We keep saying "time flies" , "gosh I did not realize we are in 201X " , "wow we are already half way through the year, just feels like it started a few days ago". I have used this many times and have always got "I know right" or something on similar lines to indicate the other person also totally agrees with that thought. To best of my knowledge, earth still rotates the same way it used to and goes around the sun the same way it used to ... but we are losing track of how things move, despite them moving as fast as they used to.
Speaking of things moving fast, it just seems like not so long ago that I moved to US for an year or so as I explained to others. I really had visa for just 8 months, so that was the story I went with as one is never sure if visa will get renewed or not. Once it did get renewed, it was granted for exactly another 1 year. The story changed to just another year more. Somewhere in the middle of April this year it actually has been 5 years since I relocated from India. The milestone date, came and went without much fanfare. I should really be more surprised as I never expected to stay here so long really. Yes, really!
When I managed to land a project in the city of my first preference - Seattle, it was a great feeling. I knew I was going to a foreign land of unknown to take up a work assignment which was new to me in a new team and in totally new place. So many folks asked me why are you going away into such an unknown when I was doing really well at that point in my role and was in a good team and was primed for fast growth in India. I somehow felt that for the industry I was in, it was very valuable to get an experience working in US for career progression. So once my project and start date was confirmed, I called up my friend Ramki who was living in Seattle and was with the same company as me but worked for a different client. During our conversation on life in Seattle and how to adapt, what to get from India etc.. I think I must have mentioned a few times that this was a short visit and I meant to stay only for an year or two at max to pick up some international experience. Ramki stopped me there and added with a hint of smile in his voice, "Anush, no one who moves here goes back within an year. How much ever you insist that will be the case or you are different, I personally don't know anyone without visa issue or urgent personal issues needing them to be back in India ever going back voluntarily despite what they claim at first, and knowing you I don't think you will either." It did turn out to be prescient any way!
This is something I have heard from several others as well that they never thought they will be here so long, but ended up staying. So many friends mentioned that they never enrolled in 401k savings ( retirement fund to which employer also contributes) because they thought they had come for just an year or so and why take time to set-up all these things. That includes me as well, we all just left money on the table by not enrolling in retirement plans. Another interesting conversation I had a few years back on this topic was when I traveled in a cab once in Dallas and the driver was from Nicaragua and we were chatting in general and he told me he had also come to US a few decades back with exactly the same thoughts that he will come here for an year or two and make some money and head back home to be with family. He said every year he used to tell himself that just another year and he will go back to his home country. Apparently that was more than 30 years back. Now there is no immediate family left in his country to even go back to.However I told myself that he had come from a troubled country where there was not much prospects unlike my situation where the country I left is moving ahead rapidly.
This is a topic I bring up often when I meet up with old friends or have long conversations with them . Almost all of my friends are folks in IT who came to US on work visa from India and were working here . Most of them own and live in their own homes here in US. When I ask whether they intended to settle down here, the answer was either no probably not or I'm not sure. But they clearly don't have any immediate plan to wind up and head back to India even though it is there somewhere in the back of the mind somewhere. I don't own a home here, avoided that as that could be a huge grounding factor but no clear plans on return as of now either. So we all continue in a limbo, with no clear plan to stay or settle down anywhere. Which I think is fine and we keep saying just another year and then we will see!
Speaking of things moving fast, it just seems like not so long ago that I moved to US for an year or so as I explained to others. I really had visa for just 8 months, so that was the story I went with as one is never sure if visa will get renewed or not. Once it did get renewed, it was granted for exactly another 1 year. The story changed to just another year more. Somewhere in the middle of April this year it actually has been 5 years since I relocated from India. The milestone date, came and went without much fanfare. I should really be more surprised as I never expected to stay here so long really. Yes, really!
When I managed to land a project in the city of my first preference - Seattle, it was a great feeling. I knew I was going to a foreign land of unknown to take up a work assignment which was new to me in a new team and in totally new place. So many folks asked me why are you going away into such an unknown when I was doing really well at that point in my role and was in a good team and was primed for fast growth in India. I somehow felt that for the industry I was in, it was very valuable to get an experience working in US for career progression. So once my project and start date was confirmed, I called up my friend Ramki who was living in Seattle and was with the same company as me but worked for a different client. During our conversation on life in Seattle and how to adapt, what to get from India etc.. I think I must have mentioned a few times that this was a short visit and I meant to stay only for an year or two at max to pick up some international experience. Ramki stopped me there and added with a hint of smile in his voice, "Anush, no one who moves here goes back within an year. How much ever you insist that will be the case or you are different, I personally don't know anyone without visa issue or urgent personal issues needing them to be back in India ever going back voluntarily despite what they claim at first, and knowing you I don't think you will either." It did turn out to be prescient any way!
This is something I have heard from several others as well that they never thought they will be here so long, but ended up staying. So many friends mentioned that they never enrolled in 401k savings ( retirement fund to which employer also contributes) because they thought they had come for just an year or so and why take time to set-up all these things. That includes me as well, we all just left money on the table by not enrolling in retirement plans. Another interesting conversation I had a few years back on this topic was when I traveled in a cab once in Dallas and the driver was from Nicaragua and we were chatting in general and he told me he had also come to US a few decades back with exactly the same thoughts that he will come here for an year or two and make some money and head back home to be with family. He said every year he used to tell himself that just another year and he will go back to his home country. Apparently that was more than 30 years back. Now there is no immediate family left in his country to even go back to.However I told myself that he had come from a troubled country where there was not much prospects unlike my situation where the country I left is moving ahead rapidly.
This is a topic I bring up often when I meet up with old friends or have long conversations with them . Almost all of my friends are folks in IT who came to US on work visa from India and were working here . Most of them own and live in their own homes here in US. When I ask whether they intended to settle down here, the answer was either no probably not or I'm not sure. But they clearly don't have any immediate plan to wind up and head back to India even though it is there somewhere in the back of the mind somewhere. I don't own a home here, avoided that as that could be a huge grounding factor but no clear plans on return as of now either. So we all continue in a limbo, with no clear plan to stay or settle down anywhere. Which I think is fine and we keep saying just another year and then we will see!
