A Decade in India

tl;dr (too long, didn’t read)

The original plan was to land into Bombay on October 1, 2005 and stay for 6 months…I’m still here 10 years later. In what can be termed the longest 6 months ever.

The long version

I landed into Bombay on Oct 1, 2005 and thought I would be back to the shores of California by April 2006. But, life had other plans for me. Just to refresh your memory, what was happening around October 1, 2005:

• USD-INR was Rs. 44
• Sensex @ 8634
• DJIA @ 10,658
• NASDAQ @ 2151
• The big song in India was Kajra Re from the movie Bunty aur Babli
• Louisiana was still reeling from the after effects of Hurricane Katrina (Best quote “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”.)

I’ll be honest, I never expected to last 10 years in India. I used to come to India during the summers as a kid and I would always complain about things not working right, things getting delayed or it smelling. One thing is for sure, some things never change!

Cousins, friends and business associates will ask me from time to time “are you happy in India”. Living in India has it’s own set of pros and cons just like living in the US does. However, after 10 years I can categorically say yes – I like India. The reason is very simple, living in India is an adventure. You will never know what to expect and everyday there is some new thing to deal with. For some, this environment just doesn’t work well if you want things to be consistent, straight forward and proper.

Don’t get me wrong, there are days where I have to shake my head and say to myself “I moved here for this crap?” Such as the recent kerfuffle regarding encrypted internet communications. The Government of India, in their infinite wisdom wanted individuals to save their previous 90 days of chat messages in clear text in case the government requested them. To call this idea stupid would be an understatement, it’s the type of half-baked policy that many Indian government agencies roll out and then quickly back pedal because they didn’t think through the process.

Anyways, they call India an emerging market for a reason. Lots of opportunity, but also lots of issues to deal with you. As I say “if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.”