The "move" of the decade!

Hello

This is mainly going to be a "live" post that describes my/our relocation experience back to India after a decade in the USA.

When I came to US back in 2000, I had come here with a few objective. One of the primary objective was to own a house by 30 (that was accomplished in 2002 while I was 27). I also wanted to see the world. But we always wanted to raise our kids in the Indian culture and knew that we had to go back to India for accomplishing that goal. So we made a strong decision late 2009 to relocate back to India, specifically to Pune - where our house is.

Although we made the decision, it took a while for it to sink in. Tejal was much better at accepting it and acting upon it than me. If it wasnt for us, the entire process would not have been smooth. She kept on shaking me to plan and act upon this decision and we slowly started selling stuff from home. Craigslist.com was a lifesaver in that aspect. Pretty much everything that we posted there got sold immediately. We sold some stuff before we left for Aarti's wedding in Feb but got into it seriously after returning back. We had decided not to ship anything through Cargo and only return with our bags.

Tejal & kids left Columbus on April 16th, 2010 for NJ. We all flew together and they continued to stay at Sharmila's place for a week. Tejal, Akanksha, Arjun and Tejal's mom flew out of USA via JFK on April 23rd, 2010. The flight was a direct flight and overall very comfortable.

It took them a week to adjust the jet lag and the heat in Mumbai. Then the planning for doing the Interior decoration of our house in Pune began. Since Baba was going to Goa and then to Ladakh, we decided to give the contract for the Kitchen and the living room to Avinash Bhosale. He starts work on Monday, May 17th.

More to follow...