Dealing with the reverse cultural shock

A lot has been written about the cultural shock that people face when they immigrate or live for an extended period of time especially in the western countries from India. A lot has also been written about the emotions or circumstances that lead people to come back to India. However, I haven't seen much written on the process of readjustment in India.

Yes, readjustment to India is a process and it does take a while to feel at home in India again.

Recently, during a conversation with an interesting person named Prashanth (who now happens to me my boss in the company I work :)), I came across some interesting facts. Prashanth asked m e if I realised how my expectations had changed after I had spent considerable time in the US. He then asked me that how to I plan to manage this changed expectations?

Yes, I went to the US as a student and after finishing my Masters degree, I set foot into the corporate world. Tech companies specially the ones in the Silicon Valley are known to pay well, and unknowingly I got used to a life of comfort and ' material luxury' (by Indian standards).
When I came back to India I never realised that my expectations had changed and a life or material comfort became the norm for me. Yes, I did face trouble, but I never realised that it was due to the conflict in expectations.

Add to that, I had changed a lot as a person. I refuse to accept fate or destiny unlike most people in India. My 'go-getter' attitude was in conflict with the society here.

Last but not the least, I had almost all of my close friends back in the US and though I have the family around me, the level of bonding and topics of conversation that I share with my friends, was hard to recreate in India. I think, forming a social circle with like minded people is the hardest. Prashanth found that by attending Indian School of Business, he found like-minded people (and his would-be wife) and from that point onwards the process of adjusting in India was easy. All of us may not go to the ISB, but yes there are several avenues to build a social life in India, some of them are : Joining clubs (Bombay has lots of them), social-organizations (there are a lot of them to choose from - Akanksha, CRY etc).

Once you have a good set of friends in India, a good home, a good job or your own company - it is every bit worth living in India.