For the growing number of Non-Resident Indians returning home to work, the dream of reconnecting with their roots often meets a rather different reality on the ground, according to NRI counsellor and author Nupur Dave, who shares candid insights with her followers on Instagram.
Dave, who advises Indians navigating life between countries, says the first thing that catches most returning professionals off guard is geography. Multinational companies tend to cluster in tech parks on the city fringes, think Whitefield in Bangalore, Gurgaon outside Delhi, or Hinjewadi on the edges of Pune, placing workers far from the cultural heart of their cities.
This creates an immediate dilemma for anyone moving back. Live centrally, close to the cafes, the culture and the social scene, and face a commute of up to 90 minutes each way through some of the world's most punishing traffic. Or opt for a flat near the office on the outskirts, where rent is manageable and the commute is a breezy 15 minutes, but where the evening offers little beyond food delivery apps and streaming services.
"Most times the decision gets made for you," Dave writes, "based on where you find a decent flat or what rent you can actually afford."
Beyond the logistics of where to live, the rhythm of the working day itself takes adjustment. Lunch in India is rarely a rushed, solitary affair eaten at a desk. Colleagues gather in groups, wander the food court together, gossip and linger. It happens at 2 in the afternoon, not noon, and it is unmistakably social in a way that many returning NRIs find both surprising and rather welcome after years of eating sad desk salads on conference calls abroad.
Dave is careful not to romanticise the experience. This is not, she stresses, the soft-focus homecoming narrative that fills social media feeds. It is the daily grind: the traffic, the heat, the noise, the late lunches and the office friendships that gradually, unexpectedly, come to mean something.
Whether the trade-off is worth it, she suggests, comes down to what a person actually values. Those who prize efficiency, reliable infrastructure and orderly systems may find the chaos a strain. Those who are willing to exchange convenience for human connection and the warm unpredictability of Indian city life may find, in time, that they have come home after all.
