Wittiest decision I have taken so far..

This is my story. I will not be able to finish this in one sitting, so will be updating this article most of the days for next month or so.

Synopsis: Writing this article in October 2017 when I am in process of re-locating to India from United States. Family has moved in May this year and I am in process of trying to get my job transferred to Hyderabad(India).

My wife became a US Citizen in Jan this year(2017) and it was this idea from my her on a quite march evening when I returned from work. She threw this idea at me that, what if we spend next 5 to 10 years in the country of our origin ? This was not first time she mentioned this, unlike last few times this sounded genuine and willingness to stick on that decision. Earlier, when we use to have discussion around this topic, there was this big “What If we regret” after leaving this peaceful & luxurious life style here in United States. This time, we had an answer that we are US Citizens and we just need to purchase an Air ticket to come to this great nation again.

So, having that peace of mind was big. Still, I told her to think for a week or so and if you still feel strongly towards moving back, we can make it happen. That was like end of discussion on that day and life moved on for a week or so and we started talking about it again. This time we went a step further on discussing the month(s) we should plan, things to do, a little bit of research on IT job market in India, living costs in Hyderabad, job security, plan B, C & D etc. One thing we were sure about was that we are longing to live the lifestyle our parents and we had back home. This was something we wanted to give it to our children and we thought we are doing our children a dis-service by not giving them that lifestyle.

When I say the lifestyle in India, It does not necessarily mean that it is better than what we have in United States. We were living our typical middle class American Dream (a good one) and did not had any complaints about it. I admire United States and consider this as my “home country” and am truly honored to have lived most of my adult life here, It is dreamland for anyone in the 195 countries on this Globe of 7+ billion people.

In other words, we knew what it means to be leaving this lifestyle and work behind means. I am and I will be forever indebted to this nation for providing me the platform and opportunities to make my living. I always believed and have strong faith that “rizq”(Provision/Sustenance) is bestowed by Allah alone and the almighty is the ONE who makes sure that every human & living creature on this planet gets his provision/food from mercy of him alone.

Coming to points now on the reasons we longed to go back to homeland and make a living there (at least for foreseeable future).

(..ended here on Oct 17, 2017)

Reason number 1: (..continued on Oct 19, 2017)

In short, it is to be with my mom and to re-live that peaceful life & memories which I had while growing up.

Most of the people whom I shared this news of moving back have asked me that Is it because of current “trump” government effects ?
Answer is a resounding “NO”. I still think that America is safest place and the least (emphasis on LEAST) racist country I have come across. I have worked and lived in 3 countries/5 different states in USA so far and have traveled to lot more countries in these last 18 years and trust me, when I say that America and American people are THE BEST when it comes to welcoming people of different color and religious beliefs. There could be a little percentage of them who don’t agree with it but the law of the land and most of people in general are of welcoming nature and treat foreigners with dignity and respect.
I want to make clear that this was not a reason in my case to think of moving back to India. The feeling of “Being Home” in those days and moments which I have spend in India, a casual way of living life and the freedom of “mind” which I feel when I was in India are unprecedented and somehow I miss that even after living here in US for 17 long years. I left India in 1999 a year after completing my bachelors in ECE, worked for 1 year in Saudi Arabia, before coming to United States in year 2000., So in essence, I have NOT spend time in India when I had to take care of family for instance, to make sure I get money for monthly expenses etcetera, so my interpretation of that peaceful and laid back life could be wrong as I never had that experience of working in India before but I still feel that working there in India is much easier when compared to building your life here in foreign country like United States.

One of the other foremost reason to be home is to be closer to my mom. She has done lots of sacrifices to make sure that all 4 of us (me and 3 siblings) get the best education and worry-free home environment to blossom when we were young and immature. At this age, I want to be by her side to take care of her needs and worries inshallah. My dad was my hero and until his death in 2004, we all brothers and sisters, never worried about anything. We just use to go to him to resolve our issues or to get an opinion. My dad was ONE of the best person and having such a solid person as “go to” was a big big blessing to our entire family. Now, that we do not have him to take care of us and my mom, it is our duty now to serve my mom and giver her that pleasure of being on her side if she ever needs me. For now, she is very independent and doing well and have a large circle of friends and getting educated in Islamic studies there in Hyderabad. I am sure that she will be happy having a “son” to look after her if she ever needs me in the same city. All of my brothers and sisters are out of country for now and having me back, am sure will give her much needed peace of mind.
(..ended here on Oct 19, 2017)

Reason number 2: (..continued on Nov 3, 2017)

So, its been few days since I got to update this blog article and I have to do a reading of what I had already covered so that I don’t repeat something I have mentioned already. So, bear with me and I will write more about this decision and how its progressing so far.

The second most important reason I think is looking at the “future”. I am kind of person who likes to be pro-active and take steps in advance to make sure that I am ahead of game. I certainly don’t feel comfortable being a “sitting duck” to be hit. When I took a real look at what it will take from me to secure the future of children, have enough money to fund their higher studies, I was startled to what I found.

The income I was making is kind of stagnant and at most I might be able to have 10 to 15 percent more than what I am making. My wife is busy taking care of children and certainly don’t want to enter into workforce to make some extra money at the expense of children being neglected. Having said that, my number crunching results had me thinking. The only way I could feel comfortable is if I increase my revenue by at least 50 percent from what I currently make. I come from family who has the tradition of doing whatever it takes to help children study without bothering them to think about where the money is going to come from if they want to study certain thing. I certainly want my children to have that luxury as well. I don’t want them to drive their decisions on education based on what my parents can afford. We have always spent some extra money to buy/rent the home in the best school district so that they become qualified citizens.

I was reading an article on NY Post which mentioned that it takes around $ 233,000 to raise a child up to age of 17. A snippet from that article ..

“The Department of Agriculture says the estimated cost of raising a child from birth through age 17 is $233,610, or as much as almost $14,000 annually. That’s the average for a middle-income couple with two children. It’s a bit more expensive in urban parts of the country, and less so in rural areas.
The estimate released Monday is based on 2015 numbers, so a baby born this year is likely to cost even more. It’s a 3 percent increase from the prior year, a hike higher than inflation.”

So, this confirmed what my experience suggested that it will get worse in coming years and I will need lot more money to raise my 3 children who are aged 14, 10 and 6 now.

(..ended here on Nov 3, 2017)

…to be continued

2 responses to “Wittiest decision I have taken so far..”

  1. JT says:

    Hi Mohammed,

    I saw you tweeting about ai and I thought I’d check out your website. I really like it. Looks like Mohammed has come a long way!

    Building a mailing list like you are is so important too, I think people would really like to be signed up to what you have to share.

    Good job on the social buttons, social media is so powerful these days

    You should consider installing an SEO plugin like Yoast or something, theres loads of good free ones.

    Also places like axtschmiede.com are worth checking out.

  2. Mohammed Imran Alam says:

    Hello JT: Thanks for dropping kind words and suggestions. I will check the plugin you have mentioned and see if I could use it on my blog..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *