behind the desk. So I decided to go the easier route of using an agent. I had an expired IDP, a valid but lost driver’s license from my college days in Jalandhar. It was supposedly a “tough” case. The agent took 600 bucks from me and said he will help out. But not only was he unable to do anything for me but I also had to sit for the learner’s license test !! The last time I took a learner’s test was at the Philly DMV’s office. Well I didn’t complain then, so I shouldn’t complain now. So I sat in that shanty hall and gave the 15 question -test. Luckily most of it was obvious and I salvaged a 11 out of 15. The babu behind the desk checked my “paper” and said – “Ajith !!!…..pass….eleven aaout of fifteen okk …. you can go now (in the thickest of southern accent)”. Reminded me of my school days. :)
So I passed….and I am supposed to get my learner’s in a couple of days. Now I am thinking what was that 600 bucks for ?? After all, I did have to stand in the not so long line to get the signatures and write the tests.
My wife, on the other hand has a valid Karnataka license, but we wanted to get the address and the name changed. For the address change they ask for an address proof. Now how are we supposed to get an address proof after having landed just 2 days ago? But now that I think of it, it was the same in the US. So why am I seeing this in a different light when it comes to our desh? For the name change, they need an affidavit and a marriage certificate. (we finally decided to go with one surname to both our names.. hoping that it will avoid administrative hassles in the future). Again I think this is a valid thing to ask for. Anyways, the agent took 1000 bucks to try without all of this. I gave….he tried….didn’t work and we are back to doing things in the right way.
Overall I am happy that my country is going the right way. Of course unhappy for the 1600 bucks that I lost. But big deal ! $35 after all?
More in the next part..
1 comment November 19, 2009
techNITi’09 – NIT Jalandhar
NIT Jalandhar is organizing a mega tech fest called techNITi’09. The dates are 18th Sep to 20th Sep 2009.
They seem to have lined up a wide array of programs - Workshops, quizzes, software competition, hardware competition and my favorite, entrepreneurship related initiatives. The best part I think is the panel of speakers Manish Tripathi – chairman Dabbawala, Dilip Chabbria – ace car designer, Rohit Nalwade – CEO Consumer Vision Technologies, M.S Swaminathan – architect of green revolution, Dr. Sam Pitroda – Chairman, National Knowledge Commission, Prof Yash Pal – Scientist and Mahesh Murthy – Venture Capitalist.
I think it’s great that NIT’s, starting with my school, have started realizing the potential of entrepreneurship. Way to go !!
Details here - http://www.techniti.org/
More details here -
http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.2&thid=12203aba82663e91&mt=application/pdf
Proud of you my Alma Mater !!
Add comment June 21, 2009
Why United States is a great country
As much as I love India, I think United States has inculcated a lot of good things in me. I whole-heartedly agree with this article. Take a read -
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dsouza070203.asp
Add comment April 19, 2009
Super Brain Yoga??
After a long hiatus, I am back. Something that I really wanted to share made me wake up from my slumber.
Do you remember the punishments that our teachers/parents used to mete out? Well little did I know that at least one of them probably made me a bit wiser. Or at least the below clip claims that. Hope it’s true !!
Maybe we should patent all these taken-for-granted Indian customs. What’s next - Circumambulation ?
Add comment March 30, 2009
Name’fate’
Me and my name often talk to each other…
If surname was my first name….
If first name was my surname…
Me and my name often talk to each other…
– Harivanshrai “Ajith”
Monmi “Lahiri” has her Namesake here -
http://onelifetime.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/namesake/
This is an ode to my Name’fate’…
Before starting off, let’s define a few things here (La South Indian definitions)
Name: Sorry we South Indians get offended if you simply ask for our name. So ppplease qualify name.
First Name: (OK that’s better) The name given by your parents to be called at school.
Last Name: Either father’s last name or father’s first name or surname……….or whatever.
Middle Name: Either father’s first name or mother’s last name or family name ….or God knows what.
Surname: Usually caste name
Initial: Either Family name or surname
Horoscope Name: Ya we have one of those too. If I am in a humorous mood at the end of writing this blog, I may decide to make a fool of myself by revealing my horoscope name. Ya..that’s right I have one too.
Pheww…now that these are defined, here goes my saga. My father’s name is Karimpana Mohanan Namboodiri. Yep I know it’s a mouthful. To put his names into perspective, Karimpana is supposedly our family name which my father has for his initials. Mohanan is his first name which even though is his first name, it actually shows up as his middle name (now you know where the story begins). Namboodiri**** is supposedly our caste name (who the hell cares about caste these days!!). Luckily, my family doesn’t have a culture of having “good” and “pet” names. (Lucky because I am sure we would have figured a way to put our pet names into our good names by now).
****That reminds me I have to blog about the Namboodiris, the supposed caste that I belong to. We are a funny lot with some dubious backgrounds. Will talk about it in the coming days.
I started breathing in some general hospital in Northern Kerala (India). Unlike the more famous Nair community of Kerala, Namboodiris follow patriarchical system. So it had to happen. I think I was named K. Ajith Mohan which stands for Karimpana Ajith Mohan. Karimpana being my initials, Ajith my first name and Mohan my last name. Mohan ?? Why not Mohanan? Well….not sure why….and my dad and mom don’t know either. Anyways no complaints against Mohan. Short if not sweet. Ajith..again short. So Ajith Mohan should have done the trick, right? Then why Karimpana ??
Well for close to 22 years I didn’t ask that question. Why? Because, I was in India and since India does not have a problem with initials, Karimpana was always hidden inside “K”. So I was either K. Ajith Mohan or Ajith.K.Mohan or Ajith Mohan.K or Ajit**.K.Mohan
**Ya that’s right, North Indians never got around understanding how valuable the “h” is after “t” in Ajith for South Indians. We South Indians just love emphasizing our names. North Indians know that my name means “Invincible”. But just in case people missed it, I am INVINCIBLE. The extra “h” in Ajith is probably equivalent to that capital bold.
All was fine until the day I got my passport. In the application for my passport, I distinctly remember putting Ajith Karimpana Mohan(first, middle, last). I had decided that that’s who I am. Ajith K (arimpana) Mohan. But as fate would have it, when my passport came, I see that first & last names are blank and instead only the given names are filled and that too “Karimpana Ajith Mohan“. Arghhh…. it took me 6 months to get my passport and now I had my stupid name all over. I decided not to pursue and instead to concentrate on getting my US visa – I guess the biggest mistake I made in my life.
With the US visa, I made sure that my application is having the exact name as I want. People take these applications just for namesake coz guess what …. my student visa comes in with first name stamped “FNU” (first name unknown !!) and given names “Karimpana Ajith Mohan“. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….$%$^%W$%^%%&^%*Q#$@$#%$%
In the meanwhile, I must have asked my dad a million and a half times - what were you thinking dad ?? Why me ??
With barely any time in my hand, I had to fly to US with my name all topsy-turvy. Luckily, sanity prevailed at the social security administration office and they managed to salvage my first name and I was reborn in the US as “Ajith Mohan Karimpana“. In the initial days I thought to myself – let me settle down and maybe I can go for a name change. Well that never materialized and little did I know that official data collection in the US grows on you before you can even blink.
How many permutations can you make of Ajith, Ajit, Mohan, Karimpana and K?
K. Ajith Mohan; Ajith.K.Mohan; Ajit Mohan; Ajith Mohan; Ajith Mohan.K; Karimpana Ajith Mohan; Ajith Karimpana; Ajith Mohan Karimpana…..
Well I think in some document or the other I have had almost every permutation possible out there.
It’s been 8 years now and I think I am at peace now with my name. Ajith Mohan Karimpana…..or whatever I don’t care anymore. Sometimes my wife and I think, if we were to have a baby, we would just have XYZ Karimpana. We think about it for a second and then we shake our heads and go “Karimpana??….naaaah”
Oh…by the way, I am still in good spirits…so maybe you can get some laugh at my expense. My name in my horoscope says - “Bhusala Kumaran“. What the…….%^&* ??
3 comments January 17, 2009
