Due to Visa issues, we got stuck in India. We decided to utilize this time to explore how living in India actually is. We stayed for one month in a Tier-1 city and another 1 month in a Tier-3 city. - The cost of living has increased insanely in India. Food used to be 1/5th of US cost, but now it is 1/2 of the US cost. Everything else has increased proportionately. - Driving is insane. We will always need a driver, possibly 2 drivers if we have to move to India. - Traffic is really bad. Currently in US, 98% of our commute and accessibility is within 15 minutes drive, but that is not possible in India. - Housing cost is insane and the construction quality is bad. Builders leave 100s of things in bad shapes even for new buildings. - Dust in insane. Our eyes become red and we have to push everyone to wear sunglasses. But don't work on nights. - Airlines industry in India is bad even comparing to many South American countries. Covid killed majority of of Indian airlines and the couple of survivors brought the quality even further down. You will pay higher cost for flying with the worst quality. - Got a glimpse of government propaganda with election year. Online (on youtube), on TV, on hoardings, or airport; all you will see is how good the current government is. Overall, we felt the Quality of Life will be a big step down and we have to put a big mental filter to ignore many things. Decided to stop thinking about moving back to India.
Ahh there it is, the govt propaganda. I don't understand: are these people ever directly affected by the so called "propaganda"? Do they expect the govt to do good things and then be mum about it? Do they think mixing political gains with religious justice and promoting one specific religion is a serious downside? Are they blind to the gross favouritism shown by other political parties to other religions, often at the cost of the majority religion? I can understand someone returning from US to have problems with traffic, pollution and infrastructure, something that you are affected by on a daily basis. But which Utopia are you coming from that a normal democratic election promotion looks like govt propaganda to you?
I work at Meta, I know the harmful impact of content. If you see the same content every 5 minutes, you will be unconsciously biased. I actually don't have any problem with the current government, just the mechanism that if you spend Billions in Ads, you will get the result.
So the govt should sit quietly while the opposition spews divisive hatred and misinformation? And excuse me, you don't need to work at meta to lecture others about the harmful effects of social media. It's a widely debated topic with expert opinions from political analysts, psychology experts and social scientists already, much more knowledgeable in the field than you, whose expert opinion meta is supposedly taking to decide on their social media strategy. Do not use your "appeal to achievement" here.
There is no comparison with US. US is ahead by miles and miles. But here is a different perspective (not necessarily my opinion) on your points: -Food may be 1/2 the cost but twice as good for Indian taste buds especially for vegetarians. -Driving may be insane but you can afford a driver here, thats unthinkable in US. Also national highways as well vehicle safety (mandatory 6 airbags, ADAS options) has improved a lot now. -Traffic. Yeah its just bad especially if the Tier 1 city you are talking about is Bangalore. -Housing cost per sq ft is high but NRIs who invested earlier reaped the benefits now. Price hike happened post Corona. Regd. construction quality, you need to choose top builders and the issue is solved. Most new projects are being built using Mivan technology these days which increases longevity of construction significantly. -Dust. It baffles me to and not sure why we have so much of it. -Airlines: They are not so bad after all. I had the worst experience in UK flying Ryan Air. Indigo is no competition to them. -Govt propaganda: No comments there. Other than that: -With FAANG salary in India you can live like a King. Will sooner or later move to the so called 'Upper Strata' of the society even at L5/L6 terminal levels. Wont happen in US so easily. CTC vs Cost of living ratio is arguably much much better in India. -Affordable and high quality healthcare in India -Good and relatively affordable private schools. For Higher education US wins hands down. We do have IITs etc but they are just too difficult to crack and still not in the top lists globally. -If you have family you can afford to hire multiple house helps here. This can free up a lot of bandwidth for work or just hobbies.
Because OP is foreign return, we are supposed to take his opinions seriously.
Just because luck favoured your hardwork & you got into Google, don't assume every DSA grinders can get lucky to enter FAANG in India
I think you are cherry picking to support your agenda. Let me add some perspective. 1. Food - if you eat out at the top restaurants the it is 1/2 the price. We hire a cook and get groceries delivered by Swiggy. All in it costs 60k a month for a family of three. 2. Driving can be insane if you go to office everyday. I hire a driver for office days and have a nice car to relax through the traffic. Rest of the day work from home or do short errands around house. 3. Housing is ridiculously cheap compared to us. We rent in a gated society in Bangalore and construction is top notch and ALL facilities inside the complex. 4. Airlines are still better than the us. Airports are developing rapidly. Bangalore has the most beautiful airport now. Flight prices have increased and lounge is super crowded but should get fixed in a year or so.
I agree - Grocery is cheap, Renting is cheap. But eating out or buying a house is very costly. But other than food, rest of the consumer goods are costly.
Dont eat out in extremely top tier restaurant and get off the high horse and superiority complex. I can survive 1 week on ₹500 eating out.
This post will trigger a lot of Indians and rightly so. OP is comparing a lunch at Marriott to eating street food at America. OP is also laughably comparing Indian Airlines to American ones. Other than above, the rest of it is true and known to the world. Perks of living in a country with 1.3bn people governed by the world's best *cough* government.
Are you saying American and United airlines are better than Indian domestic airlines ? I think you have smoked weed when you posted at least about airlines statement . even old go air (India low cost) airline was better than domestic airlines here. Barring southwest, everything is disaster here.
Vishwaguru moment 🤡